Jada Thompson, University
of Arkansas
Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University
“Mass Deportations Could Endanger Kansas’ Meat Economy: ‘It Would Be a Ghost Town’”
By: NPR – January 6, 2025
“Mass deportations would exacerbate the problem, sending shockwaves up and down the meat supply chain. For one thing, deporting meat-packing workers would slow down the plants, triggering shortages. I think we're going to see higher prices for the retail customer.”
“losses like those would spread broadly through southwest Kansas towns that depend on big feedlots, dairies and packing houses. They very often are one of the largest employers and local tax generators, so there's relevant implications for funding of schools, funding of libraries, funding of anything you want to talk about that's publicly funded in local areas.”
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Read more on: NPR
Karina Gallardo, Washington State University
“Perfect Storm’ of Factors is Devastating WA Apple Farmers”
By: The Seattle Times – January 4, 2025
“Labor accounts for about 60% of all the operational costs,” said Karina Gallardo, an economics professor at Washington State University who focuses on agriculture. “Back in 2009, this percentage was about 45%.”
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Read more on: The Seattle Times
Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee
“Many Tennessee Farmers Drowned by Water and Parched by Drought in 2024; This Year’s Outlook is Murky”
By: Farms.com – January 6, 2025
“The state’s agricultural and forestry industries directly and indirectly contributed $103 billion to the Tennessee economy. 2024 was a struggle for many of our producers and sectors. Next year could also be difficult, with trade policy uncertainty, low crop prices, drought- and hurricane-reduced feed supplies and high input costs.”
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Read more on: Farms.com
Steven Klose, Texas A&M University
“U.S. Economy Stable in 2025, Challenges Remain For Ag”
By: Farm Progress – January 6, 2025
“The U.S. economy is projected to be stable in 2025, with inflation back to 2%, unemployment hovering near 4%, and steady projected real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 3% according to the Kansas City Fed. The global economy is also expected to grow in 2025, creating demand for U.S. agricultural goods in world markets. However, challenges persist in price volatility, uncertainty in labor policy, and public debt levels.”
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Read more on: Farm Progress
Matt Woerman, Colorado State University
“Landmark Government Report Calls For Nation”
By: Los Angeles Times – December 20, 2024
“There are tons of different ways that you could try to get farmers to extract less water, everything from just putting limits on how much water they’re allowed to use, charging them fees to use this valuable resource, some kind of a subsidy program to use more efficient irrigation infrastructure.”
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Read more on: Los Angeles Times
Jada Thompson, University of Arkansas
“Beef Prices Are Surging—And Could Be About to Get Even Higher”
By: Newsweek – January 6, 2025
"Mass deportations would likely disrupt labor availability, impacting both legal and undocumented foreign-born workers. This could create added scrutiny for legal workers and further exacerbate labor shortages. Since meatpacking is highly labor-intensive, such disruptions would likely result in a slowdown in plant efficiency.”
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Read more on: Newsweek
Benjamin Brown, University of Missouri
“Farmers Will Likely Add to Their Corn Acreage This Year, Economists Predict”
By: RFD TV – January 7, 2025
“My expectation is I do think that the market’s going to incentivize additional corn acres, and so whether USDA makes that adjustment at the Outlook Meeting in February, or if they wait till May - well, I guess it would be the Prospective Plans report the end of March when they survey producers - but officially coming to the balance sheets in May. There are some timing aspects here, but certainly, I think we’re going to be in an environment where there are additional corn acres. I know it’s a long way out, and weather is just as volatile and fickle as markets are in a lot of cases, but you know, at least the weather pattern certainly suggests that it’s going to be a drier spring. That tends to hint at additional corn acreage as well.”
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Read more on: Farms.com
David Ortega, Michigan State University
“Your Grocery Bill May Get Worse. Why Food Prices Are on the Rise Again”
By: Barrons – January 9, 2025
“Higher month-over-month gains could show up in the December CPI release on Jan. 15. We’ll see retail agriculture prices increase in December, and very likely in the first quarter of this year.”
(Continued...)Read more on: Barrons
