The Agricultural Depression 

I cross the bridge everyday that connects Arkansas and Tennessee. The river under that bridge is the Mighty Mississippi River. The river is high right now, about as high as I have seen it in my life time. That is a just to give you an idea of how much water has came down so far in 2019. The Midwest has had lots of flooding, that has affected mainly rural people and farm land. 

The Midwest rain and flooding will likely prevent a large portion of this year’s crop from even getting planted. This along with the years of very low crop price it has become a constant struggle to be a farmer and make it from one year to the next. All of these horrible misfortunes has lead us into what has become the Agricultural Depression of my life time.

“It’s not the 1980s, but it’s as close as we’ve been,” says John Newton, chief economist of the American Farm Bureau.

While some farmers have been shutting down or selling to larger competitors for years amid thinner profits, analysts say 2019 will bring a more dramatic shakeout.

“This is more than a cyclical thing,” says Gary Schnitkey, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. “It’s a series of events that we’ve never seen come together. … It’s going to be a blow to everyone’s financial position.”