Speaker 1: What fruit do we need to grow that you would like?

Speaker 2: What fruit could we grow that we don't already grow? She likes mangoes, but we can't grow those. Avocados, can't grow them either.

Speaker 3: As Americans, we're used to having year-round access to just about anything, from tomatoes and strawberries to avocados. But not everything can grow here, and that comes at a cost.

Speaker 1: We're next to one of the biggest cities in the world, and that's where the crops should be grown. They shouldn't be coming from the other side of the states or over the ocean in a container that's sitting around and stuff. It should be direct to the market.

Speaker 3: The number of farms and what they produce for human consumption have been on a steady decline over the past few decades in the U.S. Instead, what's being grown is corn and soybeans, used for livestock feed and ethanol, or as cheap sugars, starches, and oils in highly processed foods.

Speaker 4: In the U.S., we have nearly a billion acres of farmland. We have a population of just 330 million people. Yet we're not feeding ourselves. We are wrongly focused on growing and exporting these low-value crops that are not feeding us, and then we're counting on other countries to supply us with the high-value, healthy food crops that we rely on.

Speaker 3: These staple commodities, what soybeans and corn are called, have a special status, which grants them more federal aid. They fetch top dollars being exported overseas, and they're cheaper and less risky to produce.

Speaker 5: At the end of the day, farmers have to make the decision of what to do with the land that they have, and they have to make a decision in terms of what they think is best for their family operation.

Speaker 3: So why isn't the U.S. prioritizing more of what its population needs to eat? And what can it do to change that?

Speaker 1: It's a chipper apple. It's proprietary to Locust Grove. Most handsome apple we have, being it's named after me.

Speaker 3: Chip Kent is a sixth-generation Locust Grove fruit farmer in Milton, New York, in the Hudson Valley. This is his son, Sawyer, a seventh-generation farmer. Like most U.S. farms, Locust Grove is family-operated.

Speaker 1: In 24, they planted the vineyard down here and this one, and then the quince orchard.

Speaker 3: The more than 200-year-old farm grows an average of 800,000 pounds of mainly apples per year. Though Locust Grove did not share their annual income, New York state farms bring in an average of $80,000 per year after all expenses are accounted for, something called net farm income. The farm also operates a brewery and a you-pick orchard in the fall. Locust has slowly expanded from 60 acres to 100 by acquiring other, smaller farms in the area. Farms of Locust Grove's size only represent 28% of total U.S. farms. The largest 2% control 42% of all acres. New York state saw its sharpest drop in number of farms and acreage in decades, between 2017 and 2022. Net farm income is forecast to plunge nearly 40% in 2024 from 2022's record high. That's mainly due to rising production costs and a drop in crop prices. Specialty crop farmers like fruits, vegetables, and legumes record higher incomes on average, but they're high-risk, high-reward because they're volatile and don't get even close to as much government assistance as commodities. To remain in business, Locust has had to get very efficient with its crop, diversify, and expand.

Speaker 1: We plant a lot of different things so we can get away with, you know, something failing. We've created more with the brewery here and adding the pick-your-owns and if you stop and you lose interest or you get a little lazy, then that'll end. And then that's when the farm either gets sold to somebody else as a farm or it goes off to have houses on it. We could put up some really nice houses overlooking the river here. So it was like 2012, we added Woody's, our neighbor's, Ed Wood, their farm. It was 21 acres on the north side. And it wasn't but a couple years after that we added Tabasco's.

Speaker 3: Locust Grove's main source of revenue is selling at New York City farmers' markets four times a week. Some fruit is also sold to winemakers. Everything else is used by the brewery.

Speaker 2: Biggest stone fruit crop we've ever had. Yeah, we had none the year before. Plum, we had no plums the year before. We had a lot of peaches and a lot of cherries.

Speaker 3: Operational expenses are continuously rising. Some affect specialty crops more than others. Fruit and vegetables are delicate, highly perishable, and labor-intensive. Farm labor costs are expected to increase 6.9% in 2024.

Speaker 1: 60% of what we bring in right now is just labor. The margins on what we had have gotten smaller. Back in the 80s, you made a little bit less, but you could put it in a bank at 10%. And you didn't need a lot.

