By Frank Giles
When you tackle a big topic like the Specialty Crop Grower Magazine’s August cover story on inflation in agriculture, it is impossible to fit all the information related to the issue in the limited space of a magazine.
Sharply rising inputs and production expenses have been a challenge for growers dating back to COVID. They have had to absorb these costs and often come out on the losing end of the profitability scale.
Consumers have felt this inflation, too, in the form of increasing food prices. And we’ve seen shrinkflation in the grocery store, as 16-ounce packages gradually shrink to 12 ounces — at the same or higher price.
As Taylor Farms’ Jessica Kirk notes in the cover story, those higher prices paid at the store don’t make it back to the farm. Prices for many specialty crops have remained stagnant or even fallen over the years as produce from Mexico floods in on top of the Southeast’s market window.
There is some good news, though. Calls from growers and industry associations to recognize the impact imports have had on prices are being heard. Last year’s termination of the 2019 U.S.-Mexico Tomato Suspension Agreement is one example.
We can hope whatever comes out of the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement has some trade positives for specialty crop growers in the Southeast that the original agreement was lacking. Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper recently called on the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to prioritize protections for American specialty crop producers as the bilateral negotiations of the USMCA continue.
In his letter to the USTR, Harper noted: “Fresh fruit and vegetable imports from Mexico have increased by more than 550% since 2001. These imports frequently enter U.S. markets during peak harvest periods, depressing prices and forcing American growers to compete against producers operating under substantially different labor, environmental and regulatory standards.”
We can also urge President Trump to take a hard look at tariffs that are hurting farmers. Trade agreements, labor requirements, the regulatory environment, etc., are all larger structural actions that need to be examined to see where farming can be made more sustainable. And in private industry, how can we bring what it costs a farmer to grow a crop into better alignment with a profitable return? Getting more of that food dollar back to the farm is essential.
In the affordability discussion, we also should ask: Do we value food being grown in this country? And I am not talking about the small you-pick and roadside stand farms, which I value immensely because they do a great job and provide tangible contact with urban consumers who don’t truly understand agriculture. But these farms are not going to provide the necessary scale to fill the grocery stores of America. We need mid-sized to larger farms to do that.
This cycle of high production expenses and stagnant prices paid to growers is not sustainable. It is a huge structural problem that I am doubtful government aid packages will ever fix.
All Americans are feeling this affordability crisis, but what would be a much larger crisis is living in a country that no longer feeds its own people. It is time we recognize the path we are on and correct our course.