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Penny for your corn? Stingy trade-war aid irks U.S. farmers
Source: Reuters
BUSINESS NEWS NOVEMBER 28, 2018 / 7:10 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Penny for your corn? Stingy trade-war aid irks U.S. farmers
P.J. Huffstutter, Mark Weinraub
6 MIN READ
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Iowa corn farmer Bob Hemesath jokes that the government check he expects as compensation for his trade-war losses will soon allow him to splurge on upscale coffee in town instead of his usual burnt gas-station brew.
Rob Sharkey, an Illinois farmer, hopes his corn trade aid check will be big enough for that margarita machine he and his wife have been eyeing – but they doubt they’ll be any left over for the booze.
Federal economists have calculated that the nation’s losses in corn - its largest crop by harvest and export volume - amount to just a penny per bushel, a pittance farmers call absurd. That’s in stark contrast to the substantial $1.65 per bushel the government will pay for lost sales of soybeans, the crop hardest hit by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in a trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Both subsidies only cover half the bushels harvested this fall, though the government could soon decide to apply more aid money to this season.
“You have to wonder why Washington even bothered” with the corn subsidy, said Sharkey, 43, a fifth-generation farmer. “The soybean payment? That’s real money that can help us.”
-snip-
Penny for your corn? Stingy trade-war aid irks U.S. farmers
P.J. Huffstutter, Mark Weinraub
6 MIN READ
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Iowa corn farmer Bob Hemesath jokes that the government check he expects as compensation for his trade-war losses will soon allow him to splurge on upscale coffee in town instead of his usual burnt gas-station brew.
Rob Sharkey, an Illinois farmer, hopes his corn trade aid check will be big enough for that margarita machine he and his wife have been eyeing – but they doubt they’ll be any left over for the booze.
Federal economists have calculated that the nation’s losses in corn - its largest crop by harvest and export volume - amount to just a penny per bushel, a pittance farmers call absurd. That’s in stark contrast to the substantial $1.65 per bushel the government will pay for lost sales of soybeans, the crop hardest hit by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in a trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Both subsidies only cover half the bushels harvested this fall, though the government could soon decide to apply more aid money to this season.
“You have to wonder why Washington even bothered” with the corn subsidy, said Sharkey, 43, a fifth-generation farmer. “The soybean payment? That’s real money that can help us.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-aid/penny-for-your-corn-stingy-trade-war-aid-irks-u-s-farmers-idUSKCN1NX1D7
2 replies
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