Farmers are addicted to government subsidies
Farm bankruptcies in the US have risen by 50 percent in the past year. Soybean farmers lost an average of $100 per acre in 2025, according to the Department of Agriculture, while corn growers are set to lose $150 per acre this year. Meanwhile, the national beef herd is at its lowest level since 1950 and retail prices have jumped by 40 percent in the past 18 months. Normal businesses would diversify away from corn or soybeans and try to profit from the rising price of beef, as well as goods such as eggs and tomatoes. They would, in other words, react to the changing realities of the market. But American farms are not normal businesses. Most of my fellow farmers are stuck in a world of perverse incentives, from government subsidy and bailouts to financialized capital and farmland.
