Source: Ron Smith, FARM PROGRESS, 5/8/19


Faced with low commodity prices, spawned, at least in part, by uncertain trade and oversupply, farmers feel the pinch of a cost-price squeeze that threatens sustainability of their operations. “The most urgent and pressing issue many farmers are facing is the economic uncertainty in major row crops,” says Paul Rea, senior vice president, Agricultural Solutions North America. A lot of volatility over the last decade, Rea says, including “some great times and some challenging times,” has agriculture caught now “in one of the longer periods of a downturn. Margins in agriculture are tight.” Rea, in an interview prior to Dinner is Grown, a “Farm to Table” evening of fine dining at the Fearrington Village Resort in Pittsboro, N.C....

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