Political Quotes

“sometimes around here, in what a lot of people refer to as the ``ivory tower,'' we talk about issues like they are abstract issues, like they don't have any real world effect. And I just wanted to touch on something, before I begin on my other subject here today, which is related to recent information that has been put out by the Department of Agriculture, the USDA's Economic Research Service, which is the arm that does projections on the economy and the farm economy, generally. What they are now concluding is that in 2022, there are going to be record cash receipts--record cash receipts--crop production, livestock production--record levels, 14-percent higher year over year. But what they go on to say is that even with record cash receipts up by 14 percent, net cash farm income is going to be down. Net cash farm income is going to be down by 1 percent. Why is that? Well, because if you look at what has increased, increased costs on farmers in this country, they have reached some record levels. If you look at, for example, fertilizer. Farmers will spend 84 percent more, or $21 billion more, on fertilizers than they did in 2020; 65 percent, or nearly $8 billion, more on fuel and oil; and more than $18 billion more on feed for livestock. Then you add in, on top of that, debt, which, for a farm operation, obviously, they are a very debt-intensive operation.…”