USA: Farm Tensions Escalate as USDA Staffer Is Threatened in Midwest

© Bloomberg A crop scout enters a soybean field at a stop during the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour in Sheldon, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019. Inconsistency is the one constant coming out of a major U.S. crop tour that kicked off on Monday as scouts get to see first hand the impact of wild weather on Midwestern corn and soybean fields.

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(Bloomberg) In a sign of rising tensions with the farm community, the Trump administration withdrew staff from a privately run tour of Midwestern corn and soybean fields after a government employee was threatened.

While the threat came from someone not involved in the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pulled all its staff as a precaution. Lance Honig, crops chief at the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, was scheduled to address the tour in Nebraska City Tuesday night but a video interview with him was screened instead.

“Federal Protective Services were contacted and are investigating the incident,” NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer said Wednesday, without giving details on the threat. “The safety of our employees is our top priority.”

The USDA’s data arm has been the subject of ire in recent months after crop estimates surprised traders and growers who had expected the agency to significantly reduce its outlook after rain delayed planting. The USDA had already been criticized for its June estimates and took the rare step of re-surveying farmers to get more accurate numbers.

Its withdrawal from the crop tour comes about two weeks after farmers leveled criticism at Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue at a fair in Minnesota over President Donald Trump’s yearlong trade war with China, which has eroded demand and pressured already low prices.

In a statement Wednesday, Farm Journal, the parent company of crop-tour organizer Pro Farmer, said it took the threat seriously and has also taken precautions to ensure the safety of participants.

“For 27 years the Pro Farmer Crop Tour has been a public service for the benefit of agriculture, in good times and bad,” it said. “And it’s clearly a stressful time right now.”

At nightly crop-tour stops in Indiana, Illinois and Grand Island, Nebraska, farmers questioned officials from both the USDA and Pro Farmer about the government’s methodology in determining corn planted area and yields. Some growers, stung by years of low prices, were frustrated by the rapid rise in prices in May and subsequent steep drop.

Corn for delivery in December, which rose 0.4% on Wednesday, is down 11% since the release of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report last week.

USDA officials said yield estimates were based largely on input from farmers as well as satellite imagery. Planted acreage numbers published by the Farm Service Agency earlier this month referred to Aug. 1 data and that figure has already increased, Chris Hawthorn, a NASS statistician, told farmers on the tour, explaining the difference between those figures and the ones published by NASS.

“We had a great time with the USDA guys yesterday,” said Jim Putnam, a Minnesota farmer, who traveled with two USDA staff on the tour Tuesday. “I’m sorry this happened. It makes us all look stupid.”

Last month, the Trump administration announced another $16 billion in aid to farmers after a $12 billion tranche in 2018. Earlier this month, Trump hinted his administration may provide more money for farmers if the trade war were to persist.

Trump’s overwhelming support in rural America was crucial to his narrow 2016 election victory. Maintaining the backing of farmers is critical to his re-election. Just this week, the administration has taken criticism from agricultural interests for its handling of the Renewable Fuel Standard, the policy that mandates use of corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel.

On Tuesday, the Iowa Soybean Association sent a letter to Trump and Perdue, asking for a meeting to discuss the Environmental Protection Agency’s granting of small refinery exemptions, saying that the agency’s Aug. 9 announcement that it granted 31 waivers adds to the “economic pain Iowa’s farmers and biodiesel producers are experiencing.”

Farmers both in Grand Island and Nebraska City cheered Pro Farmer’s Chip Flory when he questioned the ethanol blending exemptions that reduce demand for corn. On a tour stop in South Dakota, farmer Kurt Stiefvater gave the thumbs down when asked about the refinery exemptions.

Meanwhile, Delayne Johnson, chief executive officer of Quad County Corn Processors, a Northwest Iowa ethanol producer, told reporters in Iowa that he was unsure who he’d vote for president in 2020 after supporting Trump in 2016.

“I will be listening to each candidate’s platform on biofuels because it’s extremely important to me and all Iowa farmers,” Johnson said. The person he votes for would be someone who takes action and “not just talk about supporting agriculture and ethanol.”

Mario Parker, Michael Hirtzer and Isis Almeida I Bloomberg
-With assistance from Dominic Carey and Millie Munshi.

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