U.S. Farm Report

Water Fight With Mexico Leaves South Texas Farmer Unable to Plant Half His Acres

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:27:57 GMT

For South Texas farmers, the ongoing water dispute between the United States and Mexico isn’t an abstract policy issue. It’s a crisis that has reshaped planting decisions, reduced production and injected deep uncertainty into every growing season along the Rio Grande.

Brian Jones, a South Texas farmer, says years of shorted water deliveries under the 1944 Water Treaty have forced him and many of his neighbors to dramatically scale back their operations. What once was a fully irrigated farming system has turned into a constant struggle to stretch limited water supplies across fewer acres.

“I believe it really starts to reach a crescendo in the 2023 crop year,” Jones says. “For 2024 and 2025, basically I’m only able to plant half of my farm because we don’t have enough water.”

Jones says the water shortages are not the result of drought alone, but of Mexico failing to live up to its treaty obligations. Under the 1944 agreement, Mexico is required to deliver water to the United States through the Rio Grande basin. However, U.S. officials and South Texas producers argue those deliveries have fallen well short in recent years.

“That’s exactly right,” Jones says, confirming that he has been unable to plant roughly half of his acres. “Going from fully irrigated to basically only being able to plant half the farm — and not even having full irrigation for that half — has been quite a struggle over the last couple of years.”

The reduced water supply has forced farmers to make hard decisions, prioritizing which crops and fields can survive with limited irrigation. Jones says even the acres that do get planted are often under-irrigated, increasing risk and lowering yield potential.

“Mexico has willfully held back water that they had,” Jones says. “That puts us in a huge shortfall.”

Hope on the Horizon?

Earlier this month, USDA announced it had reached an understanding with Mexico to release 202,000 acre-feet of water to the U.S., following heightened pressure from the Trump administration — including threats of tariffs if Mexico failed to comply. The announcement marked the most significant movement on the issue in years. But for growers on the ground, the news has been met with cautious optimism.

“I would say I’m both hopeful and skeptical,” Jones says. “I’m hopeful because President Trump and his administration really take the bull by the horns on this and bring the fight to Mexico.”

Jones says farmers in South Texas have long felt ignored as water shortages worsened, and he credits the current administration for taking a more aggressive stance.

“Under the previous administration, it’s like talking to a brick wall,” he says. “Under this administration, President Trump and Secretary Rollins really pick up the club and use it to bring Mexico to the table.”

Despite the agreement, Jones says trust remains an issue. Years of unmet commitments have made farmers wary of celebrating until water is actually flowing into the Rio Grande and irrigation systems.

“On the other hand, I’m still skeptical because Mexico has willfully withheld the water for a number of years,” Jones says. “Until it really starts flowing and they meet that full agreement of the 202,000 acre-feet, we’re still skeptical.”

Water Releases Reported to Start Immediately

According to Jones, Mexico indicates water releases should begin immediately, though geography and infrastructure mean the impact is not instantaneous for South Texas farmers.

“It should start this week,” he says. “It takes about three to four days for the water, once they release it in the lower parts of Mexico, to reach the Rio Grande. Hopefully by now, we start seeing that flow.”

Beyond the immediate relief, Jones says the water dispute highlights deeper concerns about fairness and competition. He believes the issue should be addressed in broader trade discussions, particularly as the U.S. reviews the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

“We actually hope it is a point of contention,” Jones says. “Not only is Mexico withholding water, they’re using that water to grow products we normally grow here in South Texas and compete directly in our marketing window. That creates a trade imbalance.”

Water Issue Could Be at the Center of USCMA Review

Jones says Texas lawmakers and agricultural groups are pushing to bring the issue into USMCA negotiations, arguing water compliance should carry real consequences.

“We’re hoping to use USMCA as a tool to put some punitive measures and some teeth into the water-sharing agreement,” he says.

Planting Decisions Uncertain

As planting season approaches, uncertainty remains front and center. Jones says decisions for the 2025 crop year will hinge almost entirely on whether Mexico follows through on its promises — and how quickly water arrives.

“We’re about 45 days from corn planting here in South Texas,” he says. “I’ll definitely get all my corn in, then switch over to milo. Cotton is the big question mark.”

Cotton planting typically begins in mid-March, leaving little margin for error if water deliveries fall behind schedule.

“All the details are supposed to be out by January 31, and they’re guaranteeing all that water by the end of March,” Jones says. “By early- to mid-March, we should know where they stand on deliveries, and that will shape how I plant this upcoming year.”

For now, Jones and other South Texas farmers are watching river levels, weather forecasts and diplomatic negotiations with equal intensity — hoping that this time, the water fight turns into real relief on the ground.

Fertilizer Prices Under Fire: Monopoly or Markets to Blame?

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:11:27 GMT

As President Donald Trump demands a federal investigation into meatpackers for inflating beef prices , another battle over farm input costs is already heating up. Fertilizer, long one of the most volatile and least transparent costs in farming, is now drawing renewed scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has reintroduced The Fertilizer Research Act, a bipartisan measure requiring USDA to study pricing and competition across the fertilizer market. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says that effort will go hand in hand with a Department of Justice probe into market concentration, promising to take a look at whether farmers truly have fair choices when buying the inputs that feed the nation.

“Pressure Cooker” on Capitol Hill

Two weeks ago on Capitol Hill, lawmakers took up the issue farmers have long demanded answers for: Why fertilizer, seed and input prices keep rising while competition keeps shrinking.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, titled “Pressure Cooker: Competition Issues in the Seed and Fertilizer Industries, ” drew fiery testimony from across agriculture. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they’re hearing growing frustration from rural America.

Grassley tells the committee that farmers are being boxed in by consolidation at every level of the ag supply chain.

“Over the last 20 years, a few big companies have bought up many of the smaller seed and chemical businesses,” he says. “Those same companies now sell not just the seeds, but also the pesticides and digital farming tools that tell farmers what to plant and when. Because all these products and data systems are tied together, it’s hard for farmers to switch to a different brand.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D–N.J., delivers one of the sharpest warnings of the day.

“What’s happening in America is dire,” he says. “Congress must not just talk about the problems; we’ve got to fix them. Otherwise, American farming as we know it will be forever changed.”

Farmers Take a Stand

The goal of the hearing was to understand what’s driving record-high input prices and what, if anything, Congress can do to restore fairness and competition.

Of the six witnesses called that day, two were farmers who spoke candidly about what they’re experiencing on the ground.

Noah Coppess, a fifth-generation farmer from Cedar County, Iowa, tells senators the volatility of fertilizer pricing has turned crop planning into a gamble.

“If the market becomes too constricted, it is ultimately the farmer who loses,” Coppess says. “Fertilizer pricing has become very volatile, with wild swings of 25% to 50% from year to year. We’re asked to prepay for fertilizer three to six months before it’s applied to the soil and up to 14 months before harvest. Many contracts have a narrow window for application. If we miss it, the contract expires and the input is repriced higher or we’re charged monthly fees just to extend it.”

He says it’s forcing farmers to cut back in ways that threaten long-term soil health.

“Phosphate fertilizer has become a bare-minimum usage fertilizer on our farm because of the cost,” Coppess adds. “We simply can’t afford to apply it like we used to.”

Kentucky farmer Caleb Ragland tells the committee the same pressures are weighing on his operation.