Speaker 3: Competition is another thing that is making it increasingly harder for American farmers to survive. When the North American Free Trade Agreement passed in 1994, it lowered prices by expanding produce variety and availability in American grocery stores. But it hurt smaller American farms. And in recent years, lower crop returns and higher production costs have made U.S. produce more expensive as farmers have had to pass off the increasing costs to consumers. As for Locust Grove, the Kents say they won't switch to more profitable crops like soybeans. For one, they're just not suited for the region's climate. The Kents are also unlikely to sell, no matter how much land prices may increase.

Speaker 1: We just need money, maybe cut back on some of our taxes, reduce our fuel costs, our chemical costs. I mean, that's what's eating us alive. We don't want to be multimillionaires, but we also don't want to have to work our fingers to the bone and not make any money, or go backwards.

Speaker 3: The Farm Bill One of the most complex yet influential pieces of U.S. legislation is the Farm Bill. It's been passed about every five years since 1933 and impacts everything from what we eat to how farmers make a living. A big part of it funds programs like SNAP, which help low-income Americans buy food. The last one passed in 2018 for $428 billion. More than $30 billion went to large farms growing commodities in the form of payments called subsidies. They help farmers deal with lower harvests, price swings, and natural disasters. Over the years, federal crop insurance programs have increasingly favored row crops, which include corn, wheat, soybeans, and sugarcane.

Speaker 6: That's always something that comes up is, you know, the largest farms getting the most amount of subsidy payments, and can that be more equally distributed? I think, you know, the tricky part there is, there's a lot of what I consider to be small family farms, which I'm a part of. We're not a huge farm. We're an average-sized farm in the middle of North Dakota. It's a third-generation family farm started by my grandfather. I farm now with my dad and my brother, and there are financial limitations.

Speaker 3: The USDA funds other programs that support specialty crop farmers in part, like partnering with local and regional producers to buy produce for food banks and school meals.

Speaker 5: We go into the marketplace and we purchase food for a wide variety of purposes, and most often those foods are fruit and vegetable production. If you look at the totality of what's being done here, I think you'll see that there's a significant investment that we've made in specialty crop production.

Speaker 3: For more than two decades, the largest and wealthiest farms received the most aid, raking in nearly 80% of total subsidies. Gacko's farm is about 5,500 acres.

Speaker 6: There are some of those limitations in place and some adjustment there to more accurately reflect the size of farms and who should be receiving that type of financial assistance. But if you go too far in doing that, it would affect a farm of my size as well.

Speaker 3: The U.S. has been a leader in corn and soybean production since the 90s.

Speaker 4: All of this really is to benefit a handful of corporations that profit off of those policies, those exports.

Speaker 3: The 1996 Farm Bill removed certain growing requirements, which encouraged farmers to plant crops based on market demand rather than government regulations. Today, the United States dominates in commodity production, specifically meat. There are top agriculture exports, valued at more than $64 billion in 2023. Corn and soybeans alone accounted for more than half of all total farm crop income that year. So why corn and soybeans? They play an important role in a few industries. For one, global meat consumption continues to grow, and that livestock needs to eat. Corn and soybeans are used in processed foods, which make up over half of Americans' diets. And lastly, they're ingredients in biofuel production, which makes them invaluable.

Speaker 4: These same agriculture policies that are driving our trade deficit are driving poor health. Subsidies are a major driver of Americans' diets. The foods that the government subsidizes, those are the foods that are going to be more readily available and more affordable to our citizens.

Speaker 6: Here in rural America, the economies for our small towns, our small communities, our small businesses, a lot of that depends on farmers continuing to be able to be profitable and invest back in their farms and invest back in their communities.

Speaker 3: Health experts have linked our high commodity consumption with the country's growing obesity rate. Fruit and vegetable production is on a decline. And despite an increase in availability due to a large rise in imports, less than 20% of U.S. adults eat enough fruits and vegetables. But Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack sees things differently.

Speaker 5: We've seen a significant increase in consumption and actually in production of specialty crops across the United States. We import because we like to have choice 12 months out of the year. But in terms of actually feeding ourselves, our ranchers, our farmers, our producers are extraordinarily productive, and they provide everything that we need in this country. And that's an advantage we have over many, many other nations.

