The “Farm Policy News” today issued by the University of Illinois has a round-up from many sources, of the scale of income crisis for U.S. farmers this year, and projected for next year, under the headline, “American Farmers May See Deeper Losses in 2027.”
U.S. farm income could lose close to $40 billion overall this year, it was reported by Joe Maxwell, head of the Farm Action Fund, in a briefing to the weekly International Peace Coalition meeting July 17. He estimated that 63 small to medium-scale U.S. farms are going out of operation every day.
So far, the Trump Administration has approved $23 billion in farm aid programs, with another $10 billion requested as of June, whose request was discussed today by Senators at a hearing with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who were defending Trump’s requested $87 billion supplemental budget package for money for warfare against Iran and for U.S. farm rescue.
The Farm Policy News carries graphics and quotes from the American Farm Bureau Federation, as reported by the Northern AG Network, that the “AFBF analysis projects 2027 will mark a sixth year of negative returns over total costs for most major row crops. Specialty crop farmers are experiencing similar financial strain, facing expected below-breakeven prices and acreage reductions. At the same time, fertilizer and fuel prices remain volatile, with the Iran conflict adding additional pressure to those markets.”
The breakdown given by the Northern Ag Network, reported in the Farm Policy News is: “In total dollar terms, corn accounts for the largest projected loss at $15.8 billion, followed by soybeans at $11.6 billion, wheat at $6.6 billion, and cotton at $3.8 billion. Combined, losses across the nine principal crops are projected to reach $41.4 billion in 2027.”
The picture for specialty crops (nuts, fruits, vegetables) is grim. A report is provided from Michigan Farm News, a state second only to California in the diversity of specialty crops. Mitch Galloway wrote for Michigan Farm News, “Specialty crop farmers are experiencing a similar financial strain, facing expected below-breakeven prices and acreage reductions across major fruit, vegetable and tree nut sectors in 2026, even as limited public data make the full scale of losses difficult to measure….” The contraction in specialty crop production is major.
“Since 2000, U.S. vegetable acreage has declined 41%, while production has fallen 24%, from 37 million metric tons to 28 million in 2024. Fruit acreage has declined 37%, while production has fallen 48%, from 51 million metric tons to 26 million. Tree nut production strengthened during years of stronger markets, peaking at 3.7 million metric tons in 2020, but has fallen to 3.2 million by 2024.”
