AGRICULTURE/CHINA/TARIFFS/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s trade war is already prompting farmers and agricultural forecasters to plan for a dismal 2019 growing season before the fall harvest is complete. Trade disputes — namely the escalating feud with China — have weighed on commodity prices and the president has threatened to ratchet up tariffs rather than ease tensions come Jan. 1. To boot, ordinary business costs like fertilizer and fuel appear to be on the rise, further squeezing bottom lines…The Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service has estimated that 2018 net farm income will be $9.8 billion, or 13 percent, lower than the year before. Adjusting for inflation, farm income is barely above the lowest level since 2002. If current trends continue, some agriculture economists predict that farm income will fall again in 2019. Bill Gordon, a farmer in southwest Minnesota, said his 2,000-acre, family-run operation was on track to break even in 2018 before crop prices went south amid worries of the effect of the trade war. Now, Gordon said, he’s looking at losses as high as $100,000, which he says he’ll offset by taking out equity to cover costs from bank interest payments to fertilizer and seeds.”
–Ryan McCrimmon, “Trump tariffs lead to bleak 2019 farm forecasts,” Politico, October 23, 2018 5:10 am