American Farm Bureau says families are paying less for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Walmart says it can hook a family of four up to the turkey trough for less than $4 a piece, or about $1 a plate less than AFBF’s estimate.
But a Consumer Energy Alliance report says families are paying more for food and the energy required to cook it.
So, though the Kansas Farmers Union agrees prices are higher, leaders say that’s not the conversation agriculture needs to have with consumers. The salient issue is who is profiting from higher prices. Spoiler alert: It’s not farmers.
“Turkey at $2.49 a pound, the farmer’s only getting 6 cents out of that,” says Nick Levendofsky, president of the Kansas Farmers Union. A $13 two-pound ham puts $1.58 in a farmer’s pocket, according to Levendofsky, and a $2-plus can of organic sweet corn means 36 cents to the farmer. The Trump tariff strategy that led to another trade war this year is increasing consumer prices for food, escalating agriculture’s production costs and dropping many of the prices farmers receive for their crops, Levendofsky says.
And those energy prices quoted in the Consumer Energy Alliance Farm-to-Table report? As noted in the CEA data, farmers are paying them, too: “…rising costs for diesel, fertilizer and electricity ripple from farm fields to store shelves and land in your holiday receipt.”
In an email, CEA details why this is important for families, and especially for farm families: Of the 97% of U.S. farms that are family-owned, “52%–79% operate in the ‘high-risk’ zone (profit margins under 10%). Even small energy spikes hit hard.”
So, farmers aren’t making money. To put it mildly.
AFBF President Zippy Duvall is known for being more direct.
In a recent press release on the issue, Duvall says: “Despite modest declines in the cost of a Thanksgiving meal, I know food prices are a real concern for many families, including in rural America. We lost 15,000 farms last year because of factors including historically low crop prices, high supply costs and trade uncertainty, which continue to squeeze farmers and ranchers. Every farm lost is another step toward consolidation and reliance on other countries for our food.”
Is anybody making money?
Moving along the food supply chain, recent news regarding meat processors shutting plants makes it clear packers aren’t making money.
All of which lead the CEA to call for “practical policy steps to keep family farms viable and holiday meals affordable.”
So, let’s talk turkey.
The Trump Administration promised a level playing field, said short term pain would lead to long-term gain, and a tariff strategy would drive us to the goal. Farmers supported that play. But zigzagging down the field—enacting this tariff, raising that one, exempting those others—is running family farmers into the wrong end zone.
Simply put, though the farmer’s share of the food dollar has been low for many years, the price of tariffs and trade disruption is pushing that percentage lower and the cost of this trade strategy is higher than America’s family farmers can afford to pay. It’s time to punt.
“Trade disruptions can be resolved,” AFBF’s Duval says. “That’s why farmers and ranchers across the country are urging the administration to bring relief to farm country by locking in trade agreements and restoring our trade partnerships.”
That’s the blessing we need this Thanksgiving.