Posted on 07/12/2018 4:59:13 AM PDT by reaganaut1
When pork prices collapsed amid a global trade war during the Great Depression, the Roosevelt Administration in 1933 had an idea—slaughter six million piglets. Put a floor under prices by destroying supply. It didn’t work. Now the Trump Administration may try its own version of Depressionomics by using the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to support crop prices walloped by the Trump tariffs: Hurt farmers and then put them on the government dole. How about not hurting them in the first place?
That’s the question as Mr. Trump escalates his trade war, on Wednesday proposing 10% tariffs on $200 billion in additional Chinese goods. China says it is “shocked” by the new border taxes and will look to retaliate again—and no doubt U.S. agriculture will again be one of its main targets.
Enter the forgotten but alas not gone CCC, the financial institution that FDR charged with solving the problem of depressed markets caused by weak demand. Farmers were told to plant less in exchange for a floor under prices. The CCC financed the purchase of surpluses through nonrecourse “loans” to farmers, and held the crops in storage.
When market demand improved, the Agriculture Department was supposed to sell the stored commodities at higher prices. Nonrecourse meant that the farmer didn’t have to repay the loan, and the USDA often couldn’t unload the surpluses because demand didn’t recover.
The Depression ended but the CCC kept going. In 2012 Congress put limits on CCC purchases of surplus commodities and on price supports after the Obama Administration used it for a costly 2009 disaster program without Congressional approval. But then out of the blue this year, Congress lifted the limits on CCC’s power to remove surplus crops from the market to support prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
They repealed the country of origin label? When did that happen?
Exactly. My experience is that international agricultural trade tends to be more north-south than east-west in nature ... to take advantage of the growing season in the opposite hemisphere when it’s winter up here.
I do think the work pool is different. Working outside in the dust, high humidity, daily temperatures in 90's and using a port-a-potty doesn't appeal to workers who have always worked in air conditioning.
Been fun talking to you but it's past time to get up and do something productive. Adios
Corn is $3.32 Chicago today, But you have to get it there for how much$$$$
THE CBT does not take corn!! Local Elevator does and they are $0.30 to $0.50 below CBT price
Yeah, being an exec for two companies with hundreds of locations across the country (one in 44 states, one in 28 states) that employees over 10k+ hourly workers means I have no clue. Got it.
Yep. you have never worked on a farm especially a pig farm LOL “no clue”city boy!
You are still drawing from the same unskilled labor pool - no different than work hands in horticulture as well or grunts first starting off on construction sites. The individuals in that labor pool have different preferences and priorities (eg: wages, time of day they work, what days they work, FT vs PT, permanent vs seasonal, benefits, physical labor or not, inside or not). The entire group isn't monolithic.
The largest reason you'll have trouble competing with retail/hospitality/restaurants isn't inside/outside work - at least with men - its going to be permanent FT jobs vs seasonal FT/PT jobs. Turnover rates among PT workers is more than 2x what it is for FT workers and seasonal is even higher than that. The second largest is going to be they are also competing far more with illegal labor than in the other industries today.
That's Canada. Sorry, we don't eat pork.
Not saying we should stop the trade wars. Just saying it's our bigboy for income.
Um, you'd be wrong about that.
I did a little research and Michigan GDP last year was around 430 Billion
Michigan farms and the commodities they produce account for $13 billion of the overall total.
So, as a percent of GDP agriculture is 3% ( three percent of GDP ).
Now you know!
What got your panties in a bunch?
I was stating the fact that a lot of pork sold in America comes from Canada.
Every action you describe above would be the same for both domestic and imported agricultural products. As a matter of fact, a tariff imposed by China on our exported agri products would INCREASE all of that secondary activity, not decrease it.
As someone that has raised cattle, hogs and chickens; grown vegetables as a cash crop; and participated in the commodities market it is obvious to me that you don’t have a clue about what is required to be a common laborer “on the farm.”
I could take your average retail or hospitality worker and have them dead of a heat stroke within an hour. That is if I could get any of them to show up for work. And I know from my own experience that getting them to show up is usually impossible. When someone tells you that “there are jobs Americans just won’t do” believe them. I know for a fact it’s true.
All I know is 2X a month all the stores have big pork sales and the trucks and the pork come from Canada.
Being in MI and close to Canada may have something to do with it.
Are you going to give a soybean or pig farmer money to get them through this tough time? I mean you personally. Because the farmers are directly losing their own money. Maybe you should suffer some “temporary pain” and get your cash over to somebody who is suffering as well. Thanks for doing your part.
Take it up with President Trump. It was his statement.
And it seems he is opening the credit facility for them to tide them over.
I do know that if a business made their bed with China, they knew one day there would be a bill for that. And if they didn’t know that, they are stupid.
Yes, at $3-7/hr, that is correct. And there are plenty of people who don’t want manual labor or work in the sun. But the people working landscaping and (low skilled) construction for $10-30/hr (and there are millions) are the same people that could work the farm and many people in retail/restaurants/hospitality would gladly swap an $9/hr job as a cashier/dishwasher/etc for $15/hr FT working on a farm (certainly not, or even a majority).
If the U.S. produces X million tons of an agricultural product annually, and currently ships 20% of it overseas to foreign buyers, are you suggesting that there will still be the same level of activity among supporting industries if that 20% disappears or is scaled back dramatically?
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