“Farmers are paying more than ever to grow their crops,” he says. “In just five years, seed prices have increased by 18%, fertilizer by 37%, pesticides by 25%, machinery by 23% and interest expense by 37%. Seed is a key cost consideration for farmers. Advancements in seed technology and pesticides have delivered real agronomic benefits — but at an added cost. Those costs are eating away at what little margin we have left.”

Industry Response: “A Perfect Storm”

But the hearing wasn’t just about farmers. Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), appeared before the committee to represent the industry’s view. Speaking later with “AgriTalk” host Chip Flory, Rosenbusch says the pressures farmers face are real but are largely the result of global dynamics, not domestic decisions.

“It’s a challenging time for growers,” Rosenbusch says. “In some cases, it’s even harder for the American farmer right now than it was a few years ago when markets exploded because at least, back then, commodity prices were high. Right now, it’s a perfect storm. Commodity prices are low, and input costs keep going up and up. Our message is simple: We need farmers to be successful because if they’re not, we don’t exist. But the factors driving this market are frankly outside of our control and, honestly, outside of this country’s control. Geopolitics is taking the headlines when it comes to supply and demand.”

He says Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s fertilizer export restrictions and global energy volatility are all rippling through fertilizer markets — forces far beyond the industry’s ability to manage.

“These are global supply and demand pressures,” Rosenbusch says. “When geopolitics dominate, prices react worldwide.”

Farmers Push Back: “Too Few Suppliers”

Farmers listening to the hearing say those global explanations don’t tell the whole story.

Mark Mueller, a farmer from Bremer County, Iowa, was supposed to testify on behalf of the Iowa Corn Growers but says he was disinvited, which he believes was because of Iowa Corn’s strong stance on lack of competition in the fertilizer market.

He still attended the hearing in person and says one statement from the fertilizer industry blew him away.

“The bottom line is that we don’t have many places to get our inputs from,” Mueller says. “I might have a half dozen retailers in my county, but when you go a little farther, they all get their phosphorus from one company, their potash from two companies, and their nitrogen from maybe three, and it’s the same problem in the seed industry.”

Mueller says one comment from the industry’s leadership stuck with him.

“The most disingenuous statement I heard came from the CEO of the Fertilizer Institute,” he says. “He said there are 20 unique companies supplying fertilizer inputs to the industry. That’s like General Motors saying they’re made up of four or five unique companies — Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac. It’s all one company.”

“It’s Not a Monopoly — It’s an Oligopoly”

Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at StoneX Group, agrees the U.S. fertilizer market isn’t a monopoly, but he says it operates much like one.

“Here’s why I can’t be a politician,” Linville jokes. “No, there isn’t enough competition. It’s not a monopoly, but it’s definitely an oligopoly. When you look at nitrogen, three players control the vast majority of production. For phosphate, there’s one main producer. For potash, we’re highly dependent on imports. Almost all of it comes from Canada. So yes, we have some competition — but not enough.”

Linville says fewer players mean tighter supply chains, and that amplifies every global shock, from wars to tariffs.

“A lot of what’s happening is global supply and demand,” he says. “But the lack of competition doesn’t help. Tariffs, countervailing duties and even the fear of new sanctions on Russia are inflating prices that global trade already pushes higher.”

Concerns Potential Government Trade Aid Payments Further Inflate Fertilizer Prices

There’s yet another wildcard this year: the potential for the White House to release tariff aid payments. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden confirmed on AgriTalk the agency is preparing to roll out $12 billion in trade aid once the government reopens.

Linville says the potential for new government aid has some unintended consequences for the fertilizer market.

“Unfortunately, no,” Linville says when asked if fertilizer prices might ease if aid payments don’t go out. “If the payments come out, I’m afraid it’s gonna boost fertilizer prices. It doesn’t change the supply and demand for most of these products, but it does change the timing, and timing is everything.”

Linville says the fertilizer market is as much about when farmers buy as it is about how much they buy. Injecting fresh cash into the market at once could cause a surge in demand that suppliers can’t absorb smoothly.

“If there’s a big fat check that goes into the farmer’s pockets and that gets spent on fertilizer, and you pull all that demand into one period, fertilizer is going to see its prices boosted as a result,” he adds. “We saw that the last time the checks went out.”

Read More: Tariff Aid Payments Could Backfire, Boosting Fertilizer Prices, Analyst Warns

Little Hope for Price Relief

When asked whether fertilizer prices could ease before spring, Linville doesn’t sugarcoat it.

“You know me — I’m never going to deal in guarantees,” he says. “I’m not going to say prices can’t fall between now and spring, but the second I do, the market will humble me again. We’ve got some improvements: China’s exporting a little more, Russia’s exporting more, there’s more peace in the Middle East, but we still have production problems in Europe, and China’s slowing exports again. Phosphate exports are being cut in half this year, and the world doesn’t have anyone ready to fill that gap. So could prices fall? Yes. But I’m not holding my breath.”

Stockpiling Isn’t a Solution

When asked on “AgriTalk” whether stopping exports and stockpiling product domestically could help ease prices, Rosenbusch says the U.S. doesn’t have that capability.

“Even if we wanted to take a page out of China’s book and stop exports, we couldn’t,” he says. “We still have to import 40% of our phosphates. We don’t have the infrastructure to stockpile fertilizer in this country. It just doesn’t exist.”

A Critical Step Forward

In what’s being hailed as a small but meaningful win for the U.S. farm economy, the Trump administration recently added phosphate and potash to the list of 10 minerals deemed critical to national security. The designation could help accelerate mining permits and spur new domestic investment — something both industry and lawmakers say is badly needed.

But for farmers testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the message was clear: They can’t wait years for market reform.

“Fertilizer is the biggest pain point on farms today,” Coppess says. “We need change, and we need it soon.”

California's Water Crisis: Farmers Warn Water Rules Could Cripple Central Valley Agriculture

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:52:47 GMT

On Hansen Ranch in the Central Valley, fifth-generation farmer Erik Hansen grows a little bit of everything — pistachios, almonds, pomegranates, alfalfa, corn for silage and cotton.

“We farm 15, 16 different crops,” Hansen says. “Cotton is our biggest acreage crop, and that’s in the form of Pima cotton.”

That diversification has long been the Hansen family’s survival strategy. But in spring 2023, no amount of crop rotation could shield them from disaster.

“Where we’re standing right now was underwater,” Hansen recalls. “A mile from here, over by that PG&E substation, was the edge of the lake.”

The flood wiped out 600 acres of pomegranates and 400 acres of pistachios. One thousand acres of permanent crops gone in one season.

“It was a massive hit,” Hansen says. “We had about 5,000 to 6,000 acres under water. Some of that water lasted for over a year.”

From Too Much Water to Not Enough

The irony is hard to ignore: In 2023, floodwaters destroyed thousands of acres. Now, Hansen says it’s the lack of access to water that could cripple farms across the Central Valley.

“The last projections I heard were anywhere from 1 million to 1.2 million acres totaled in the valley,” he says, referring to farmland that could be idled by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) .

Passed in 2014, SGMA requires local agencies to reduce groundwater overdraft and achieve sustainable use by 2040. On paper, Hansen says, that makes sense.

