### U.S. Agriculture: Challenges in Specialty Crop Production

American farmers face challenges prioritizing healthy crops over low-value commodities.

### The Challenges and Opportunities in U.S. Fruit and Vegetable Farming
* 🍏 Many Americans enjoy a wide variety of fruits year-round, but certain fruits like **mangoes and avocados** cannot be grown in the U.S. due to **climate constraints**.
* 🌽 The U.S. agricultural landscape has shifted towards growing **low-value crops** like corn and soybeans, which are primarily used for **livestock feed and processed foods**, rather than **high-value fruits and vegetables**.
* 🏞 Despite having nearly a billion acres of farmland, the U.S. is not adequately feeding its population, leading to a **reliance on imports for healthy food crops**.
* 🍎 Locust Grove, a family-run farm in New York, exemplifies the struggle of small farms, producing **800,000 pounds of apples annually** while facing **rising operational costs and competition**.
* 📉 The 2024 forecast predicts a **nearly 40% drop in net farm income** due to increased production costs and lower crop prices, particularly affecting **specialty crop farmers**.
* 💰 The farm bill, a significant piece of legislation, has historically favored large commodity farms, with **80% of subsidies going to them**, leaving specialty crop farmers with **limited support**.
* 🌱 Advocates argue for a more equitable distribution of federal resources, highlighting how other countries, like Mexico, effectively **subsidize their agriculture to enhance production**.
* 🌍 There is potential for growth in U.S. fruit and vegetable production, as recent data shows an **8% increase in vegetable production** and a **1.3% increase in fruit production** in 2023 compared to the previous year.

What fruit do we need to grow
that you would like? What fruit could we grow that
we don't already grow? I think you have everything. She likes mangoes. But we
can't grow those. Avocados, can't grow them
either.

As Americans, we're used to
having year-round access to just about anything. From tomatoes and
strawberries, to avocados. But not everything can grow
here, and that comes at a cost. We're next to one of the
biggest cities in the world,

and that's where the crops
should be grown. You know, they shouldn't be
coming from the other side of the states, or from over the
ocean in a container that's sitting around and stuff. It should be, you know,
direct to the market.

The number of farms and what
they produce for human consumption have been on a
steady decline over the past few decades in the U.S. Instead, what's being grown is
corn and soybeans—used for livestock feed and ethanol,
or as cheap sugars, starches,

and oils in highly processed
foods. In the U.S., we have nearly a
billion acres of farmland. We have a population of just
330 million people. Yet we're not feeding
ourselves. We are wrongly focused on
growing and exporting these

low value crops that are not
feeding us. And then we're counting on
other countries to supply us with the high value, healthy
food crops that we rely on. These staple "commodities,"
what soybeans and corn are called, have a special status
which grants them more federal

aid. They fetch top dollars
being exported overseas, and they're cheaper and less
risky to produce. At the end of the day, farmers have to
make the decision of what to do with the land that they
have, and they have to make a

decision in terms of what
they think is best for their family operation. So why isn't the U.S. prioritizing more of what its
population needs to eat, and what can it do to change
that? It's a Chipper apple.

It's proprietary to a Locust
grove. Most handsome apple we have
being it's named after me. Chip Kent is a
sixth-generation Locust Grove fruit farmer in Milton, New
York, in the Hudson Valley. This is his son Sawyer, a
seventh-generation farmer.

Like most U.S. farms, Locust
Grove is family operated. In '24 they planted the
vineyard down here. And this one. And then the
quince orchard. The more than 200-year-old
farm grows an average of

800,000 pounds of mainly
apples per year. Though Locust Grove did not
share their annual income, New York State Farms bring in an
average of $80,000 a year, after all expenses are
accounted for, something

called net farm income. The farm also operates a
brewery and a u-pick orchard in the fall. Locust has
slowly expanded from 60 acres to 100 by acquiring other
smaller farms in the area. Farms of Locust Grove size
only represent 28% of total

U.S. farms. The largest 2% control 42% of
all acres. New York State saw its
sharpest drop in the number of farms and acreage in decades,
between 2017 and 2022. Net farm income is forecast
to plunge nearly 40% in 2024

from the 2022 record high. That's mainly due to rising
production costs and a drop in crop prices. Specialty crop farmers like
fruits, vegetables, and legumes record higher incomes on
average. But they're high risk, high
reward because they're

volatile and don't get even
close to as much government assistance as commodities to
remain in business. Locust has had to get very
efficient with its crops, diversify, and expand. We plan a lot of different
things so we can get away

with, you know, something
failing. We've created more with the
brewery here and adding the pick-your-own. And if you
stop and you lose interest or you get a little lazy, then
that that'll end.

