U.S. farmers are hurting financially from commodity prices that have been falling for half a dozen years and now exaggerated by the trade war with China. However, the volume of surplus wheat, corn and soybean stocks has had little correlation with the amount of farm labor employed (see graph below). This is in part because of countercyclical price and income policies, and now the Market Facilitation Program payments. However, the same cannot be said for the labor historically engaged in pricing and exporting what the farmers produce. Not just lower prices but lower volumes being shipped has caused intermediaries to pare down their workers in order to reduce losses. Moreover, Chinese state-owned companies like Cofco are capturing more of th...

TAGS – Feed Grains, Wheat, China, North America