“To some extent it is good because you have to have a way to manage the overdraft,” he explains. “The problem is there are surface water facilities we developed back in the 50s and 60s that we’re just not using. A lot of that water is going out to the Pacific Ocean.”

For Hansen, the politics sting. He believes decades of state decisions — prioritizing fish and wildlife, reallocating water, and neglecting infrastructure — set up today’s crisis.

“I’m frustrated because the families that have been farming here for years, some decades, sometimes even more, are being footed with a bill for problems that somebody else created,” Hansen says. “If the state doesn’t look in the mirror, I think we’re going to find ourselves in the same position again.”

Young Farmers Face the Same Struggles

Forty miles south, 30-year-old Elizabeth Keenan is navigating the same regulatory headwinds. Her grandfather Charlie started Keenan Farms in 1972, acquiring one of California’s first pistachio orchards. Today, Elizabeth farms alongside her parents and brother.

“Rolling with the regulatory punches can be complicated,” she admits. “Despite pistachios being such a high-value product, despite having optimal land and weather conditions, we really have everything set up beautifully — except for legislation.”

Water, she says, is the most difficult hurdle.

“We’re up to a 50% allocation,” Keenan explains. “The base allocation is 2.2 acre-feet, so we get 1.1 acre-feet to use. Otherwise, we have to have open fallow fields. To pump more water, we have to buy it on the open market, and that’s expensive too.”

A Political Battle Over Flows

Signs line highways across the Central Valley warning that 80% of California’s river water flows out to the Pacific instead of farms. Assemblyman David Tangipa, a freshman lawmaker representing the 8^th District, says those numbers are real.

“It’s 100% happening,” Tangipa says. “Almost 83% of all water in the state is automatically pushed out for environmental purposes.”

California averages about 200 million acre-feet of water each year, Tangipa notes, but despite record rainfall, farms often get less than half of their allocations.

“We’ve prioritized so much environmental legislation that more than 80% of our water is pushed out immediately to the ocean, unnaturally,” he says. “Meanwhile, farmers get less water and more land goes out of production.”

Proponents of Current Water Flows

There are proponents of the current way the water flows, mainly for environmental reasons and to prevent saltwater contamination of freshwater sources.

California releases water into the ocean to prevent saltwater intrusion into freshwater supplies, protect endangered aquatic species and ecosystems, and maintain the delicate balance of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary, a critical source of drinking and irrigation water.

A portion of released water is also used for stormwater management to prevent flooding, as it can be difficult and impractical to capture and store all of it.

And those in favor of environmental water releases say it’s essential to support broader ecosystem benefits like water filtration and carbon sequestration, which are important for overall environmental health.

The Ripple Effect

The Central Valley of California is a powerhouse in food production for the U.S. That area alone produces approximately half of all the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S., as well as a large portion of the nation’s nuts and other foods. When you break down the numbers, the Central Valley accounts for about 60% of the nation’s fruits and nuts, and about 30% of the nation’s vegetables.

For Thomas Putzel, who works with farmers across the Central Valley, the impact of regulations isn’t just measured in acre-feet. It’s measured in livelihoods and the food supply.

“The environmentalists try to say farmers are wasting water,” he says. “But when we look at what farmers provide, we’re planting forests. One acre of almonds will capture 18 metric tons of carbon a year. That’s like taking 29 million cars off the road.”

Putzel says California voters already approved a water bond to build new storage a decade ago, but no new projects have been built.

“Not one shovel has gone in the ground in 10 years,” he says. “Actually, they took some of that money and tore dams down.”

Meanwhile, permanent crops wither when water isn’t available, leaving behind dead orchards that invite pests and rodents into neighboring fields.

“SGMA’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Putzel says. “But you’ve asked growers to run a marathon with their legs tied together. People don’t understand; food doesn’t come from a grocery store. It comes from a farmer. If California stopped shipping produce for one week, our stores would be empty.”

“Is Farming in California’s Best Interest?”

For Erik Hansen, the question is bigger than water allocations or acreage lost.

“Government is probably the biggest problem right now,” he says. “It just seems California hasn’t really decided whether farming is in their best interest. Politicians like to say they’re for small business and small farming, but virtually every piece of legislation makes it more difficult to survive.”

As the Central Valley wrestles with the challenges of floods, drought and regulations, one reality is clear: The fate of these farms is tied not just to weather and soil but to political decisions that could shape the future of food in America.

From Despair to Hope: Why a Farmer on the Brink of Suicide Chose to Keep Going

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:41:22 GMT

It’s starting to feel similar to the 1980s. Not only are farmers on the brink of financial collapse, but there’s another grim reality setting in: The number of farmers dying by suicide is on the rise, and it could be at a rate U.S. agriculture hasn’t seen since the 1980s.

Even though statistics on suicides among farmers aren’t reliable from the 1980s because many were deemed “accidents” during that time, some estimates point to more than 1,000 farmers dying by suicide during that crisis.

“Unfortunately, it just almost seems like it’s a pandemic situation. I mean, there’s a lot of it, and it’s sad,” says Brent Foreman, a farmer in Shelby County, Mo., who knows the impacts of farmer suicides all too well.

“From an agricultural perspective, there’s a lot of stress in this industry, especially now,” Foreman says. “And somebody that’s contemplating this. I would say, we as farmers, we like to try to fix things, and we’re pretty good at it, but you can’t fix everything. If you get to a point like that, please reach out to someone, a family member, a good friend. Just please try to get some help.”

Touched By Suicide Three Times

Foreman isn’t just a fellow farmer concerned about the number of farmer suicides today. He’s a life-long farmer who’s been impacted by farmers dying by suicide three times, and the first loss happened when he was just 12 years old.

“My grandfather was a wonderful man, the most important male figure in my life,” Foreman says. “It happened 54 years ago, and it leaves a heck of a hole in your heart still today.”

Sixteen years later, his younger brother died by suicide, another sudden and tragic loss where there were no signs something was wrong.

“And then just a little over two years ago, my brother-in-law, who was 68, took his life,” Foreman says. “I’m telling you, it’s a devastating thing for loved ones to have to go through. It is tough. It’s really tough.”

Foreman says with his brother-in-law, there were signs he was struggling. He tried to take his life one time, but didn’t succeed. That’s when the family tried to get him help, which he agreed to, even going in for treatment.

“We thought that things were getting better, but they weren’t,” Foreman says. “At the beginning, I consulted our preacher, and I said: ‘I need some prayer and I need some advice.’ And he said: ‘Well, I do want to tell you something. I want you to be able to be prepared if you fail. Can you handle that?’ And I said: ‘Well, what I can’t handle is if I don’t try. I have to try.’

Experiencing three suicides, all by loved ones he was extremely close to, has been devastating. Foreman says the emotions are still raw today.

“It’s tough to live with, going through that so many times,” he says. “When I was a youngster I always told myself, the hurt, that’s something I would never do to anyone else. I just made like a pact with myself that I would never do that, because I’ve seen and lived firsthand how it affects you. From a family’s perspective, the pain goes on and on; it doesn’t quit. My wife, from her perspective, I can just see it in her eyes almost daily, the devastation.”

‘When We Lose Hope, It’s a Dangerous Place to Be’

When a person loses hope, that’s when the situation turns bleak.

“Sadly, that is the end all for a lot of people,” Jolie Foreman, executive director at Shelby County Cares , says. “Hope is key. If you have hope, you can keep going. When you lose hope, it’s just a very dangerous place to be.”

