As Struggling Farmers Take On Debt, a Bailout From D.C. May Come Too Late

(11/17/25) The Trump administration is receptive to the idea of using government aid to soften the blow of trade wars and an unprofitable harvest, but it’s doubtful aid would arrive in time to rescue the next planting season, according to The New York Times. Highlights:

• The federal government reopened earlier this month after 43 days, which Trump administration officials had said was necessary before they could finish any farmer aid plan. But it could still take months before farmers receive any checks. That would be well after the crucial winter period when farmers talk to their bankers and make decisions about the next year. Most farmers take out a production loan in the winter to buy seeds, fertilizer and equipment before planting in the spring. They pay back the loan in the fall after they harvest and sell their crops. But analyzing farmers’ business plans is much tougher if their bankers do not know when, or if, there will be government assistance.
• A potential bailout is not the only federal program up in the air for farmers. It is also unclear if Congress will pass a new Farm Bill, which expired in 2023 and was extended a third time as part of the legislation to reopen the government,
• With prices for corn, soybeans, and other crops still below what it costs farmers to produce them — even after a small bump when the trade agreement with China was reached — many farmers have sold less of their crop than normal. Instead, they are storing as much as they can, hoping something changes that will raise the value of their crop.

LSP board member and southwestern Minnesota farmer Laurie Driessen recently wrote a blog describing how current federal ag policy is harming small and medium-sized farmers.

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USDA Data Casts Doubt on China’s Soybean Purchase Promises Touted by Trump

(11/15/25) New USDA data has created serious doubts about whether China will really buy millions of bushels of American soybeans like the Trump administration touted last month after a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to the Associated Press. Highlights:

• The USDA report released after the government reopened showed only two Chinese purchases of American soybeans since the summit in South Korea. The purchases totaled 332,000 metric tons. That’s well short of the 12 million metric tons that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said China agreed to purchase by January and nowhere near the 25 million metric tons she said they would buy in each of the next three years.
• CoBank’s Tanner Ehmke, who is its lead economist for grains and oilseed, said there isn’t much incentive for China to buy from America right now because they have plenty of soybeans on hand that they have bought from Brazil and other South American countries this year; remaining tariffs ensure that U.S. soybeans remain more expensive than Brazilian beans.
• The Chinese tariff on American beans remains at about 24%, despite a 10-percentage-point reduction following the summit.

In February, LSP and University of Minnesota Extension are co-hosting a series of workshops on how to build more resiliency in a farming operation by integrating small grains into a corn-soybean rotation. Details are here.

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Researchers Weigh Evidence for Manure Digester Impacts on Rural Communities and Climate

(11/18/25) A recent study by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future concluded that manure digesters are a form of “pollution swapping” with questionable economic viability, while further entrenching an industry with documented public health and economic harms to rural communities. Highlights:

• Manure digesters break down or “digest” livestock manure and other organic materials, producing a biogas that can be used for energy or as a vehicle fuel. For the last two decades, construction of manure digesters in the United States has rapidly expanded, with dairy waste digesters primarily situated in California and swine waste digesters used mainly in North Carolina and Missouri.
• From a climate perspective, the Johns Hopkins review concluded that digesters only address a small fraction of livestock’s greenhouse gas emissions: the share of methane emissions from manure storage. Those reductions are partially offset by methane leaks and increased emissions of nitrous oxide (another potent greenhouse gas). The authors also expressed concerns that further investment in pipelines, manure biogas processing facilities, and other infrastructure could delay much-needed transitions toward wind and solar.
• The review suggested that digesters may only be financially viable for larger dairy and swine operations, and they are heavily dependent on government subsidies and other financial incentives. Even with those added revenue streams, one in five digesters built in the U.S. since 2000 has shut down.

Check out LSP’s Myth Buster on manure digesters.

