Iowa farms should produce the best, not just the most
My opinion piece below first appeared on September 26, 2024 in the Des Moines Register. I am reprinting it here because I wanted to share it with readers here too!
For more information about our farm—Whippoorwill Creek Farm—visit us at iowa-farm.com.
And a plug for a great event we are holding Sunday afternoon, October 6, 2024—The Grass vs Corn Showdown—where participants will visit the animals in the field to learn about how they are raised, taste test corn vs grass-raised beef, and finish off the afternoon with a tasty meal!
Iowa farms should produce the best, not just the most
Well, here we are again.
The corn and soybeans drying in the fields look great, and reports of high yields are front-page news. Yet, alongside the stories of a robust impending harvest are the features explaining how the price of commodities is dropping steadily and is expected to stay low for years to come. While getting the highest yields is a great idea for individual farmers, overall, it creates oversupply and low prices in the marketplace.
We could respond to this in many ways. One way—the way the Trump administration handled a similar situation from 2018-2020—was to literally hand out taxpayer dollars to farmers, making them dependent upon government handouts to survive. And while it helped pay the bills in the short term, this kind of “fix” further entrenches the status quo, where buyers—multinational corporations—have continuous access to cheap grain, while farmers struggle to cover their costs.
Another way to address sinking farmer income is to increase crop insurance subsidies and USDA financial protections (ARC and PLC) to ensure that farmers will continue to earn the same amount year after year, even if the market does not drive income. Crop insurance, available from only 12 companies in the country, cost America $17 billion in 2022, a year that just so happened to also be good for commodity prices (corn averaged $6.49 a bushel). And even though crop insurance is highly subsidized by the US government, it is often still not cheap for farmers.
These options are akin to sticking our collective heads in the sand, hoping that better times will arrive without us putting in any effort to improve the situation. It might be called “Waiting for America to be Great Again,” although things for farmers have rarely been great (look at the graph of corn prices above). These two ideas are also very un-capitalistic solutions to very capitalistic problems—the subsidies primarily support crops used to produce raw materials for large corporations, such as animal feed or biofuels, not to put food on our plates.
Continuing to grow excessive quantities of corn and soybeans in Iowa also seems to defy a basic economic principle, namely that taking some of the world’s most fertile and expensive land and producing cheap ingredients on it is a losing proposition. A recent sale of prime corn-growing land in Iowa went for $16,000 an acre; on average across the state, in January 2024 land averaged $11,598.07 an acre.
But let’s do the math: the Iowa average yield for corn is 200 bushels per acre. At $4 a bushel (and as I write, the price is $3.82) a farmer will earn $800 an acre. 2024 estimates calculate that the cost to grow an acre of corn was $901.86 (including costs from seed and sprays to labor and machinery). The break-even point for corn then is more than $4.50, well above its expected price for years to come.
There is another way forward
Iowa could use our fertile soils and (mostly) abundant rains, our deep agricultural experience and knowledge of farming techniques to turn our industry into something more economically and environmentally viable in the long run. With government and industry support, Iowa could be known not only for producing the most, but for producing the best.
The best apples, cider, and hard cider. The best watermelons. The best barley and its value-added (and much more profitable) products, whiskey and beer. The best-raised hogs, with the most delicious and nutritious pork chops and cured and dried hams, able to garner higher prices than confinement farmers could ever dream of.
With a strong 2025 farm bill, we could support farmers in getting out of the commodity game, thereby limiting the supply of the corn and beans that are grown, in order to meet the true demand.
Opportunities to support a better system are abundant–and many are detailed in the Iowa Food System Coalition’s Setting the Table for All Iowans. America–and Iowa specifically–could invest the money in developing ways out of this cyclical conundrum, likely for far less expensive than the current system.
Provide support for farmers transitioning out of growing commodities like corn, soybeans or hogs by providing training to repurpose equipment (like using confinement facilities to grow mushrooms) and allowing for the suspension of loans for a transitional period.
Support more local markets (ie small grocers), “market bucks” programs, and educational classes offering cooking and nutrition programs in schools and at University extension offices, to create better accessibility and knowledge about healthy food.
Better fund USDA offices—the offices that already exist in every county in Iowa—to hire more, and better educated, employees, ready to help farmers access the information and technical help they need to grow more than just corn.
Demand that Land Grant universities receiving state and federal funding expand their agricultural education to include a wider variety of crops to promote human health. [Iowa State University received $35,162,339 in state and federal funding for agricultural programs in the 2022-23 school year, and almost half of the $64.5 million in grants to faculty and students came from federal funding.]
I could go on–but my point is that we have many options.
Instead of being known across the country for mile after mile of corn and for struggling rural communities; for high cancer rates and polluted rivers, we could create an Iowa living her best life. An Iowa that does not settle for mass production standards, but rises to the top of the class, using our government and corporate supports to create a plethora of products that stand out from the rest.
October is National Farm to School Month in October. Take a minute to ask if your local school district is buying fresh, local, Iowa-grown products from a nearby farmer. Or use your time to ponder why on earth it is so difficult for anyone to do so in a state with so many great resources. Then, call your legislator to chat about how we can support farmers to grow healthy food in Iowa, for our schools and for our homes.
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Thank you Glenn!!
Many of us Iowans know the truth in what you say. We have got to keep sharing this solid information with our neighbors. And we can work from the inside by buying locally-produced, sustainably-grown food. Also, we can put pressure on the outside by continuing to demand of our legislators the enactment of the kinds of measures you propose, Beth. Thanks for articulating so well what so many of us far less eloquent Iowans believe.