Lafayette County, Mo., farmer Ethan Daehler has been there.

“It was actually 2019 was kind of my low point,” he says.

Just six years ago, this Missouri farmer hit rock bottom.

“I was pretty much just down in the dumps, ready to just give up on life,” he says. “Thank the Lord something happened that kind of changed my way of thinking.”

In his early 30s, Ethan Daehler knows what it’s like to be on the verge of suicide. In 2019, he hit a low point. But something saved him, and he hopes by sharing his story, he will reach other farmers in a similar state of mind, reminding them that life is worth living.

(Ethan Daehler, Missouri Farmer )

Battling ongoing pain from an accident and stress of work, as well as struggles with the dynamics of a family farm, it all compounded the issue and pushed Daehler to a breaking point.

“I had a full-time job at the time working for another farmer and trying to do my own small operation,” he says. “We had family issues, which happens to a lot of farmers. There is a lot that compounds into thoughts, it’s just not financial problems, and I think that’s what people need to understand.

Daehler is now proof that it’s worth finding a reason to live, and he is only sharing his story to possibly save someone who’s in a similar spot as he was in 2019.

“There’s more to life,” he says. “I’m in a tractor now, baling hay, this is my fourth cutting. This is what I kind of dreamed of. Find something you love doing.”

A Mission to Prevent Farmer Suicides

That pain is something that fueled his daughter-in-law’s work. Jolie Foreman is the executive director at Shelby County Cares , a nonprofit whose goal is to improve the quality of life for children, youth and adults.

“I knew that we were very resource poor,” Jolie says. “So when I heard that this opportunity was available, we jumped on it, and we’ve just grown from the bottom up. We are definitely grassroots. They had faith in us in what our vision was, and they invested in it.

Through a grant,Jolie’s initial focus wasn’t suicide, but as she started doing research, she discovered there was a desperate need to provide help.

“My family had been impacted by suicide, and that’s kind of why I had jumped on board in the beginning,” she says. “But once we sat down at the table and really started to dive into the names and being in a small town, we know all of those lives that have been lost to suicide up here, that the producer was the one that was struggling.”

Fall Typically Heightens the Stress and Struggles

Jolie says they are currently seeing an increase in the number of farmer suicides happening across the country. Some of that is due to the various stresses involved with farming, but she says the fall is typically when the number of suicides in agriculture rises even more.

“In the spring, there’s a lot of hope,” Jolie says. “You’re planting, you’re coming off of the year that may have been good, may have been bad, but there’s always hope in the spring. And come September, I think the stark reality starts to set in either the pricing and the yields.”

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month , and when it comes to agriculture the facts are startling. Farmers are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. The suicide rate among male farmers, ranchers and ag managers is 43.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the National Rural Health Association.

The mounting financial pressures unfolding across the agricultural economy are adding another layer to an industry that already faces one of the highest rates of suicide compared to any other profession.

“Suicide is one of those things that’s hard to put on a scale,” Jolie says. “I mean we know the lives we’ve lost. We unfortunately can’t see the lives that we’ve saved, but I do know from talking to the local ambulance district that the calls have definitely increased; 988 is a huge resource here, and those calls have gone up and increased exponentially. And just through conversations I know that that rural agricultural piece is pressing behind it.”

She says one of the most startling discoveries she’s made during her research and work is the desensitization to death among farmers. She says through various conversations, it’s a reality that’s sad but true.

It’s Not Just Financial Stress That Causes Strains on Farmers’ Mental Health

Jolie says it’s not just financial stress that causes these struggles. It’s also the fact farming comes with many stresses, and for the most part, many farmers are so isolated and might not have access to adequate healthcare.

AgriSafe says if you’re a farmer, rancher, or farmworker, you already know that your work can expose you to a variety of hazards. They believe that with proper education and access to knowledgeable health professionals, farmers can live a long, healthy, and productive life.

(The Total Farmer Health Model, AgriSafe)

According to AgriSafe’s Total Farmer Health , the financial factor is one that can compound mental health struggles, but there are other factors that lead to the risks of farmer suicides including:

Weather
Sleep
Cognition
Social
Diet
Hazards
Spirituality
Healthcare
Fitness

Signs to Watch

And for family and friends, there are signs to watch out for, including neglect of the farm or ranch or even an individual who makes a big financial moves.

“Financial moves are also huge, which is why we’ve talked to attorneys, and we also talked to the financial providers like different banks,” Jolie says. “Are they moving their money? Are they giving away prize possessions? Are they changing their wills? Are they creating a sudden will? We just want to give those resources the tools that they need just to be like, ’Are you okay?’

Daehler says his message for someone in a dark place is you’re not alone. That message is something the Foremans also wants farmers to know.

“I want them to know that we care. I want to know they feed and fuel the world, but if their bucket is empty, they can’t pour into others,” Jolie says. “It’s OK to not be OK, to talk about it, to reach out, to ask your neighbor, to not afraid if you do see something or change in behavior or more isolation. Don’t be afraid to have that conversation. And there are a lot of people that care.”

Suicide Prevent Hotlines

It’s important to remember no matter where you are, there is help. 988 is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline .

And for farmers, there is a specific farmer crisis hotline you can call that is toll-free at 866.586.6746.

The American Farm Bureau also has a Farm State of Mind campaign which builds awareness to reduce stigma and provides access to information and resources that promote farmer and rancher mental health wellness. You can visit that list of resources here .

Agriculture in the Bull's-Eye: Raids Reportedly Resume on Farms, Meatpacking Plants

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 18:40:22 GMT

After President Donald Trump reportedly ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE ) to pause raids on farms and meatpacking plants last week, new reports say the administration is reversing course again. The on-again, off-again reports regarding ICE raids is sowing confusion for those who rely on immigrant labor and already causing labor shortages due to employees not showing up for work.

There was an update again late Friday, with President Trump saying he’s looking at new immigration policy steps that would allow farms to take responsibility for people they hire.

The Washington Post first reported Monday that ICE officials told leaders representing field offices across the country they must continue to conduct raids at worksite locations, which is a reversal from guidance issued just days earlier.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wouldn’t confirm the Washington Post’s report, but an agricultural association told Farm Journal the article is accurate based on their discussions with the administration.

Instead, DHS told us this:

“The president has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” says DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safe guard public safety, national security and economic stability. These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.”

By Friday, there was another update. Reuters reported President Trump said he was looking at immigration policy steps that would allow farms to take responsibility for people they hire.

“We’re looking at doing something where, in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire and let them have responsibility, because we can’t put the farms out of business,” Trump told reporters. “And at the same time we don’t want to hurt people that aren’t criminals.”

According to Farm Journal’s Michelle Rook, the recent ICE raids are already creating absenteeism and labor shortages that could severally disrupt the U.S. food supply. Ag groups are again calling for immigration reform with hopes the issue will finally come to a head.

Ripple Effect of Immigration Crackdown

Joe Del Bosque, owner of Del Bosque Farms in Firebaugh, Calif., is experiencing the rollercoaster with labor, saying the shifting policy strikes fear in farmers and workers.

“There’s so much uncertainty as to what the administration’s going to do,” Del Bosque told Rook on AgriTalk this week.

