For months now, news around the world has been dominated by talk of food shortages. Logistics issues propelled by COVID have compounded with inflationary pressures in a way that’s caused real concern for real people. Predictably, the political pile-on has ensued and it seems to all be spinning out of control.
If – like me – you’re concerned about the future of food security, I think you should take interest in a few key issue areas: loan rates; agricultural inputs; renewable fuels; and infrastructure resources like America’s inland waterways.
But first, watch this video, of an Ohio farmer – Josh Yoder- talking about some of the challenges he is facing right now.
For the past 3 years, I’ve had the distinct pleasure to work alongside folks like Josh Yoder. In fact, I’ve worked with him personally and have been to his farm. He and his family have an incredible, multi-generation story full of innovation, stewardship, and sound business practices. It’s a similar story to what you can find all over the Buckeye state where about 95% of the operational farms are family owned small businesses.
When you hear Josh, and other growers, talk about what they’re doing, you can see the passion that runs through the agricultural community. You can also tell they are business savvy, and care deeply about bringing a quality good to the market. Even during a difficult confluence of events like we’re seeing right now.
That’s why I think you should give a damn about the four issues I listed above. Here’s a short set of reasons why.
Access to Capital
My family sold the farm in the 80s, before I came along. So I never knew firsthand some of the struggles modern growers face. I didn’t understand just how capital intensive the industry was. When you deal with the purchase, maintenance and operational cost of tractors and harvesters, fuel, seed, fertilizers, crop protection tools, wages, insurance, office equipment – and all the other expenses so familiar to small businesses in other industries – access to capital becomes a critical friction point.
For many years now, low federal reserve interest rates have kept that capital flowing, allowing growers to invest in their operations and gain a measure of security through times of relatively low commodity prices. As the Federal Reserve raises rates, all types of capital will be impacted, including agricultural lending. Producers use this working capital to get them through the growing season, all in the hopes of getting a good crop in the ground. America’s crop producers need secure, affordable operational lending to see them through.
Measures like those recently passed in Ohio are helping to a degree. Here, we’ve expanded a program called AgLink that will help ease the pressure of rising interest rates on those operating loans – making it just a little easier for those family owned small businesses to stay in operation. Ohio’s Treasurer, Robert Sprague (R) deserves a lot of credit on this.
Farm Inputs
Even as those programs could help, it’s important for the 99% of us who don’t live or work on farms to understand that’s not a one size fits all solution. In part because growers are facing an acquisition issue brought on by anti-competitive practices and frivolous regulatory actions that have restricted supply of critical crop management tools like fertilizers and pest management tools. Even if they can afford these products, finding them is becoming more and more difficult.
If you’ve never learned about N P & K as a consumer, you’re not alone. Those letters stand for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, and those are the macro nutrients crops like corn, soybeans and wheat need to grow. It’s plant food. And decades of advances have helped growers leverage these ingredients to grow more grain on less land. In fact, since 1980, the land required to grow a bushel of corn has fallen by 41%!
But these inputs are in short supply right now because a handful of companies have been able to leverage trade law to prevent competition in the American market. When competition is stymied, prices rise. American growers now face input costs that have risen 300% or more in the past year. And that increase started long before Russia invaded Ukraine.
The issue was so startling to US Representative Tim Ryan (D – Ohio), that he began raising concern over the issue months before it became a major news story. He and dozens of colleagues – Republican and Democrat alike – have since weighed in on the issue and tried to pressure the administration to take action.
Infrastructure and Getting to Market
Thankfully, that bipartisanship has shown up in other areas too. Like the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).
WRDA is a fixture in Washington, DC. It’s a regularly considered package of legislative priorities that garners very little attention in the media. But it deals with some critical bits of infrastructure funding, like real dollars to modernize America’s locks and dams. Those water transportation assets allow efficient, bulk transportation of all kinds of goods – including agricultural commodities like grain.
Over the last few years, large bipartisan majorities have funded WRDA in big meaningful ways. And they’re looking toward this year’s bill now. This year, WRDA takes on a much bigger role as those bipartisan lawmakers face the reality that ‘Made in America’ is more than a marketing ploy now. It’s become a national security issue.
Diverse Markets Make Secure Markets
But if you think about growers like Josh, you might want to ask them what they really want when it comes to staying afloat as businesses. I think you’d be surprised.
There’s no denying that business tools like crop insurance are helpful – even critical. But for the growers I’ve come to know, they often tell me they’re most concerned about one thing: markets. Diverse markets give them options. They stabilize prices. They help foster long term profitability. Diverse markets breed security at the farm gate, and that improves food security for the rest of us.
What does that look like?
Most Americans simply don’t know the modern story of products like ethanol and soy-based biodiesel. Both of these biofuels are blended into our fuel supply. In the case of ethanol, it serves as a source of octane that simultaneously reduces tailpipe emissions and lowers the cost of higher octanes (it also replaced harmful carcinogenic products like MTBE that used to provide octane). While oil prices have soared, ethanol has remained relatively stable, helping save consumers who opt for products like Unleaded 88 (aka E-15) available in more than 2000 fueling stations nationwide.
And while that consumer savings is great (I saved 30 cents per gallon this morning choosing E-15), the real social benefit is that it fosters diversification for American grain markets. That diversity gives farmers an opportunity to remain profitable and economically sustainable. If you’re serious about food security, you should take note of these other markets and the critical role they play in keeping American farmers working.
That’s why a bi-partisan coalition of legislators is working to advance bills like the Next Generation Fuels Act that will pave the way for more renewable fuels in the market in the future. These lawmakers understand that modernizing the fuel supply and optimizing those engines for advanced biofuels can accomplish a wide range of goals: reducing cost at the pump, de-carbonizing the liquid fuel market, maintaining consumer choice for the vehicles they want to drive, and protecting farm profitability. That’s a pretty sound set of goals.
It’s Never Just One Thing
I don’t normally write about these issues on my blog. These are a sampling of what I work on each and every day in my current role. But right now, Americans need to understand the complexity of the challenges WE face. It’s not just these farmers feeling the pressure. We all are and will.
But we have to dispel the notion that there’s any one lever we can pull to fix the problem. There is immense complexity in every other industry as well. And that complexity is demanding our attention. We can’t sit idly by, we have to give a damn.
I haven’t even scratched the surface in this piece. Whole books could be written just on the role that crop protection tools (like pesticides) and biotechnology like GMOs play in helping us grow more food sustainably (on less land, with fewer natural resources, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions). But most of us don’t have the time, or the willingness to dig into those types of books.
So I’m going to make a plea: leave the city limits and go meet a farmer like Josh.
Too many of us are disconnected from the real people working so hard every day to feed, fuel and clothe the world. You’d be surprised what you could learn. I know I have been. Working with people like Josh has certainly taught me to give a damn – to care more about issues I’ve never known of before. I think, if you’re up to that challenge, you’ll discover the same.
I also think you’ll feel a little more certain about what’s really going on in food markets. It may not take away all of your anxiety, but it may just help you weather the challenges ahead. And we could all use a little bit of that education.
One Last Point
If you go back and read through the post again, you’ll find I call out bi-partisanship a lot.
When it comes to feeding and fueling Americans, that’s how it should be. Thankfully, there are champions on both sides of the aisle working to make big solutions happen.
I worry about a lot of things in politics. But if we can keep coming together over issues like these, we have a lot of reason to hope for better days ahead.
Part of the Possible 