Harvesting in a trade war: U.S. crops rot as storage costs soar

[car720]

Xi is a lot more dangerous than most would believe.  His asperations are global if not universal.  

A man who would be king.

[heybruce]

5 hours ago, bristolboy said:

According to the latest reports, Trump has sidelined the hardline negotiators with the Chinese. He can't go into the next election with this situation in place. So we can expect to see a settlement pretty much like the one that is supposed to replace NAFTA. Very little of substance will be accomplished and Trump will proclaim a victory.

I'm sure that is his game plan, but he better act fast.  Once new suppliers and transportation links are established the buyers tend to stick with them.  Specifically, once Chinese buyers have become comfortable with buying from Brazil and other countries, US farmers will have an uphill task to win back market if and when tariffs are lifted.

 

The 2018 election showed that many farmers will accept a few months of hardship, but will they be so forgiving if they are still losing money, and possibly their farms, in 2020?

[mike324]

The Steel industry will be the next one to be hit, along with those who needs to buy steel at a higher cost in the US.

[Lacessit]

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

Most of it will go to cattle feed, this is why the US has the best beef quality in the world...

You have obviously never eaten an eye fillet steak from Gippsland. We feed our cattle real grass.

[Lacessit]

US farmers should think they are lucky with a 25% tariff. The duty imposed by the Chinese on Burmese sugar imports is 100%.

[natway09]

By the time Trump is finished implementing his warped policies the good old US of A will be isolated & will have lost most of it's trading prowess.  The amazing thing about this is I think he really believes that he has got it right.   He is an ignoramus as far as I am concerned on many counts

[Odysseus123]

True..

 

But isolationism and Elmer Gantry type cloaca has long been the stuff of American politics.

 

The 'Know Nothings' were the immediate precursors of the Republican party.(true)

[tonbridgebrit]

10 hours ago, Tailwagsdog said:

I don't understand, Australian agriculture is in the grip of a drought, what would be the cost of buying at a low price & shipping this feedstock to Oz for the cattle & pigs?

You're suggesting that Australian farmers should be allowed to pay a low price for the crops, and the stuff will be fed to cattle and pigs in Oz ????

Why on earth would American farmers sell at a low, or very low price ?  The American farmers want to make a profit, they want to sell at the higher prices that Chinese consumers will pay. Get real, slapping taxes on Chinese goods entering America has meant that Beijing has slapped taxes onto American soybeans entering China. This has reduced the market and profits for America's farmers.


America needs China. Whether America needs China more than China needs America is a diferent discussion.

And people like, who refer to Xi as "Adolf Xi", you're not helping the situation.????
Claiming that Beijing are a bunch of Nazis will pro-long support for taxes being slapped onto the Chinese goods entering America. This will simply extend Beijing slapping taxes on American goods entering China.

[tonbridgebrit]

2 hours ago, natway09 said:

By the time Trump is finished implementing his warped policies the good old US of A will be 

isolated & will have lost most of it's trading prowess.

The amazing thing about this is I think he really believes that he has got it right

. He is an ignoramus as far as I am concerned on many counts

And I really do wonder, people claim that the farmers who are sufferring, well, supposedly, a fair number of them voted for Trump two years ago. Is this true ?

[tonbridgebrit]

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

US farmers should think they are lucky with a 25% tariff. The duty imposed by the Chinese on Burmese sugar imports is 100%.

Well, IF Burma was to borrow a huge amount of money from Chinese banks, and then give contracts to Chinese companies to build and carry out infra-structure projects in Burma. If Burma does this, then, Beijing might convert the sugar import tax from 100% to a lot lower.  ????

[Odysseus123]

7 minutes ago, tonbridgebrit said:

You're suggesting that Australian farmers should be allowed to pay a low price for the crops, and the stuff will be fed to cattle and pigs in Oz ????

Why on earth would American farmers sell at a low, or very low price ?  The American farmers want to make a profit, they want to sell at the higher prices that Chinese consumers will pay. Get real, slapping taxes on Chinese goods entering America has meant that Beijing has slapped taxes onto American soybeans entering China. This has reduced the market and profits for America's farmers.


America needs China. Whether America needs China more than China needs America is a diferent discussion.

And people like, who refer to Xi as "Adolf Xi", you're not helping the situation.????
Claiming that Beijing are a bunch of Nazis will pro-long support for taxes being slapped onto the Chinese goods entering America. This will simply extend Beijing slapping taxes on American goods entering China.

Agreed-but they are just parrots anyway.

 

As Herman Goering pointed out-the vast majority of the population are parrots and the internet merely speeds up their squawking.

 

At the moment they are being encouraged to "squawk" about China-as they do not have much to do after the final season of 'The Living Dead' was aired in Parrotville.

[bristolboy]

11 minutes ago, tonbridgebrit said:

You're suggesting that Australian farmers should be allowed to pay a low price for the crops, and the stuff will be fed to cattle and pigs in Oz ????

