Land O'Lakes CEO Sees Storm Brewing in Agriculture, Rural America

Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O'Lakes, wrote a column in Time magazine this week sounding alarms about the farm economy and trends in agriculture.

Ford spotlighted the continuing loss of farmers and implied that trend could get worse with the low prices that have plagued grain producers.

"Grain farmers today are facing the most challenging economics since 2009. Food security is national security. Trade lanes are shifting. Interest rates are high. Commodity prices are eroding. Labor is insufficient and inaccessible, and there is no certainty of a new Farm Bill, or the safety net it traditionally provides. Some of these factors are not new, but the complexity of the combination of issues, and the speed with which they are accelerating, is. It's not just one thing. It's all the things. Farm bankruptcies have roughly doubled, compared to last year."

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By Chris Clayton, DTN Ag Policy Editor

www.dtnpf.com