Record-high food prices boost farmers’ bottom lines
< 1 minute read
Thanks to high commodity prices and surging productivity, U.S. farmers earned a net income of nearly $98 billion last year — a record, according to the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.
Those strong earnings are helping boost the demand for farmland. In the past year, even as most Americans struggled with falling home prices, farmers saw spikes in the price of land used for agriculture.
As spring now approaches, farmers are gearing up to plant again, and farm stores are humming. At the Farmers Union co-op in Spring Hill, Kan., men in hard-worn canvas jackets are lining up to buy fertilizer and other supplies. NPR