Rice Producers Seek Emergency Assistance and Record HPAI Bird Deaths
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**The U.S. is a top five exporter of high-value rice and more than 80% of the rice we eat is sustainably grown here on family farms.
But, according to www.agrimarketing.com, a series of challenges, both manmade and environmental, has led to a request for $400 million in emergency assistance.
USA Rice Chair, Kirk Satterfield says, in southern rice growing states, farmers are being pushed to the breaking point by input costs and artificially low market prices.
www.agrimarketing.com/s/143337
**U.S. farm producers received 14.5 cents per dollar spent on domestically produced food in 2021, down a penny from 2020.
The USDA’s Economic Research Service reports, that’s the lowest recorded farm share value in nearly three decades.
The remaining portion of the food dollar, the marketing share, covers the costs of getting domestically produced food from farms to points of purchase, including packaging, transportation, processing, and sales to consumers.
**A record 50.54 million birds in domestic flocks have died of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or were culled to prevent spread of the disease since February, according to USDA data.
www.agriculture.com reports, the previous record of 50.4 million birds was set in the 2014-15 outbreak, described by the USDA as “arguably the most significant animal health event in U.S. history.”
The outbreaks have driven up egg and turkey prices, but supplies have remained adequate.
www.agriculture.com/news/business/bird-flu-losses-break-record
