Outraged Farmers Blame Ag Monopolies as Catastrophic Collapse Looms

(9/9/25) Farm Journal describes a tumultuous meeting in Brookland, Ark., where 400-plus farmers met with field representatives from the offices of U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, U.S. Sen. John Boozman, and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, along with a representative sent by Gov. Sarah Sanders. The farmers raised serious concerns about how monopolies and consolidation in the ag industry are decimating the farm economy. Highlights:

• “Seed, chemicals or fertilizer, it’s all in the hands of a few companies that are the only game in town,” crop farmer Adam Chappell told Farm Journal‘s Chris Bennett. “You want to fix farming? Start a federal investigation on those big companies. Booming quarterly earnings and big stock dividends make no sense when farmers can’t pinch a penny.”
• Bailey Buffalo, owner of Buffalo Grain Systems, told Bennett that four changes in agriculture are needed:
  • 1) Start with monopolies. “State constitutions have antitrust legislation,” said Buffalo. “Create smoke at the state level and force USDA and the feds to follow.”
  • 2) Put an indefinite moratorium on all mergers and acquisitions in the food and ag sectors. “End consolidation and demand long-lasting change,” he said.
  • 3) Get a handle on D.C. lobbyists. According to a 2024 report, “Cultivating Control: Corporate Lobbying on the Food and Farm Bill,”  lobbying by the agribusiness sector has steadily increased: In just the past five years, the agribusiness sector’s annual lobbying expenditures have risen 22%, from $145 million in 2019 to $177 million in 2023. And each year, agribusiness spends more on federal lobbying than the oil and gas industry and the defense sector.
  • 4) The grain industry must diversify. “I think diversification must be part of any solution,” said Buffalo. “I’m talking about an effort to grow all our food in this country. Our grain goes to feed and ethanol, but we need a structure to grow our own edible food as well, and protect our national security like never before.”

LSP members recently met with Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s Attorney General, to discuss the need for addressing monopolies and consolidation in agriculture via antitrust law enforcement. Details on that meeting, including information on a website and hotline where potential antitrust violations can be reported, are available here.

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The Federal Farm Policy Trap: Why Some Farmers Are Stuck Raising Crops That No Longer Thrive

(9/9/25) ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois describe how in some of the most flood- and drought-prone parts of the country, subsidies are keeping farmers on land that is no longer productive. However, the Trump administration cut employees who manage programs that could help pull troubled farmland out of production, leaving farmers trapped planting crops that often fail. Highlights:

• • Each year, Congress allocates billions to keep crops in the ground, cushioning the blow from droughts, floods, fires, and market swings — a safety net that dates to the 1930s.
  • As the climate changes and as aging levees fail, the risk is becoming more predictable, the losses so frequent it is clear some land will no longer yield what it used to.
  • Congress and the Trump administration are now doubling down on the status quo: expanding crop insurance and farm income supports through the budget bill signed into law on July 4 while — in an effort to trim the federal workforce — gutting the staff responsible for responding to climate disasters, including those who manage permanent easements that pull troubled farmland out of production.

For more on how the federally subsidized crop insurance program has gotten off track as a basic safety net for farmers, check out LSP’s blog, “The Crop Insurance Conundrum.” Are you a crop producer interested in integrating small grains into your rotation as a way to build resiliency in the face of increasingly extreme weather, volatile markets, and a sometimes-overwhelming workload? LSP, in collaboration with U of M Extension, is offering a “Rotating into Resiliency” winter workshop series during the first three Thursdays of February — Feb. 5, 12, and 19, from noon to 2 p.m. For details, contact LSP’s Shea-Lynn Ramthun via e-mail. 

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Opinion: Funding Cuts Hit Sustainable Agriculture Partnership with U of M

(9/5/25) In a guest commentary for the Minnesota Star Tribune, farmers Paul Sobocinski and Carmen Fernholz, along with grad student Stephen Gregg, argue that a proposal to eliminate the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) at the U of M’s College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences, poses a significant threat to research and outreach related to sustainable farming, and make it more difficult for farmers and others in the regenerative ag community to have their voices heard at the land grant institution. Highlights:

• • MISA is a unique joint venture between community organizations and university partners that has focused for more than 30 years on being a bridge between the university and the larger community, working together to strengthen the long-term resiliency of our farming and food systems.
  • In the coming year MISA will support livestock producers by helping address Minnesota’s meat-processing bottleneck, assist small grain farmers in northwestern Minnesota, strengthen farmers’ market hubs, and develop train-the-trainer aids for professionals about grazing using virtual fence and other technologies. It will continue mentoring students of color through the Next Gen Ag and Conservation Professionals Program and advance initiatives such as the Forever Green Initiative, local food safety work, and the Transition to Organic Partnership Program.
  • Minnesota was chosen to host this year’s Farm Aid festival on Sept. 20 because of its leadership in sustainable agriculture and partnerships between the community and the university. Ironically, at this same moment, MISA faces termination.