Del Bosque says the raids on California produce farms are disrupting the harvest of perishable produce.

“They haven’t been really huge sweeps. They’re usually picking up a few people. But it creates a lot of fear, and people don’t show up to work. That’s just as bad as if they were taken away,” he says.

According to an exclusive report by Farm Journal’s The Packer , the ripple effect of Trump’s immigration crackdown on agriculture could be far-reaching — if the administration revives its focus on ag.

Kevin Kelly is the CEO of Emerald Packaging — the largest flexible packaging supplier to the leafy greens industry. Based in Union City, Calif., the company has been in the packaging business for 62 years. Kelly says the immigrant workforce in California is feeling uncertain and afraid.

“We’ve certainly heard folks aren’t turning up to work in the fields, and we’ve seen it in our facility. We verify everybody, so we know everybody in our facility is documented and can legally work in the United States,” Kelly tells Jennifer Strailey, editor of The Packer. “In our case, it’s brothers and sisters being deported, and other family members being afraid. Our employees are staying home to help their family members move, to take care of them or to take them to see an attorney — that kind of thing.”

Dairy operations in several states have also been raided recently. Dairy producers say they rely on immigrant labor to provide a stable year-round work force and to keep the U.S. food supply stable.

“We need these people to take care of our animals so we can produce food. Without animal care, we won’t have milk, cheese, butter — nothing,” Greg Moes, MoDak Dairy in Goodwin, S.D., told Rook.

The recent ICE arrests at Glenn Valley Foods of Omaha, Neb. have also led to absenteeism at meat processing plants.

“At the beginning of the Trump administration, we had this same worry with the crackdown — whether this was going to impact absenteeism and things like that,” says Brad Kooima, Kooima Kooima Varilek in Sioux Center, Iowa. “So, hopefully we can put that in our rearview mirror.”

By the Numbers: A Heavy Reliance on Immigrant Labor
The news this week of the Trump administration putting a pause on raids of farms and meat processors is welcome news for those in agriculture. From dairies and produce farms, to meatpacking plants across the U.S., these sectors rely heavily on immigrant labor.

Immigrant labor makes up a substantial portion of the meat processing workforce, with estimates ranging from 37% to over 50%. However, states like South Dakota and Nebraska have even higher concentrations of immigrant workers in meat processing — reaching 58% and 66%, according to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute.

And a large portion of U.S. dairy farms rely on immigrant labor, with estimates indicating that over half of all dairy workers are immigrants. Specifically, these workers account for 51% of the total dairy workforce and are responsible for producing 79% of the U.S. milk supply.

Farmworker Justice estimates 70% of the produce industry’s farmworkers are immigrants. USDA’s estimates are lower — closer to 60%.

Current Weather Pattern Set To Take A Dramatic Shift: What You Need to Know

Tue, 27 May 2025 17:11:47 GMT

The forecast is calling for a hot and dry June, which is a stark contrast from the cool and wet weather pattern that’s been dominating. As rains continue to suffocate the southern Corn Belt and the mid-South, those areas could face higher amounts of prevent plant this year, while much of the West will turn dry and warm by next week.

Past 72 hour precipitation totals.

(Pivotal Weather )

Over Memorial Day weekend, parts of Oklahoma, southern Missouri and Arkansas saw up to 5" of rainfall. Texas also saw rain, with severe storms even producing large hail. Posts on social media showed grapefruit-sized hail pounding areas of the state.

Never seen hail this big before. In Afton, Texas now !! #txwx pic.twitter.com/tYMM7TML8n
— Pie☈☈e-Ma☈c Doucet (@PMDStormchaser) May 25, 2025

A massive 6-inch, 1.5-pound hailstone, roughly cantaloupe-sized, fell near Afton, Texas, leaving locals stunned. Witness Colt Forney captured the incredible moment! ( May25, 2025)

Have you ever seen hail this insanely huge? pic.twitter.com/efXuX9dA7j
— Weather Monitor (@WeatherMonitors) May 26, 2025

The forecast for the rest of this week shows that pattern shifting even farther south, with the Southeast seeing more than 4" of rain.

“We saw places in Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota — especially the Dakotas — that picked up well over 3" of rain,” says Michael Clark of BamWX . “Now going forward, the forecast for the next seven days is a much drier outlook for those areas with the heaviest rain focused across the deep South — where they don’t need it. That includes southern Missouri, southern Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. They don’t need rain there right now.”

Precipitation forecast over the next 72 hours.

(Pivotal Weather )

But it’s not just the rain meteorologists are watching. The cooler temperatures are also a concern.

“This map [pictured below] shows the growing degree heat units and the anomaly, or the departure from normal, for the next 10 days,” Clark says. “You can see nobody’s really running above. We’re running quite a bit below, so we’re going to struggle to really accumulate any heating degree or growing degree days right now.”

Cooler temperatures have created a problem with growing degree units (GDUs) to end May.

(BAM Weather )

Those cooler temperatures will be short-lived, though. NOAA’s heat index forecast for the first week of June shows south Texas seeing temperatures rise above 100°F. Pockets of the Plains, Midwest, Southwest and Southeast will hit 85°F to 95°F.

Heat index forecast for the first week of June.

(NOAA )

This could be a precursor for what’s to come the remainder of June, according to Clark.

“The focus is turning to a much warmer temperature pattern this summer,” Clark says. “Our precipitation outlook for June features a risk for below-normal precipitation, and really, we might already be seeing hints of that. But it’s normal to above-normal in the rainfall department in the East and Southeast right now for the month of June.”

Precipitation outlook for June.

(BAM Weather )

Temperature outlook for June.

(BAM Weather )

The hot and dry forecasts aren’t new. Meteorologists have been concerned about dryness in the Western Corn Belt since winter. But Clark says the active weather pattern we’ve seen this spring could put those forecasts on a detour this summer.

“The models have had a tendency to dry this up and pull rain out of the forecast, but we keep seeing cold fronts and big, active pattern signals coming through. We do think that ends, but some persistence in the pattern overall might yield that we see a couple more chances of rain and cooler shots of air in the first half of June. Maybe that pattern shows up the second half of June into July,” Clark says.

The good news is leading into that drier and warmer spell to start June, the recent rains have helped improve the soil moisture.

Soil moisture map shows improvement in parts of the upper Midwest, South and West.

(BAM Weather)

"The Little Farmer": The Super Bowl Commercial that Captured Hearts and Put the Spotlight on Agriculture

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 17:31:49 GMT

It was a Super Bowl commercial with a story, and one that sprouted from a real potato grower in Wisconsin. Frito Lay and PepsiCo helped put the spotlight on agriculture Super Bowl Sunday, while also celebrating real farmers.

“There’s a lot of pride that goes into growing anything in agriculture, says Jeremie Pavelski, a farmer in Hancock, Wis. , which is located in the central part of the state.

Pavelski is a fifth-generation farmer. The potatoes Pavelski produces go to Lay’s, and it’s something his family has done for 71 years.

“Most of our potatoes are going there specialized for going into potato chips, which is fairly unique,” he says.

The Super Bowl commercial that aired on Sunday was inspired by Pavelski’s story, after he hosted a farm tour for Frito Lay one day.

“They thought that was a great story that needed to be shared, and we weren’t expecting it to be shared on the big stage,” says Pavelski. “But it it was, and it’s a very emotional, very touching commercial. And it’s very rewarding, especially to be working with such great partners.”