And then that's when the farm
either gets sold to somebody else as a farm or goes off to
have houses on. We could put up some really
nice houses overlooking the river here. So it was like
2012. We added woodies to our
neighbors', Ed Wood's, their

farm. It was 21 acres on the
north side and it wasn't but a couple of years after that,
we added Tabasco's. Locust Grove's main source of
revenue is selling at New York City Farmers markets four
times a week.

Some fruit is also sold to
winemakers. Everything else is used by
the brewery. The biggest stone fruit crop
we've ever had. Yeah, we had none the year before. And then we had no plums the year before. We had a lot of
peaches and a lot of cherries.

Operational expenses are
continuously rising. Some affect specialty crops
more than others. Fruit and vegetables are
delicate, highly perishable, and labor intensive. Farm labor costs are expected
to increase 6.9% in 2024.

60% of what we bring in right
now is just labor. The margins on what we have
have gotten smaller. Back in the 80s, you made a
little bit less, but you put it in a bank at 10%.

So, you know, and you didn't
need a lot. Competition is another thing
that is making it increasingly harder for American farmers
to survive. When the North American Free
Trade Agreement passed in 1994, it lowered prices by
expanding produce variety and

availability in American
grocery stores, but it hurt smaller American farms, and
in recent years, lower crop returns and higher production
costs have made our produce more expensive, as farmers
have had to pass off the increasing costs to
consumers.

As for Locust Grove, the
Kents say they won't switch to more profitable crops like
soybeans, for one. They're just not suited for
the region's climate. The Kents are also unlikely
to sell, no matter how much

land prices may increase. We just need money, maybe cut
back on some of our taxes, reduce our fuel costs, our
chemical costs. I mean, that's what's eating
us alive. We don't want to be
multi-millionaires, but, you

know, we also don't want to
have to work our fingers to the bone and not make any
money or go backwards. One of the most complex yet
influential pieces of U.S. legislation is the farm bill. It's been passed about every
five years since 1933 and

impacts everything from what
we eat to how farmers make a living. A big part of it
funds programs like SNAP, which help low-income
Americans buy food. The last one passed in 2018
for $428 billion.

More than $30 billion went to
large farms growing commodities in the form of
payments called subsidies. They help farmers deal with
lower harvests, price swings and natural disasters. Over the years, federal crop
insurance programs have increasingly favored row
crops, which include corn,

wheat, soybeans, and sugar
cane. That's always something that
comes up is, you know, the largest farms getting the
most amount of subsidy payments. And can that be
more equally distributed? I think, you know, the tricky
part there is there's a lot of

what I consider to be small
family farms, which I'm a part of. We're not a huge farm. We're an average-sized farm
in the middle of North Dakota. It's a third-generation
family farm started by my grandfather. I farm now with
my dad and my brother, and

There are financial
limitations. The USDA funds other programs
that support specialty crop farmers, in part, like
partnering with local and regional producers to buy
produce for food banks and school meals. We go into the marketplace and
we purchase food for a wide

variety of purposes, and most
often those foods are fruit and vegetable production. If you look at the totality
of what's being done here, I think you'll see that there's
a significant investment that we've made in specialty crop
production.

For more than two decades, the
largest and wealthiest farms receive the most aid, raking
in nearly 80% of total subsidies. Gackle's farm is
about 5,500 acres. There are some of those
limitations in place and some

adjustments there to more
accurately reflect the size of farms and who should be
receiving that type of financial assistance. But,
you know, if you go too far in doing that, it would affect
the farm of my size as well.

The US has been a leader in
corn and soybean production since the 90s. All of this really is to
benefit a handful of corporations that profit off
of those policies, those exports. The 1996 farm bill removed
certain growing requirements,

which encouraged farmers to
plant crops based on market demand rather than government
regulations. Today, the United States
dominates in commodity production, specifically
meat. They're our top agriculture
exports valued at more than $64 billion in 2023.

Corn and soybeans alone
accounted for more than half of all total farm crop income
that year. So why corn and soybeans? They play an important role
in a few industries. For one, global meat
consumption continues to grow

and that livestock needs to
eat. Corn and soybeans are used in
processed foods, which make up over half of Americans'
diets. And lastly, they're
ingredients in biofuel production, which makes them
invaluable.

