The Long-Term Implication of the Famer Bridge Act

Associate Professor of Agricultural Policy and Law in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. Jonathan Coppess discusses the recent farmer aid package announced by the Trump administration. The plan would deliver roughly $11 billion to producers nationwide by the end of February, while officials describe it as a bridge to a stronger farm economy. Coppess raises concerns about what it means for producers long term.

“What we're seeing is, and this is, this should sound kind of stunning to people when we think about what the term bridge means here, because the bridge is as I understand it is effectively the bridge is something from the $10 billion in ECAP payments made this spring to the estimated 13 and a half billion dollars that we expect ARC and PLC to make next fall. But those, as we all know, those program payments are delayed for the marketing year, and I guess we're bridging over the fact that the tariff and trade conflict with China is not delivering necessarily the results that have been announced or proclaimed or hoped for..”

Coppess also questions whether or not the payments truly address the problem. He says, if the justification is rising input costs, there is concern that the aid may simply fuel those higher costs rather than fix them, leaving farmers even more squeezed in the future.