The group was especially touched by Pavelski’s 7-year-old daughter, who is passionate abut the potatoes her family produces.

“Seeing my daughter’s eyes light up when she is going out in the middle of the field and teaching her friends where food comes from. And seeing her when she’s got her boots on, splashing around in the mud...and the joy, the delight on her face when she opens a bag of Lay’s and says, ‘I helped grow this’ along with our team, that is one of the most honestly inspirational things,” he says.

Pavelski’s daughter wasn’t the girl who actually appeared in the commercial, but it’s her story that helped the team at Frito Lay dream up an extremely touching commercial, while also helping bring light to the fact those Lay’s potato chips are grown by real farmers on real farms, like Pavelski’s.

“You can see what it took, years of hard work to do and years of learning, whether it’s from the growing side of things or from our daughter and just seeing what ends up becoming of this, and how it can really bring joy to a lot of people. I get a little choked up here, almost brings a tear to my eye,” he says.

One little potato with one big dream was the theme of the commercial. It was also a nod to U.S. family farmers all across the country — families who are the foundation of the food that fuels us all.

Pavelski was named a Top Producer of the Year finalist in 2018. You can read his story here .

EXCLUSIVE: John Deere Speaks Publicly For the First Time About Layoffs, New Challenges in the Ag Economy

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:07:55 GMT

John Deere recently laid off a significant number of salaried employees as part of the company’s ongoing workforce reductions. The official number of layoffs is still unknown but are part of a broader trend of workforce reductions at John Deere, which have been ongoing for several months.

Cory Reed, president of the company’s Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division for Production and Precision Ag , spoke publicly about the layoffs for the first time in an exclusive interview with U.S. Farm Report this week.

What You Need to Know

Reed addressed everything from the recent layoffs to the company’s decision to move a small portion of its production to Mexico. Here are highlights from Farm Journal’s exclusive interview:

John Deere says recent layoffs of both its salaried and production workforce are due to lower net farm income, higher interest rates and market volatility.
Reed says John Deere expects equipment sales to be down 20% in 2024, due to economic pressures on the farm.
John Deere is addressing cost concerns by reducing the prices of some new technologies, such as the See & Spray retrofit kit.
John Deere is investing in automation to improve manufacturing efficiency and reliability.
Reed emphasized the job cuts are unrelated to the 2021 strike by production workers.
He also stressed that John Deere’s decision to move its cab production to Mexico is separate, saying that production site in Mexico has been in operation for nearly 70 years, calling it “an important part of our global footprint.”

The Reality of the Farm Economy

USDA is forecasting net farm income in 2024 to be $116.1 billion, which is a 25.5% drop from 2023 following a 16% drop in 2023 versus 2022. Those two consecutive years of significant decline mark the largest drop in net farm income in U.S. history.

“Net farm income is expected to be down in the mid to high 20s, and when that happens, and commodity prices pull back, interest rates are a little bit higher and we see volatility in the weather, it creates uncertainty that interrupts demand. We’re experiencing that today. Looking out across our industry, we’re expecting to be off roughly 20% year-over-year from 2023,” Reed told U.S. Farm Report.

USDA’s 2023 and 2024 Net Farm Income projections point to the largest drop in history.

(Lori Hayes )

The mounting economic pressures are showing up across the equipment industry. The latest Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) flash report released in June showed just how drastic of a drop the ag equipment sector is currently experiencing. AEM’s report showed combine sales in June dropped 31% compared to last year. Total farm tractor sales were down 16%.

While the company forecasts equipment demand to fall 20% overall in 2024, Reed says the second half of the year looks to be even more challenging than the first.

“We kind of have the tale of two ends of the year, “ he says. “If you looked at the front half of the year, in fact, if you took the large row-crop tractor business, what you would have seen is a market that was still peaking in the April and May time frame. A lot of buyers were in the market, based off of performance last year. As we hit May and going into June, used inventory levels started to grow and you saw buyers starting to pull back. Those trade differentials look different for them, and they started pulling back at a faster rate.”

As farmers pull back on purchasing new equipment, the short-term market outlook is hard to project, according to John Deere.

“I think what you see is markets that are cycling faster today. When you see what was going on in the commodity market, it’s been more volatile here recently. So obviously, we’d like to have better predictability of those things. What I would tell you is the long-term outlook for global commodities grown here in the U.S. still look really strong. We’re still bullish on that,” Reed says. “It’s the reason that even when we see these cycles potentially coming, we invest directly through them. We’ve never invested more in research dollars than we did this year, and in the next five years we will invest more than we have over the past five years. That’s a testament to what we believe about the future of the agricultural industry. We’re doing that around the world.”

John Deere Says Layoffs Are Unrelated to 2021 Strike

With the drop in equipment demand, came cuts to the salaried workforce this week. But the company had already cut more than 1,800 workers in its Iowa and Illinois production facilities.

In October 2021, those same production sites were in the news after 10,000 production workers went on strike . But a month later, John Deere and the United Auto Workers (UAW) Union reached a new six-year deal. With a 20% increase in pay granted by John Deere, UAW ended its month-long strike. But Reed says the job cuts today are not tied to that.

“Certainly, cost, availability and reliability of labor in the workforce is a factor all the time. Cuts right now are not related to that, they’re related to demand,” he adds.

As a result, Reed says John Deere is turning internally to manage its own cost structure, which means layoffs. Those started last September and have accelerated in 2024.

“We don’t like making workforce adjustments. We don’t. But that’s all about the cost structure we have, so we can hold the line on costs. We’re deploying more of our engineering resources to cost-reduce each part without sacrificing any reliability, durability or quality. We’re doing that in a big way,” Reeds adds.

John Deere has committed to providing severance packages to the affected employees. The packages include up to 12 months of severance pay based on years of service, pro-rated pay based on short- and long-term incentives, payment for unused vacation or paid time off, ongoing access to health and wellness benefits and a year of professional job placement services.

The Question on Every Farmer’s Mind

The question on every farmer’s mind: Does John Deere have any plans to cut the price of equipment? Reed says John Deere is addressing cost concerns by reducing the prices of some new technologies, such as the See & Spray retrofit kit.

“We’re taking some of our latest technologies, and we’re cutting the upfront price of it,” Reed says. “If you take See & Spray, which is a great example, that product would normally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to add to a machine. We lowered the upfront price for a retrofit kit to be able to put it on for tens of thousands of dollars. A customer who wants to manage their herbicide cost differently has the opportunity to buy into that, on an acre-by-acre basis, and only pay based on what they save.”

John Deere’s Decision to Move Cab Production to Mexico

John Deere is also catching some backlash for its decision to move its cab operations from Waterloo, Iowa, to Mexico, which impacts a couple hundred U.S. jobs. According to Reed, John Deere’s production site in Mexico has been in operation for nearly 70 years. What started in 1956 became one of the company’s first operations outside the U.S., and Reed calls it “an important part of our global footprint.”

“First and foremost, it’s important to understand that the movement of certain components or products to Mexico is entirely separate from what we’ve seen in terms of layoffs today,” Reed says. “When we move a product, we make the announcement and say, ‘This portion of this product is going to move here.’ And by the way, we’re doing that all the time. It’s a part of what we do in our global network.”

