A Harvest Too Good to Afford

Farmers face low prices and an assault on their subsidies

Nature was kind this year, perhaps too kind. As the last cuttings of wheat are taken from the plains, the projected bumper harvest of 75 million metric tons (2.8 billion bu.) will smash last year's all-time high. The corn crop, 202 million metric tons, will also set a new record. Total American grain production will hit 322.5 million metric tons, more than 50% greater than the Soviet Union's third poor harvest in a row. But the bounty is bittersweet: farm income has fallen almost 40% since 1979. All that newly harvested grain...

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