“We’re In A Crisis”: American Farmer Warns Of Impending Food Shortages

(by Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge) – NewsNation’s Leland Vittert asked one American farmer: “How close are we to the next food crisis?”

The answer: “We are in a crisis right now as far as the food chain goes with the farmer in this country,” John Boyd Jr., the President of the National Black Farmers Association, said.

Boyd points out some farmers are unable to plant because of adverse weather conditions. He said farmers in the Northern Plains haven’t been able to get tractors in the fields because of soggy conditions, and the war in Ukraine has knocked out an entire region of food production.

He warned, “We’re going to see a lot of empty shelves and a lot more high food prices.” 

In his forty-year career as a farmer, Boyd said he never imagined he would be “paying $5.63 for a gallon of diesel fuel, $900 a ton for fertilizer, and all-time high prices for soybean seeds.” All of the prices he mentioned are at record highs, pressuring farmers’ margins.

He said the American people need to wake up to the crisis in the farming industry, adding, “farming isn’t Republican or Democratic, it’s food, the land is neutral … this is the time the American people need to support the American farmer and put pressure on the Biden administration to put things in place to help farmers.”

He mentioned that banks need to provide emergency funding to farmers to get their crops in the ground. Out-of-control inflation has left some farmers unable to plant because of soaring costs.

Boyd said, “We only have a short window of opportunity to give farmers funding.”

He stated the worst-case scenario is “a lot of shortages” of food that could materialize later this year.

Boyd’s dire warning comes after the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report published by the USDA last week showed global production of corn and wheat is expected to decline.

Watch the full interview here.