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What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic

(11/18/25) ProPublica has published a special investigative report showing that the USDA has neglected to investigate thoroughly whether avian flu is being spread from facility-to facility via the wind. Instead, the agency has doubled down on biosafety protocols that appear to be limited in their effectiveness. Highlights:

•  To trace precisely how the virus rippled through more than 80 farms in one region, ProPublica analyzed data on the genetics of the virus, satellite imagery, wind simulations, property records, and trade notices and consulted with researchers whose peer-reviewed work previously found that the virus can spread on floating feathers and particles of dust.
• Their conclusion was that wind transportation of the virus was a plausible explanation, an assessment that eight experts on the disease agreed with.
• The experts stressed the analysis didn’t prove the wind directly carried bird flu from one farm to another, or that it was the only factor at play. The virus typically spreads via multiple routes, which could include contaminated birds, rodents or workers; if farms share the same feed supplier or trash collector, those factors can’t be ruled out.
• During a previous avian flu outbreak, USDA scientists found the virus spewing out of the exhaust fans on  farms with infected birds and said more should be done to fully assess the risk of airborne spread. But because the USDA couldn’t determine exactly how the virus got into farms, it concluded it couldn’t say with certainty whether airborne transmission played a role.
• “USDA has been grossly negligent in not establishing risk factors in real time,” Simon Shane, a poultry veterinarian and consultant, told ProPublica.

A recent LSP white paper argues that key questions need to be answered about the role industrialized poultry operations play in propagating highly pathogenic avian influenza. “Big Bird. Big Problem: How the Poultry Industry is Turning the Avian Flu Pandemic into a Source of Profit at Taxpayer’s Expense While Decimating Our Farm & Food System” is available here.

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A Space for More: Co-op Kitchens are Helping Local Food Producers to Get Creative

(11/24/25) MinnPost describes how Manna Food Co-op in Detroit Lakes, Minn., has set up a commercial kitchen for farmers who want to process their food either for direct-sale or to sell to the co-op. Highlights:

• Funded by a federal grant, the kitchen will strengthen Manna’s connection to local food producers, a core principle for co-ops.
• Before Manna’s project, Bemidji’s Harmony Co-op undertook a similar food processing expansion in 2012.
• Manna’s team took what it learned from Harmony in Bemidji and passed along advice to Madison Mercantile in Madison, Minn., for its ongoing commercial kitchen project. Madison Mercantile owner Kris Shelstad initially thought the kitchen could be used to supply her coffee shop and cafe with local products. As she developed the idea, she learned storage was an impediment keeping producers from selling products at a local level. The Madison Mercantile kitchen would address this by offering storage and processing space.

LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast episode 284 features an interview with Madison Mercantile’s Kris Shelstad.

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Eco-Friendly Ag Practices: Easier Than Farmers Think?

(11/14/25) A study in the journal Agriculture and Human Values found that farmers perceive agroecological production practices as more labor-intensive than they actually are. Highlights:

• Cornell University researchers surveyed more than 500 fruit and vegetable farmers nationally and conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 50 farmers in New York and California. Farmers named three aspects of labor — cost, time and complexity — as the main barriers to using seven out of eight agroecological practices. Farmers who had never used the practices perceived greater labor requirements than those who had used them.
• The authors write that the eight practices included in the survey — the use of compost, reduced tillage, intercropping of different plants, flower strips, crop rotations, cover cropping and border plantings — generally do require more complex management, although researchers have found the practices can pay for themselves through increased productivity. The interventions also support biodiversity, and can improve water and air quality, while lowering emissions and susceptibility to flooding and drought.
• The researchers said the study emphasizes a need for more farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing to help dispel myths and increase the use of agroecological practices.

For information on joining LSP’s farmer-to-farmer soil health networking group, click here.

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Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health

(11/18/25) A three-part series in the medical journal The Lancet focuses on the human health risks of consuming ultra-processed foods and why these products have become such a big part of diets globally. Highlights:

• The increased consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with many non-communicable diseases.
• This rise in ultra-processed foods is driven by powerful global corporations that employ sophisticated political tactics to protect and maximize profits. Education and relying on behavioral changes by individuals is insufficient. Deteriorating diets are an urgent public health threat that requires coordinated policies and advocacy to regulate and reduce ultra-processed foods and improve access to fresh and minimally processed foods.
• The Lancet series provides a different vision for the food system based on an emphasis on local food producers and providing economic benefits for communities.

For information on LSP’s community-based food systems work, click here. 

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