Reed says what’s not reported when John Deere makes such an announcement is how they are replacing their production in the U.S. with the manufacturing of a new product or piece of equipment. While the cab production might be moving to Mexico, he says they are now building the new 9RX 830-hp four-wheel drive tractor there.

“If you drove to Waterloo today and went into the operations, what you’d see is that brand new tractor going down the very place in the factory where those cabs were manufactured before,” Reed says.

What John Deere Wants Farmers to Know

As John Deere aims to align production inventory levels with current market demands, the down cycle of agriculture is hitting all of the industry hard, but Reed says he’s still bullish on agriculture long-term. When asked what he wanted farmers to know, Reed’s message was this:

“We have 80,000 employees in the company. We wake up every day with the same purpose. That purpose is quality, innovation, integrity and commitment to our customers. We want to grow value on each and every one of those farms. We want to do it in a way that every day they wake up, with every pass they make through the field, they have confidence they’ve partnered with someone in the industry, John Deere and our John Deere dealers, working to drive value, working to drive profitability, on each and every one of their farms,” Reed says.

You can watch the full interview with Reed here.

The True Cost of What Farmers Argue is a Broken Immigration System in the U.S.

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:46:08 GMT

Situated on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, Joe Del Bosque is a first-generation farmer in central California . The son of migrant workers, he conquered the American dream by starting his own farming operation in California in 1985.

“My father was a farm manager, so I grew up on a farm doing exactly what I’m doing today,” Del Bosque says.

He grows organic melons, including cantaloupes, honey dew and watermelons. He also grows organic processing tomatoes, as well as almonds and cherries. Del Bosque is one of the largest, if not the largest, melon grower for Whole Foods.

A Crop That Must Be Hand-Picked

Del Bosque says a lot has changed in his 40 years of running his own farm, but what hasn’t changed is the fact that most of what he produces on his operation has to be hand-picked.

“Melons are highly perishable,” he says. “When they’re ready, they’ve got to be picked.”

Del Bosque says if their crew would miss even a couple days of work, the farm would be at risk of losing a crop.

“The produce has to be picked by hand by people who can see the fruit. And these people are skilled and seeing ripe fruit and how to pick it,” he explains.

The Need for Seasonal Labor

Del Bosque and other California growers rely heavily on seasonal labor. His produce is ready to be harvested between June and October, and during those crucial months. Del Bosque relies on 150 seasonal employees to help pick the fruit.

“We have scaled back,” Del Bosque says. “I would say 6 or 8 years ago; we were at probably 300 to 350 employees.

Between water issues and the switch from conventional farming to organic, which reduced their acres, Del Bosque now employs half of what he did eight years ago. And still, one of his biggest challenges is finding enough labor.

“It’s not been easy, but we have found enough labor,” Del Bosque adds. “We try to focus mostly on local labor. That doesn’t mean they’re not immigrant labor; they are immigrants who just live locally.”

Mass Deportation Concerns

They also have crews that come from Arizona for just the season, but one thing they’re no longer able to do is find seasonal labor from Mexico that work for a few months and then return back home.

“During the Obama years, he tightened the border tremendously. And sometimes both people couldn’t come anymore. So that’s why we tried to focus more on getting people that were living permanently here in this country,” Del Bosque says.

That’s when the struggles with labor shortages started for Del Bosque and other farmers, with mass deportations in his own community.

“He tightened the border a tremendous amount,” he adds. “He deported more people than Trump and Biden put together. He departed almost 3 million people, which is a lot of people, during his two terms. I’ve heard that it was an average of 1,000 people per day. So, yes, labor got very tight then. That was when we felt probably the most of labor shortages and we lost fruit sometimes during those terms.”

As the Trump Administration took office, promises of immigration crackdown and mass deportations are back in the focus again.

According to the latest data from Statista, as of Feb. 5, the Trump administration had deported a total of 4,745 Latin American undocumented immigrants. Those individuals were returned to their country of origin and 4,094 of those deported were Mexican citizens.

With mass deportation back in focus again, Del Bosque says there’s a nervousness on farms, and in their rural communities, not felt since the Obama administration.

“There are no big cities. There are small towns of anywhere from 7 to 14,000 people. And those small towns are mostly farmworkers,” Del Bosque says. “And we would not be able to farm out here without these people.”

White House Says Ag Isn’t the Target

Stephen Miller, who serves as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and as Homeland Security, appeared on CNN, defending the President’s mass deportation plan and said the target isn’t agriculture.

“Only 1% of alien workers in the entire country work in agriculture. The top destination for illegal aliens is large cities like New York, Los Angeles and small industrial towns, of course, all across the heartland. None of those illegal aliens are doing farm work,” Miller says.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

(Mike Byers )

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, immigrant workers comprise nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, contributing more than $80 billion in taxes annually.

And with shortages of labor already, the concern is mass deportation of those immigrants who follow the law, could make that shortage worse and drive inflation.

Labor Shortages

Not having enough ag labor is problem farmers are dealing with all across the country. Just ask Marc Arnusch, who used to be one of the largest onion growers in the U.S.

“There was a morning where I came out into the field and I had 250 workers helping transplant a crop out of Arizona into a field here in Colorado. And the following day I had nine employees. You just can’t control a variable like that,” the Keenesburg, Colorado farmer told AgDay’s Clinton Griffiths.

At the time, Arnusch was one of the largest growers of onions, a crop that used as Blooming Onions in popular restaurants. But when labor become too lucrative, he decided to completely walk away from growing onions.

A Broken Immigration System

Grower after grower will tell you the immigration system in the U.S. doesn’t work for agriculture.

“It’s definitely broken,” Del Bosque says.

“We’re up at 40 years from not having passed comprehensive immigration reform in this country. And it sure doesn’t look like it’s going to happen in the next year,” says Mary Kay Thatcher, senior lead for federal government relations at Syngenta.

Thatcher says even if the U.S. doesn’t pass immigration reform, H-2A is becoming too expensive for many growers to even use.

“I have been hearing story after story in the hallways here about really good producers and strong competitors having to go out of business because they just can’t afford the new effective minimum wage rate along with the other mandates that get put on them, be it transportation cost or housing cost or whatever for H-2A,” she adds.

Del Bosque says they’ve never used H-2A, and one reason is because of the cost and all the other requirements involved.

“H-2A is very expensive to use. The minimum wage for H-2A is like $3 or $4 higher than our state. Minimum wage and our state minimum wage are $16. And the H-2A minimum wage is over 19. Think about that. The guest workers have to be paid more,” he adds

With required housing and food, Del Bosque says it’s becoming too expensive to even utilize H-2A in the U.S. today.

“Fruits and vegetables that we grow here are all handpicked. And if we can’t grow the produce here, then they’re going to have to be imported from somewhere else, maybe Mexico, maybe Chile” he says. “They’re going to have to be grown where there is labor. I don’t think Americans want that. I don’t think they want to have imported food, to be relying on other countries for their food supply.”

If you want your food grown in America, Del Bosque says you have to have the workforce to grow your food and harvest.
And he says that’s why all of agriculture, no matter where you live or what you grow, must be united.

“We’re a little minority as farmers,” Del Bosque adds. “We farmers don’t have an any political clout, neither here in California or anywhere else in the United States. We need to stick together.”