These same agriculture
policies that are driving our trade deficit are driving
poor health. Subsidies are a major driver
of Americans' diets. The foods that the government
subsidizes, those are the foods that are
going to be more readily

available and more affordable
to our citizens. Here in rural America, you know, the economies for
our small towns, our small communities, our small
businesses. A lot of that depends on, you
know, farmers continuing to be

able to be profitable and
invest back in their farms and invest back in their
communities. Health experts have linked our
high commodity consumption with the country's growing
obesity rate. Fruit and vegetable
production is on a decline,

and despite an increase in
availability due to a large rise in imports, less than
20% of US adults eat enough fruits and vegetables. But Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack sees things differently. We've seen a significant
increase in consumption and

actually in production of
specialty crops across the United States. We import
because we like to have choice 12 months out of the year. But in terms of actually
feeding ourselves, our ranchers, our farmers, our
producers are extraordinarily

productive and they provide
everything that we need in this country. And that's an
advantage we have over many, many other nations. The 2018 farm bill expired in
September 2024. Congress has been unable to
pass a new bill, putting

funding for some programs in
jeopardy and hurting farmers faced with increased
competition and rising fuel and fertilizer costs. Agriculture is in serious
condition. Input costs have risen
dramatically, while the price they receive for what they
grow has diminished.

The issue here is the farm
bill. A big sticking point are
reference prices. Those are the minimum prices
set by Congress for commodities like corn,
soybeans and wheat. Payments are triggered when
prices fall below the set

number. It's easier for Congress to
give more money to defense than it is to the Department of
Agriculture. Disagreements over the
subsidies and who gets them continue to anger activists
and farmers alike, especially those who grow specialty
crops. The requirements can be

tough to meet and hard to
prove. The Kents, for example, have
only ever received $500. We had to put our neck on the
line, and then we had to prove we have a loss. And the premiums are
outrageous.

They do help offset some
costs, but they don't come close to paying, you know, a
serious bill. We could use a little help. Who's going to grow our food? You really want to buy it all
from overseas?

On the other hand, pulling
subsidy funding for commodities could be
devastating for those producers. The American
Soybean Association recommends seeking funding elsewhere if
lawmakers don't pass a new farm bill before January
2025.

A whole new set of lawmakers
will have to debate it. I don't think people are
excited about the possibility of starting all over again. The new administration is
going to have to get its sea legs, if you will, and that's
going to take time.

So you're looking at an
extension of the existing bill. And they could make big
changes. Commodity prices could also
remain low for the next few years. Not having one in place right
now hasn't ended those programs, but it does create
uncertainty moving forward

into 2025 and beyond. Farmers already are making
plans for 2025, have already made purchasing decisions on
inputs. The margins are really tight. My father always said, you
know, here you have a whole lot of promises out there.

Every single bloom is a
promise. We promise that we're going
to have fruit. But you never know because
promises are broken. Advocates are pushing for a
more equal distribution of federal resources and
additional support to other

crops. Many point to Mexico,
which is the largest fruit and vegetable exporter to the US. The country subsidizes much
of its agriculture costs and barriers to entry. Its agriculture imports to
the US nearly quadrupled between the years 2000 and
2023.

It goes to show you that if
the government supports it, farmers are going to grow it
because our farmers, they know how to grow and raise enough
food to feed us. But these backwards policies
are standing in the way, and

farmers are moving into that
direction, because that's where the support is. Mexico's major advantages are
cheap labor and land availability. The US has
neither, but the government could mandate that some
commodity acreage should be

allocated for fruit and
vegetable production. First of all, there's
definitely room for both. Large-scale production of
fruits and vegetables in the Corn Belt is probably not an
option for most farmers. It just doesn't fit the
climate.

It's not something that we
can do. We can do it at a small
scale. The short growing seasons,
the weather, the challenges of winter. Globally, most countries that
subsidize crops do so in the form of input support, like
providing fertilizer followed

by lump sum payments. The US could follow that
example, but US farms have vastly different needs. I think the difficulty there
is we just, nobody farms exactly the same, and we're
not all growing the same crops and we're dealing with
different weather patterns and

climate. The USDA announced an
additional $72.9 million in grant funding for specialty
crops in 2023 to help make these crops competitive in
new markets, and said more assistance could show up in
the next farm bill.

