Members in the News: November 17, 2025

Joseph Janzen, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “What the US-China Deal Means For Rare Earths, Soybean Farmers and TikTok” By: ABC News – October 31, 2025 “The agreement could ease a major fear among U.S. soybean farmers about a continued loss of Chinese purchases and the drop in soybean prices that would have ensued. The concern has been about expectations of the future and how things could get worse. This agreement realizes what some people in the trade were thinking: There’s got to be a resolution to this conflict that means we shouldn’t see dramatically lower prices for soybeans.” (Continued...) Read more on: ABC News Amitrajeet Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology “The Impacts of the Government Shutdown: How Do They Differ Across Regions?” By: Medium – November 10, 2025 “Under the Antideficiency Act, federal agencies are unable to either spend or obligate any money without an action, known as an appropriation, from Congress. When Congress fails to enact the 12 annual appropriation bills, federal agencies must cease all non-essential functions until Congress acts. This is known as a government shutdown.” (Continued...) Read more on: Medium Keenan Marchesi, Datassential “Fewer Shoppers, More $5 Chicken Plates: SNAP Cuts Ripple Through the Region’s Economy” By: Boston Globe – November 5, 2025 “Across New England, $364 million a month flows through SNAP… “It’ll be a trade-off of what can last, what can feed their families and what would be nutritionally beneficial.” (Continued...) Read more on: Boston Globe Eric Belasco, Montana State University “Montana Ranchers Uneasy as Trump Plans to Import 80,000 Metric Tons of Argentina Beef” By:  NBC Montana  – November 3, 2025 “Imports can modestly lower prices. But he added the U.S. beef market is driven mostly by domestic production, which supplies 80-90% of consumer demand.” (Continued...) Read more on: NBC Montana Gary Schnitkey, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “Machinery Costs Up, Unlikely to Soften” By: Iowa Farm Bureau – November 3, 2025 “Farm machinery costs remain elevated and aren’t expected to decrease. The supply chain impacts of COVID-19, general inflation, labor constraints and a more conservative approach from machinery manufacturers suggest costs will likely remain high. As a result, farmers may need to reassess machinery management strategies in the years ahead.” (Continued...) Read more on: Iowa Farm Bureau Madeline Turland, University of Alberta “California Surface Water Costs Can Triple During Drought, Underlining Need For Better Management” By: Phys.org – November 5, 2025 "The extreme volatility in prices surprised me. During dry years we have really high surface water prices and during wet years we have really low water prices, but we found that groundwater seems to have stable prices over time, despite precipitation swings." (Continued...) Read more on: Phys.org Andrew Hultgren, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “New Climate Data: Sharp Crop Yield Drop Worldwide” By: Mirage News – November 7, 2025  "Places in the Midwest that are really well suited for present day corn and soybean production just get hammered under a high warming future. You do start to wonder if the Corn Belt is going to be the Corn Belt in the future." (Continued...) Read more on: Mirage News Paul Mitchell, University of Wisconsin-Madison “China Has Resumed U.S. Soybean Imports. It Might Not Be Enough For Wisconsin Farmers” By: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – November 10, 2025  “The "randomness" of the Trump administration's trade policy has put additional stress on producers in the U.S. who are struggling to plan ahead due to economic uncertainty. You don't invest millions in domestic production based off of something that can change that fast, so a lot of companies are just waiting until it is clear what exactly the trade policy is and how long it will last.” (Continued...) Read more on: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel David Ortega, Michigan State University “Low-Income Shoppers Cut Spending and Businesses Worry” By: The New York Times – November 10, 2025 “This is a shock to people’s income and their budgets. Food is a necessity. They’ll protect that part of their budgets. But that will cut into their discretionary spending and it couldn’t happen at a worse time for lower-income consumers as we head into the holiday season.” (Continued...) Read more on: The New York Times Richard Volpe, California Polytechnic State University “How Quickly Would Trump's Proposed Tariff Exemptions Impact Prices?” By: Marketplace – November 14, 2025 “Tariff exemption is welcome news because it could help slow inflation. It’s not likely to bring food prices down. There are so many other factors that influence the price of food, like cost of labor, transportation and warehousing. Plus, there are other tariffs. Pretty much every piece of capital that is necessary to get food from the fields to the supermarket is incredibly steel intensive.” (Continued...) Read more on: Marketplace Cesar Escalante, University of Georgia “Racial Profiling Is ICE’s New Norm. Activists Are Mobilizing in Response” By: Truthout – November 15, 2025 “The impacts of legalized racial profiling rippled out to the mental health of Arizona’s young people. During the period SB 1070 was in place, youth in Arizona faced isolation, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders due to the stress of either being undocumented or being assumed to be undocumented. Young [Latino] people who went to school, especially middle school and high school … were subjected to a lot of ostracism, labeling, and bullying.” (Continued...) Read more on: Truthout Shawn Arita, North Dakota State University “US Farmers Face $44 Billion in Losses” By: Lincoln County Journal - November 13, 2025  “The tariffs are creating challenges, but it’s not fair to say they are the main culprit. Certainly, they are exacerbating the issue. The crop sector tends to follow trade cycles more closely than inflation trends. China is not going to start buying soybeans until they get something out of these negotiations.” (Continued...) Read more on: Lincoln County Journal Zach Rutledge, Michigan State University “Ag Labor Worries Discussed at Roundtable” By: High Plains Journal - November 14, 2205  “According to the most recent data from the National Agricultural Worker survey, about seven in 10 of our crop farm workers are born in another country, and most of those foreign-born workers are from Mexico. We also have a workforce that has a good share of workers that are not authorized to legally work here in the United States, and so that means that we rely upon a Mexican immigrant workforce, many of whom are not authorized to work here.” (Continued...) Read more on: High Plains Journal