Georgia Governor in South America and Farm Bankruptcies Soaring
From the Ag Information Network, this is your Agribusiness Update.
**Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Ag Commissioner Tyler Harper and others spent the last week of August in Brazil and Argentina meeting with business and ag leaders.
Kemp noted that South American companies have funneled more than $160 million into Georgia in the past six years, backing projects that created over a thousand jobs.
Harper told producers, leveraging port systems and reducing trade barriers are vital components of ensuring the continued success of agriculture.
**Farm bankruptcies as of July have exceeded those for all of 2024.
U.S. News and World Report says low commodity prices now come with higher costs for inputs like fertilizer and equipment.
Climate change has led to deeper, longer droughts and more flooding.
Trade wars aren’t helping with tariffs on other countries’ exports to the U.S. making those products more expensive, and retaliations from some countries like China hitting farmers directly.
**In a press release, the National Association of Farmer Elected Committees reports that FSA offices "are critically understaffed," yet USDA officials have publicly denied those concerns.
NAFEC President, Jim Zumbrink says the word we are consistently hearing is that our county office staffs are critically understaffed.
FSA leaders have indicated staffing levels of county office employees are now under 6,000, compared to several thousand more, just a few years ago.
