by Ciara Litchfield
A farm linked to Jim Justice recently received the maximum amount from a subsidy meant for the farmers in North Carolina that were struggling due to the trade war with China.
One would think that a subsidy meant for the “average American farmer” struggling financially, would not apply to the farms that are owned by the richest man in the state of West Virginia. Justice has a net-worth of $1.5 billion and is the state’s only billionaire.
However, it turns out that the aid is offered per acre which allows the larger farms to collect more in aid than smaller farms. This aid also doesn’t require farms to prove losses, just their production.
The farm linked to Justice received $121,398 for soybeans and $3,602 for corn when the median for amount received is $6,438 for soybeans and $152 for corn. This farm is part of an ongoing lawsuit that alleges the Justice businesses transferred assets between them in an effort to avoid paying a debt.
These tariffs majorly impacted farmers who make a living off of soybeans and other row crops, pork, dairy, cherries, and almonds. The worst blow for the farmers was from the trade war with China was in August when China’s Commerce Ministry halted all agricultural purchases within the United States.
This comes as the Farm Bureau revealed that farm Chapter 12 bankruptcies were a total of 580 filings and the highest since 2011. These bankruptcies are a combination of the tariffs imposed by China as a result of tariffs placed on them and two consecutive years of adverse planting, growing and harvesting conditions.
“We had such a wet spring that most people weren’t able to get their crops into the ground until really, really late — sometimes not even until June,” Sarah Zastrow a farmer in Michigan said about the planting season. “It rained a ton this spring and then stopped, and we didn’t get very much rain all summer long, so not only were the crops behind because the spring rain pushed them back, but when they did get in the ground, there wasn’t the rain to help them grow.”
Not only are farmers facing economic adversity, but the farming equipment suppliers are facing layoffs. Both Deere & Co. and Caterpillar lowered their sale outlook for 2019 due to the trade war and little demand. Deere & Co. laid off a total of 160 works in Illinois and Iowa while Caterpillar laid off 120 workers in Texas.
edited on Wednesday, November 20th at 4:18 to add a byline and fix two links.
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