UNDERNEWS: The daily news service of the Progressive Review, Washington's most unofficial source
Government payments account for 30% of the gross incomes of wheat farms and 20% of revenue for other grains and soybeans.
||| NATIONAL FARMERS UNION - While net farm income is expected to decline 20%, agribusiness giant Cargill, Inc., is enjoying a 51% increase in earnings compared to a year ago.
"Something is definitely wrong with this picture," National Farmers Union President Leland Swenson today told delegates to the National Farmers Organization convention. "While farmers have experienced a five-year economic slump, some large agribusinesses are profiting from low prices farmers must take for the commodities they produce." . . . Swenson pointed out that while Cargill now employs 90,000 people, more than three times that many U.S. farmers will lose their jobs in the next ten years, according to the latest U.S. Department of Labor report.