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View Full Version : Signs a bitter harvest looms for US farmers


run2Jesus
April 20th, 2008, 08:38 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24227498/

run2Jesus
April 20th, 2008, 08:40 PM
Sun., April. 20, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa - At a time of record agricultural profits, concerns are mounting that American farmers could be edging toward a financial crisis not seen since the 1980s farm-economy collapse.

Soaring land values, increasing debt and a reliance on government subsidies for ethanol production have prompted economists to warn that what some describe as a golden age of agriculture could come to a sudden end. At risk are the livelihoods of thousands of farmers, the health of hundreds of banks and the vitality of an agricultural industry that has been one of the nation's few economic bright spots in recent months.

"We're in a very risky time, and yet we don't seem concerned about that risk nearly as much as we should be," said Barry L. Flinchbaugh, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University.

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