3-13 IAT Farm Prices Up

 The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication and they are reporting that  farm prices are soaring despite Mother Nature. The Economist reports in its Feb. 23 print edition that in spite of dire headlines this past year about negative impacts of the weather on farming, commodity markets are booming and prices are soaring. I chatted with with Idaho Farm Bureau reporter and blogger, Jake Putnam:  “The drought has helped, not hindered, profits. For farmers able to produce corn, it raised prices dramatically. The average price of corn was about 20 percent higher last year than in 2010, and reached $8.49 a bushel in August. For everyone else crop insurance payments have stepped in, reaching a record $14.2 billion in payments in mid-February.... This year, according to a report from the USDA on Feb. 11, farm profits may rise by 14 percent to $128 billion, the highest in real terms since 1973.”