If you look at the totality of
what's being done here, I think you'll see that there's
a significant investment that we've made in specialty crop
production. Other solutions include
boosting demand for fresh fruits and vegetables in the
US and finding new markets for

commodities overseas. Trade is super important and
decreased demand leads to, you know, farmers maybe needing
more of those financial resources in a farm bill or
somewhere else. So we want to be profitable
with the market.

Farmers are efficient and
there's hope on the horizon. Vegetable production was up
8% in 2023 compared to 2022, while fruit production was up
1.3%. With less risks and more
incentives, producers might

grow more specialty crops. Once you've acquired and
you've created a nice business, it should go
multi-generational. It shouldn't have to stop
because costs got so high we had to sell it. You know, if
you're a bad farmer, that's

that's a whole nother story. Now we're up for the
challenge to see if we can make it last.

Why The U.S. Isn’t Growing Enough Food

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Challenges in US fruit and vegetable production

Difficulty growing certain fruits like mangoes and avocados in the US.

Americans' year-round access to produce, often from distant locations.

Advocacy for local crop production and direct-to-market distribution.

Decline in farms producing food for human consumption, focusing instead on corn and soybeans.

US farmland acreage vs. population, and the focus on exporting low-value crops.

Locust Grove Farm: A case study of a family-run farm

Introduction to Chip Kent, a sixth-generation farmer, and his son Sawyer.

Locust Grove's production and diversification (apples, vineyard, quince orchard, brewery).

Average income of New York State farms and Locust Grove's expansion.

Percentage of US farms represented by Locust Grove's size and land ownership concentration.

Decline in the number of farms and acreage in New York State and forecast drop in net farm income.

Challenges faced by specialty crop farmers

Higher incomes but higher risks for specialty crop farmers due to volatility and lack of government assistance.

Locust Grove's strategies for efficiency, diversification, and expansion.

Locust Grove's land acquisition and main revenue source (NYC farmers markets).

Fluctuations in fruit production and rising operational expenses.

Impact of rising labor costs on specialty crops.

Shrinking profit margins and the impact of NAFTA on smaller farms.

Increased competition and higher produce prices for consumers.

Government policies and their impact on farming

Locust Grove's reluctance to switch to more profitable crops or sell the farm.

The need for financial support to reduce taxes, fuel, and chemical costs.

The significance of the farm bill and its impact on food and farming.

Funding allocation in the 2018 farm bill and subsidies for large farms growing commodities.

Debate on the equitable distribution of subsidy payments.

USDA programs supporting specialty crop farmers, including food banks and school meals.

USDA's investment in specialty crop production.

Limitations and adjustments in financial assistance for farms of different sizes.

US dominance in commodity production and its consequences

US leadership in corn and soybean production since the 90s, benefiting corporations.

US dominance in commodity production, particularly meat, and its export value.

The role of corn and soybeans in various industries (livestock feed, processed foods, biofuels).

Link between agricultural policies, trade deficit, and poor health.

Impact of farmer profitability on rural economies.

Decline in fruit and vegetable production and low consumption among US adults.

Different perspectives on US agriculture and the farm bill

Secretary Vilsack's view on US agricultural productivity and the role of imports.

Expiration of the 2018 farm bill and the challenges it poses to farmers.

Serious condition of US agriculture due to rising input costs and diminishing crop prices.

Disagreements over subsidies and reference prices in the farm bill.

Challenges faced by specialty crop farmers in meeting subsidy requirements.

The Kents' experience with farm subsidies.

The dilemma of subsidy funding for commodities.

American Soybean Association's recommendation on funding if a new farm bill is not passed.

Uncertainty regarding the future of the farm bill and its potential impact.

Farmers' planning and purchasing decisions amidst uncertainty.

The risks involved in farming and the importance of long-term planning.

Comparison with Mexico's agricultural policies

Advocates' push for equal distribution of federal resources and support for other crops.

Mexico's role as a major fruit and vegetable exporter to the US and its agricultural subsidies.

The impact of government support on farmers' crop choices.

Mexico's advantages (cheap labor and land) and potential solutions for the US.

Feasibility of large-scale fruit and vegetable production in the Corn Belt.

Global approaches to crop subsidies and their applicability to the US.

Challenges in tailoring subsidy programs to diverse US farming practices.

USDA's grant funding for specialty crops and potential future assistance.

Other solutions: boosting demand for fresh produce and finding new markets for commodities.

Importance of market profitability for farmers.

Positive trends in vegetable and fruit production in 2023.

The importance of multi-generational farming and the challenges faced.