Mo’ Acres, Mo’ Money: $10B in Aid to Crop Farmers

Happy (belated) National Ag Day: here’s $10B.

On Tuesday, USDA announced the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) for farmers with a $10B price tag.

MUSTAAAAAAARD: The economic assistance is for growers of row crops like corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, and more. The payment rates per acre depend on the crop but range from $84.74 for upland cotton to $11.36 for mustard. Mustard on the beat, bro.

Bigger in Texas: Texas, the state with the most cotton acres, will receive the most in payments: around $964M. States that follow are Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Sound off, Midwest.

Aid is good, a farm bill is better: The funds come from the Biden administration’s $30B farm bailout bill, passed in December. TBD: The rest of the $20B for disaster relief. Also TBD: A new farm bill to help with safety nets so farmers don’t have to rely on these ad-hoc funds as much. It’s set to expire in September this year. Time to circle back to that one.

Soundbite: “Sky-high interest rates, coupled with rock-bottom commodity prices, paired with absurd overregulation, married to sector-specific artificial scarcities, have sent our farmers on a rollercoaster ride that makes it impossible to plan, impossible to invest, and impossible to pay the bills.” — Brooke Rollins in an op-ed published on Agri-Pulse.

Volunteer as tribute: Producers can apply from now until Aug. 15. If eligible, farmers will receive 85% (to make sure USDA stays flush with cash). If they are (fingers crossed), the second payment will come after Aug. 15. May the odds be ever in your favor.