Why on earth would American farmers sell at a low, or very low price ?  The American farmers want to make a profit, they want to sell at the higher prices that Chinese consumers will pay. Get real, slapping taxes on Chinese goods entering America has meant that Beijing has slapped taxes onto American soybeans entering China. This has reduced the market and profits for America's farmers.


America needs China. Whether America needs China more than China needs America is a diferent discussion.

And people like, who refer to Xi as "Adolf Xi", you're not helping the situation.????
Claiming that Beijing are a bunch of Nazis will pro-long support for taxes being slapped onto the Chinese goods entering America. This will simply extend Beijing slapping taxes on American goods entering China.

Xi is more of a standard megalomaniac and like way too many chinese, extremely insular in his understanding of the world. He's needlessly antagonized his neighbors with his boasting and boosterism. In some ways the Chinese are still overwhelmingly obtuse in their behavior. Witness their idiotic and alienating demonstrations of racism in Africa.

[tonbridgebrit]

4 hours ago, car720 said:

Xi is a lot more dangerous than most would believe.  His asperations are global if not universal.  

A man who would be king.

 

Well, as long as he doesn't want to invade the rest of the world, surely, things are okay ?  ????

All he wants is, is America will scrap the new taxes that are being put onto the cheap Chinese goods that are entering America. And Xi is willing to remove the new taxes that are being put onto American soybeans entering China. Yes, Xi wants a "win-win" situation for everybody.  ????

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, tonbridgebrit said:

Well, IF Burma was to borrow a huge amount of money from Chinese banks, and then give contracts to Chinese companies to build and carry out infra-structure projects in Burma. If Burma does this, then, Beijing might convert the sugar import tax from 100% to a lot lower.  ????

As we see in nations like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Andaman Islands, the usefulness of this strategy is drawing to a close. Just another example of China's transparent clumsiness.

[bristolboy]

10 minutes ago, tonbridgebrit said:

And I really do wonder, people claim that the farmers who are sufferring, well, supposedly, a fair number of them voted for Trump two years ago. Is this true ?

Why go back 2 years? Midterm elections were just held. So far in the agricultural districts Republicans survived. In another 2 years, if this trade war continues, probably not so many.

[IAMHERE]

No sympathy for corn farmers when I am forced to use 10 percent ethanol in my gasoline because there isn't enough oil. Doesn't matter much because in the end the Federal government will pay the farmers for their losses.

[tonbridgebrit]

19 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Xi is more of a standard megalomaniac and like way too many chinese, extremely insular in his understanding of the world. He's needlessly antagonized his neighbors with his boasting and boosterism. In some ways the Chinese are still overwhelmingly obtuse in their behavior. Witness their idiotic and alienating demonstrations of racism in Africa.

Hello bristoboy.  The America-China trade war that we are seeing was started by Trump, not Xi.

You want to talk about Xi antagonising his neighbours ? Well, what's Trump doing ? Trump is antagonizing France, bearing in mind that France is a major pillar of NATO and the EU.

The Chinese show their idiotic racism in Africa ?  Well, what about Trump's comments on Third World countries ?  He once regarded some of them as "sh_t holes". How many Americans secretly grinned their heads off ? Loads.


And even if the Chinese are racist, with racist views towards black people in Africa, well, Beijing is dealing with the African Continent. Beijing is getting contracts for Chinese state-owned firms to build infra-structure in Africa. China is importing a vast amount of natural resources from Africa. Who is forcing Africa to do this ? Nobody is. Beijing is certainly not. Beijing is not threatening to invade Africa if Africa refuses to export natural resources to China. Africa is willing to be "in" with Beijing. Even if we do see silly adverts in Beijing, with black men dressed in leopard skins.

[tonbridgebrit]

7 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

The story in the OP - utter madness after reading through it.

Utter madness.

Meanwhile the middlemen and storage facilitators get fat (read rich).

Bit like over here and pretty much everywhere else, middlemen (and supermarkets) make the money and the farmer gets Jack ShIt.

As someone mentioned, in a sensible world, this stuff would be sent at cost price to drought regions like Australia as cattle feed instead of being ploughed under.

Meanwhile in Yemen & Africa, children starve...........

But can farmers in Australia pay 'cost price' for the stuff ?  Add on transport costs ?

But yes, in a sensible world, the crops would be purchased and transported to places like Africa and Yemen. And then given to starving people for free. Is that ever going to happen ? I think, unfortunately, it never will.

 

[sirineou]

31 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Agreed-but they are just parrots anyway.

 

As Herman Goering pointed out-the vast majority of the population are parrots and the internet merely speeds up their squawking.

 

At the moment they are being encouraged to "squawk" about China-as they do not have much to do after the final season of 'The Living Dead' was aired in Parrotville.

 Absolutely right!!'

I remember watching political debates during the presidential elections, afterwards the pandits will tell viewers what they saw  as if the viewers did not know what the saw..

