this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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Monsanto and friends know that if you make $500/acre they can charge $490/acre. It's really that bad for input costs because there's zero competition, and if there technically is more than one company in a space they just refuse to compete, but technically aren't a cartel...
Then you have China not buying soybeans from US farmers over politics (justified imo) and those leopards ate a lot of faces
Also the rescue programs that were meant to help prevent farmers from folding were frozen under DOGE so a whole bunch of farmers made the necessary investments and expenses to qualify for programs that don't exist currently, costing them even more money while they're deep in the red.
A drought and bad harvests have been hitting the US. Last year's harvest was already not good and this year's was weird due to the weather and lack of rain or snowpack.
The Midwest US is only farmable at its current intensity due to the Ogallala aquifer which is like a gigantic underground fresh water ocean. It's been pumped dry in many places, and will run out in a few decades.
I heard of a town hall deciding what to do about pumping that aquifer. The choices were
A) stop all pumping
B) reduce pumping to steady state levels. It doesn't recharge and it doesn't empty more
C) depletion in 100 years
D) depletion in 50 years
Guess which option was chosen...
It's also not because they're dumb they just can't be responsible. You go bankrupt if you pump less since you grow less, or would need to grow crops that use less water but net lower yields, lower pay, and it doesn't pay for your giant 16 row corn header or combine.