Drowning in Amber Waves of Grain: Without price supports, farmers are looking at a nasty year

Farm sales across the Northern Plains states are on the rise. For the past 2 years, farmers have enjoyed boom times along with the rest of America, giving them some cushion against bad times. But now there is trouble down on the farm. Even as the economy is expected to rack up a robust 3% growth rate this year, the Agriculture Department predicts that total net farm income will drop more than 10%, to $45.5 billion. That is assuming commodity prices do not fall further. They have been plunging around the globe since the beginning of the Asian crisis. At the same time, the federal price supports that buffered American farmers have disappeared. In April 1996, when Senator Richard G. Lugar and Representative Patrick Roberts pushed through the Freedom to Farm Act, eliminating price supports on key crops, there was not a lot of protest from farmers. With commodity prices and farm incomes high, it seemed time to get the government out of farming. Now, with the prices of corn, soybeans and wheat, the 3 major US crops, down 47% on average since the Farm Act was passed, freedom looks a lot less appealing.