Your Next Reads:
Much work remains to solve ag labor issues

How one small farm expanded melon sales to major retailers

An 11-Year Old's Idea Sparked An Idea That's Grown Into an Annual Toy Drive Giving Out 13,000 Toys Each Year

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 15:02:30 GMT

The season of giving for Reed Marcum doesn’t just happen during Christmas. For this 19-year, the season of giving is year-round.

“I came up with the idea back in 2016 when I realized that I wanted to help put another toy under someone’s tree that year,” says Marcum, who’s now a Pittsburg County, Oklahoma 4-H Ambassador.

At just 11 years-old, this 4-H member had an idea: Collect toys and give them out to children in his local community.

“He came home one day, he talked to me and his stepfather, and he said, ‘Mom, I want to help some kiddos in my class for Christmas,” remembers Angie Miller, Reed’s mother. “I said, ‘OK, what can we do?’ I told him he could do a little work, and he was like, ‘No, I want to give out toys.”

Reed Marcum at 11-Years-Old

(Angie Miller)

Started Out As a Small Idea
That first year, Reed’s small idea turned into a huge success, giving out around 5,000 toys at his stepfather’s law office. Little did this family know that was just the start of something grand.

“It was something we didn’t expect to do, especially have that much success and community reaction. They really loved it. We did not expect that,” Reed says.

J Michael Miller Toy Drive
What’s called the J Michael Miller Toy Drive has grown each year, even during COVID.

“What happened was COVID hit, and we had told Reed that it just can’t happen that year. And he said, ‘It can happen, Mom,’” Angie says.

And it did. With the help of the community, Reed moved the toy drive to Ragan’s Auto, a decision that helped this drive grow even more.

“He spoke with Mr. Ragan, and he told Reed we can do this. They moved all their cars out by noon that day. We moved in around 1:00, and we would set up all night long, and then we open the doors, they would start driving through,” Angie says.

The annual J. Michael Miller Toy Drive gave out 13,000 toys this year.

(SUNUP)

Within a couple years, they even outgrew that space. Last year, Reed moved his toy drive again, this time, to the McAlester Expo Center.

“We are orchestrating with the local Expo Center here in McAlester for people to come, and it’s just an amazing venue for what we’re doing here. And it’s an amazing process that we have to set up and do,” Reed says.

Biggest Toy Giveaway Yet
On Dec. 7,2024, Reed had his biggest giveaway yet.

“We collected a ton, but we were able to give out around 13,000 this year, that day,” Reed says.

What started as one small idea has brought generosity through toys that touched 13,000 lives this year alone.

“It’s a year-long process,” Angie says. “The entire year we’re looking for toys, collecting them and getting donations from people. But when the day gets near and close, it really starts to ramp up.”

Cars line up 3 to 4 miles long for the annual toy drive.

(Bryan Fuller)

Recipients Come From Surrounding States
Since 2016, this toy drive has given away more than 64,000 toys, an annual event that people wait in line for hours to receive. And as the event grows each year, lines of cars that now stretch three to four miles long, all with kids eager to receive toys that year.

“I was working the line this year, and we did see license plates from Texas and Arkansas. That’s normal,” says Greg Owen, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma 4-H educator. “I would ask the people in the line, ‘What was the experience like?’ And this year, I heard the comment ‘It was literally perfect.’”

Vital Volunteers
But for Reed, this wouldn’t be possible without volunteers, all 100 of them.

“They can help us move the toys from point A to point B when we’re holding them or in help, give the toys, help, walk the line, be dressed up in costumes to help entertain the kids, give out small items that go through the lines. The kids aren’t just sitting there bored,” Reed says.

Loss Turned Into Love
Reed’s toy drive has become a beloved experience attracting thousands of people from miles away. But this kid who has brought so much joy to others has also seen heartache along the way.

“He had the most difficult year of his life his junior year,” Angie says. “We were moving to Ragan’s that year, and on July 28, he lost his grandmother that he was extremely close to.”

Reed’s brother, Sergeant Miles Tarron

(SUNUP)

Not even four months later, Reed suffered another devastating loss, just weeks away from his toy drive in 2021.

“We were notified by soldiers that Reed’s brother had passed in the military,” Angie says. “I talked with Reed and I told him I didn’t think we can do the toy giveaway. And he said, ‘Mom, brother would want us to do the toy giveaway, so we’re going to do the toy giveaway.’”

And he did, with an entire community rallying around Reed as a way to give back to one of their own who had done so much.

“They helped us get it over to Ragan’s. We got it all set up. And then they just helped us all the way through it,” Angie says. “After that, Reed had already created the Hudson Strong Foundation for a little boy that had cancer. And they provided some help with the costs of the storage buildings. Then after his brother passed, Reed created the Sergeant Miles Tarron Foundation, and that supports his toy giveaway, his backpack giveaway and his silent auction. His brother always had a hand in supporting him and sending money. So, now the Sergeant Miles Tarron Foundation and the Hudson Strong Foundation support those storage buildings.”

Reed has nine storage buildings, all bursting with donated toys each year. But this success is also because of one lady Reed deeply admired: his 4-H leader, Miss Donna Curry.

“After he lost his brother, June 28, 2022, he lost Miss Donna Curry, who was like a second mother to him, who got him into 4-H, and she supported this project thoroughly,” Angie says.

Today, Reed doesn’t just give away toys. Miss Donna had another idea two years before she died: to give out pajamas, socks and undergarments to those in need.

“We named it Miss Donna’s Closet. And when they drive through the toy giveaway, they get the pajamas, they get socks, they get undergarments all through the toy line. They get snacks. And so when we lost Miss Donna, Reed promised at that point that he would carry her tradition on.”

Reed is Now Inspiring Others
Reed’s heart of service is always on display, and it’s now inspiring others.

“It’s literally the goal that we try to set for our 4-H members. We hope that they’ll develop a level of mastery in their project work, and for Reed, his project has been civic engagement,” Greg says. “And when they get to that point, we’ll hope we hope that they’ll utilize that to teach and impact others to follow in their footsteps, which is exactly what Reed has done.”

“That’s the best thing with 4-H; they always want you to strive to be the best version of yourself. And that’s something this project really does every year,” Reed says. “It’s not just staying the same or leveling out each year. It’s getting bigger and better than the last.”

True Gift of Giving
Reed’s one idea in 2016 continues to spread joy year-round, as it showcases the true gift of giving.

“Little 11-year-old Reed could never see such a thing happening, especially when I was so young and couldn’t even talk to a group of ten people, let alone do something like this. I never thought it would reach this,” Reed says.

“I always share this. That came from the idea of an 11-year-old child. That shows the impact of the 4-H program. That shows the impact of a student that wants to give, that wants to make a difference and wants to make a positive impact on their community,” Greg says.

Reed Accepts Donations Year-Round
In order to make the annual toy drive possible, Reed accepts donations year-round. If you’d like to contribute to the annual toy drive or Reed’s other service projects, you can donate here .

Your Next Reads:
The Ultimate Gift: Dairy Farmer Becomes Lifesaving Hero by Donating Both His Liver and Kidney

Iconic Holiday Road Trip Stop Returns to Its Georgia Pecan Farm Roots

From Raising Cattle to Now Reindeer, How One Family is Sharing the Magic Of Christmas On Their Farm