The Pantagraph - Durbin: Georgia on my mind

Op-Ed

By Sen. Dick Durbin

Illinois farmers have faced one of the toughest years in memory, partly due to weather beyond their control, but mostly from man-made circumstances with long-term implications: Chinese markets -- the trade relationships our farmers spent decades building -- have been battered by President Trump's war.

Earlier this year, President Trump and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue promised trade aid, or "market facilitation payments," to farmers most harmed by the China trade war. This aid could cost $28 billion, and when added to the carefully crafted, bipartisan Farm Bill safety-net and crop insurance support, total federal payments to farmers could exceed $43 billion.

With farm income dropping 50 percent from its Obama Administration peak, this year 40 percent of farm income will come from the government. Farmers know this is not a good look for agriculture. They tell me they want trade, not aid. I agree.

That's why I supported the bipartisan extension recently enacted by Congress that allows USDA to continue providing trade aid if farmers need it. This helps with much needed cash flow after the wettest and latest planting season in 60 years.

As aid has flowed from USDA, the Senate Agriculture Committee, of which I am a member, has kept a close eye on where President Trump and Georgia-native Secretary Perdue were sending the money, and here's what we found: Farmers in Illinois are receiving $20.19 less per acre than cotton growers and other farmers in Georgia and other southern states.

These past two years, soybean growers have experienced 75 percent drop in sales to China -- a $9 billion loss -- compared to just a 6 percent drop -- or $54 million loss -- in China imports of U.S. cotton. Illinois has twice the number of soybean growers than the total number of cotton growers nationwide. So statewide, Illinois ranks high in soybean losses. However, soybean-growing farmers in Illinois are receiving less per acre than their cotton-growing colleagues in southern states.

USDA trade aid to Illinois farmers average $69 per acre. But cotton growers in Georgia average $75 per acre, and those in Arizona, $79 per acre. Mississippi growers average $87, while Alabamans average $94. In fact, payments to cotton growers in more than 35 Alabama and Mississippi counties far exceed the highest Illinois payment, with some cotton growers receiving $150 per acre, double the average Illinois payment. Georgia ranked the highest in per-acre payments.

Meanwhile, soybean prices have hit 10-year lows, while average cotton prices have increased. Short-term prices are the least of our worries when Brazilian soybeans in the Chinese marketplace have jumped from 46 percent to 76 percent.

So why is USDA overcompensating cotton growers? The Trump Administration won't say. All farmers are hurt by trade disputes, but they are hurt more when government payments are calculated unfairly.

Soybean growers deserve an explanation from President Trump and his USDA, which is why Senator Duckworth and I demanded answers this week in a letter to Secretary Perdue. Is the secretary of agriculture playing it straight? We deserve to know.

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