Ag Economy Grim
The forecast for farming in 2025 and beyond doesn’t look promising, and that’s according to one of the country's leading ag economists.
Dr. Joe Outlaw is a professor and extension economist at Texas A&M University, and he says they present a new outlook in Washington every year, and this is the worst one we've ever shown them.
He says a new farm bill would help, but …
OUTLAW … “Because this is my eighth one, I've been around a lot of them, I think that we're going to get elements of a farm bill and some other piece of legislation, which would be the things, the key things that farmers need. Maybe we don't get a farm bill in name like a lot of people want 'til later in the year or something, but I think some of the elements that need for their safety net will be included in something else.”
He says all it would take to get a new farm bill across the finish line is money …
OUTLAW … “They've got to figure out, agree to the savings and what they're going to take money from. And as we stand here today, they need about $50 billion to make it do the new farm bill, where people would want to have a farm bill. I mean, why not have one if you're not going to make significant improvements. So we need about 50 billion. That sounds like a lot of money, but that's adding 5 billion a year for 10 years, and that's the way that they do the budget forecasting, over 10.”
Again, that is Texas A&M professor and economist Joe Outlaw.