Later on when viewers were interviewed they will parrot what the pundits said  parroting the same words the pundits used, words the viewers would normally never use.

This goes for both sides.

[Odysseus123]

8 minutes ago, sirineou said:

 Absolutely right!!'

I remember watching political debates during the presidential elections, afterwards the pandits will tell viewers what they saw  as if the viewers did not know what the saw..

Later on when viewers were interviewed they will parrot what the pundits said  parroting the same words the pundits used, words the viewers would normally never use.

This goes for both sides.

Yes-both sides.

 

Add the Dunning-Kruger effect into the mix and you have some pretty dumb parrots-except that they do not know it.????

 

But it will out-as Bill Shakespeare used to say.

 

The only solution is to give them more zombie movies but as the living dead have already lodged a discrimination complaint in Brussels there will be the devil to pay..

 

Back to the Captain America franchise,I guess..

[sirineou]

6 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Yes-both sides.

 

Add the Dunning-Kruger effect into the mix and you have some pretty dumb parrots-except that they do not know it.????

 

But it will out-as Bill Shakespeare used to say.

 

The only solution is to give them more zombie movies but as the living dead have already lodged a discrimination complaint in Brussels there will be the devil to pay..

 

Back to the Captain America franchise,I guess..

To the defence of many of them 

Having woken up 5am The work all day and put a meal on the table for their family , get home after an hours Plus  commute in the evening what is one to do?

 Plap yourself in front of the TV and eat crap both physically and mentally. 

  I have sympathy for them, sometimes I think "there but for the grace of god go I" (I use small g for god because I am an atheist)

   It is a conundrum, IMO one should need to exhibit a minimum level of proficiency in the subject to vote , for instance if one was voting on a China related issue one should at the very least be able to find China on the map. But how does one implement such a system  without the associated dangers of political voter suppression?

[Odysseus123]

Just now, sirineou said:

To the defence of many of them 

Having woken up 5am The work all day and put a meal on the table for their family , get home after an hours Plus  commute in the evening what is one to do?

 Plap yourself in front of the TV and eat crap both physically and mentally. 

  I have sympathy for them, sometimes I think "there but for the grace of god go I" (I use small g for god because I am an atheist)

   It is a conundrum, IMO one should need to exhibit a minimum level of proficiency in the subject to vote , for instance if one was voting on a China related issue one should at the very least be able to find China on the map. But how does one implement such a system  without the associated dangers of political voter suppression?

This is an interesting topic of discussions and one that I am having right now with a different group..

 

But I would hazard a guess that very few genuine folks on

TvF fit into the Ford assembly line category.

 

Those posting outside are of ,of course,not putting nuts on bolts anyway.

 

They are on the internet which indicates a certain amount (too much?) of leisure time.

[moe666]

They got what they voted for, he said he would start a trade war with China well you got it farmers in the south. Hope you enjoy eating your own soy beans

[kickstart]

12 hours ago, ezzra said:

Most of it will go to cattle feed, this is why the US has the best beef quality in the world...

Try some UK grass-fed Angus beef, you would change your mind, all this feedlot beef just cheap beef that's all,and  I bet you are from the US of A.

[Odysseus123]

6 minutes ago, moe666 said:

They got what they voted for, he said he would start a trade war with China well you got it farmers in the south. Hope you enjoy eating your own soy beans

yep-that's about it.

[Credo]

For the soybean farmers life is a little bit more complicated.   Soybeans are a somewhat specialty crop and can be poisonous to some livestock without processing.   That makes there use as a livestock feed a little more complicated than corn, oats or barley. 

[bendejo]

18 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

I think everyone's praying for some sort of trade deal/resolution between Trump and Xi next week in BA? Interestingly enough, trade hawk Peter Navarro has been sidelined.

 

I've read a few interviews with farmers and a few said they wake up every day hoping to see a tweet from El Naranjo that will put everything back the way it was.  Unfortunately that cannot happen, as China has implemented alternatives, like a trade deal with Brazil to buy their soybeans for the next so-many years.

 

 

[bendejo]

Campaigning for 2020 begins in a few months, and he's going to need diversions from this mess and others.  Things will get worse for the US unless something is done to stop this fool.  The only real question, if him and the gov't he's put together is not taken out of commission, is how far he will go.

In the near future American children will ask of their parents "what did you do about this this?"

 

 

[Stargeezr]

Remember the Kennedy curse, huh, huh?

Geezer

[pegman]

21 hours ago, heybruce said:

I'm sure that is his game plan, but he better act fast.  Once new suppliers and transportation links are established the buyers tend to stick with them.  Specifically, once Chinese buyers have become comfortable with buying from Brazil and other countries, US farmers will have an uphill task to win back market if and when tariffs are lifted.

 

The 2018 election showed that many farmers will accept a few months of hardship, but will they be so forgiving if they are still losing money, and possibly their farms, in 2020?

No worries, plenty of Chinese buyers for their farmland.