LSP and the other original members of the Sustainers Coalition helped launch MISA more than three decades ago as a way to not only support regenerative farming research and outreach at our land grant university, but to create a conduit for farmers and others to have their voices heard at this public institution. You can read more about MISA’s legacy in this LSP blog.

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Down and Dirty: How Regenerative Farming is Digging into Microscopic Soil Life

(8/29/25) The Guardian describes how an approach to farming centered around the “soil food web” work of microbiologist Elaine Ingham is catching on with farmers in the United Kingdom. Highlights:

• • After nearly four decades involved in conventional agriculture, Nick Padwick is working to build a healthy soil biome on his farm’s land utilizing a microscope and intensive compost extracts.
  • A critical challenge for many farms transitioning to regenerative farming is that yields can drop sharply, at least in the short term. After eliminating chemical inputs, Padwick’s wheat production plunged; yields have since started rising again. His farm remains profitable because his input costs have been slashed and he sells premium products under a specialty label.
  • Globally, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says 90% of the world’s topsoils could be at risk by 2050, a crisis intensified by accelerating global climate change. All this has implications for not just food security but biodiversity, water quality, flood mitigation, climate resilience, and greenhouse gas emissions. As Richard Bardgett, a Lancaster University soil ecologist and author, puts it: “Few things matter more to humans than their relationship with the soil.”

Elaine Ingham has led workshops on the soil food web as part of LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network work. You can check out an LSP Ear to the Ground podcast with Ingham here. You can join LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network here.

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Corn Production Costs Have Roughly Doubled Since 2007, While Average Prices for Corn Will be Lower Than 2007

(9/14/25) The total cost to grow corn, including both operating costs and overhead costs, has approximately doubled since 2007. But the $3.90 average farm price expected for 2025 is lower than the $4.20 average farmers received in 2007, reports the National Corn Growers Association. Highlights:

• The costs of fertilizer, interest, and general farm overhead increased more than 70%; seed, chemicals, hired labor, taxes and insurance, machinery/equipment, and land more than doubled; and custom services and repairs more than tripled. Land costs alone increased 102% from 2007 to 2025, rising to a projected cost of $196 per acre in 2025.
• Three critical inputs make up 73% of the operating costs for growing corn: seed, chemicals, and fertilizer. Fertilizer costs increased 74% since 2007 to a projected cost of $162 per acre for 2025. Farmers are selling many more bushels of corn to buy the same one ton of fertilizer. Even with higher yields, seed costs have increased more than is offset by an increase in yield.
• Even with the exceptional yields expected and removing land costs from the equation, the current corn price is barely at break-even for a farmer with average costs.

LSP has held a pair of meetings this year focused on how farmers can diversify their cropping operations with small grains. Details on our latest meeting are here.

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Free Nitrate Testing at Farmfest Revealed Issues in Private Well Water

(9/3/25) Water testing conducted by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) at this year’s Farmfest showed of the 107 private wells samples were drawn from, six exceeded the federal health standard of 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) nitrate-nitrogen, and another nine showed elevated levels between 5 and 10 mg/L. Highlights:

• About three in four Minnesotans rely on groundwater for their drinking water. Under Minnesota’s Groundwater Protection Act, the MDA oversees nitrogen fertilizer use and management. At Farmfest, some families learned for the first time that their water was unsafe because of shallow, poorly constructed wells, well proximity to crop fields or manure, and geology — such as the fractured limestone in southeastern Minnesota’s karst region.
• The MDA has tested tens of thousands of wells statewide since first offering free nitrate testing more than 30 years ago. In 2024, more than 2,400 wells were tested, with 6% exceeding the health standard.
• A judge recently ordered Minnesota state agencies overseeing nitrate and water pollution issues to review the effectiveness of their rules as part of a lawsuit by environmental advocates, according to the Star Tribune.

Check out LSP’s blog, “Nitrate’s Season of Reckoning.” 

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Patagonia Changed the Apparel Business. Can It Change Food, Too?

• • Current production of Kernza is minuscule, with fewer than 4,000 acres planted in the United States, compared with more than 47 million acres of wheat. Just a handful of other companies are making products with the grain.
  • A Patagonia official visited A-Frame Farm, a crop and livestock operation near Madison, Minn., that is a pioneer in raising Kernza. More than 70 farms across 15 states now grow Kernza. A group called Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative matches farmers who grow Kernza with companies that want the grain.
  • Although the environmentally-friendly nature of a perennial like Kernza is a draw for Patagonia, at this stage the company regards the grain more as an experiment that might help chart a more sustainable future, rather then a cure-all.

LSP has spent the past few months working with Greener Pastures, KernzaCAP, the Forever Green Initiative, and Green Lands Blue Waters to develop a series of practical how-to videos related to planting and harvesting Kernza, as well as how to make it a “dual use” crop by grazing it and harvesting it as a forage. You can check out that series, as well as podcasts and other resources related to Kernza, here.