Speaker 3: The 2018 Farm Bill expired in September 2024. Congress has been unable to pass a new bill, putting funding for some programs in jeopardy and hurting farmers faced with increased competition and rising fuel and fertilizer costs.

Speaker 7: Agriculture is in serious condition. Input costs have risen dramatically, while the price they receive for what they grow has diminished. The issue here is the Farm Bill. A big sticking point are reference prices.

Speaker 3: Those are the minimum prices set by Congress for commodities like corn, soybeans, and wheat. Payments are triggered when prices fall below the set number.

Speaker 5: It's easier for Congress to give more money to defense than it is the Department of Agriculture.

Speaker 3: Disagreements over these subsidies and who gets them continue to anger activists and farmers alike, especially those who grow specialty crops. The requirements can be tough to meet and hard to prove. The Kents, for example, have only ever received $500.

Speaker 1: We had to put our neck on the line, and then we had to prove we have a loss, and the premiums are outrageous. They do help offset some costs, but they don't come close to paying a serious bill. We could use a little help. Who's going to grow our food? You really want to buy it all from overseas?

Speaker 3: On the other hand, pulling subsidy funding for commodities could be devastating for those producers. The American Soybean Association recommends seeking funding elsewhere. If lawmakers don't pass a new Farm Bill before January 2025, a whole new set of lawmakers will have to debate it.

Speaker 5: I don't think people are excited about the possibility of starting all over again. The new administration is going to have to get its sea legs, if you will, and that's going to take time. So you're looking at an extension of the existing bill.

Speaker 3: And they could make big changes. Commodity prices could also remain low for the next few years.

Speaker 6: Not having one in place right now hasn't ended those programs, but it does create uncertainty moving forward into 2025 and beyond. Farmers already are making plans for 2025, have already made purchasing decisions on inputs. The margins are really tight.

Speaker 1: My father always said, you know, here you have a whole lot of promises out there. Every single bloom is a promise. We promise that we're going to have fruit, but you never know, because promises are broken.

Speaker 3: Advocates are pushing for a more equal distribution of federal resources and additional support to other crops. Many point to Mexico, which is the largest fruit and vegetable exporter to the U.S. The country subsidizes much of its agriculture costs and barriers to entry. Its agriculture imports to the U.S. nearly quadrupled between the years 2000 and 2023.

Speaker 4: It goes to show you that if the government supports it, farmers are going to grow it. Because our farmers, they know how to grow and raise enough food to feed us. But these backwards policies are standing in the way. And farmers are moving into that direction because that's where the support is.

Speaker 3: Mexico's major advantages are cheap labor and land availability. The U.S. has neither. But the government could mandate that some commodity acreage should be allocated for fruit and vegetable production.

Speaker 6: First of all, there's definitely room for both. Large-scale production of fruits and vegetables in the Corn Belt is probably not an option for most farmers. It just doesn't fit the climate. It's not something that we can do. We can do it at a small scale. The short growing seasons, the weather, the challenges of winter.

Speaker 3: Globally, most countries that subsidize crops do so in the form of input support, like providing fertilizer, followed by lump sum payments. The U.S. could follow that example, but U.S. farms have vastly different needs.

Speaker 6: I think the difficulty there is we just, nobody farms exactly the same and we're not all growing the same crops. And we're dealing with different weather patterns and climate.

Speaker 3: The USDA announced an additional $72.9 million in grant funding for specialty crops in 2023 to help make these crops competitive in new markets and said more assistance could show up in the next farm bill.

Speaker 5: If you look at the totality of what's being done here, I think you'll see that there's a significant investment that we've made in specialty crop production.

Speaker 3: Other solutions include boosting demand for fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. and finding new markets for commodities overseas.

Speaker 6: Trade is super important. Decreased demand leads to farmers maybe needing more of those financial resources in a farm bill or somewhere else. So we want to be profitable with the market.

Speaker 3: Farmers are efficient, and there's hope on the horizon. Vegetable production was up 8% in 2023 compared to 2022, while fruit production was up 1.3%. With less risks and more incentives, producers might grow more specialty crops.

Speaker 1: Once you've acquired and you've created a nice business, it should go multi-generations. It shouldn't have to stop because costs got so high we had to sell it. If you're a crappy farmer, that's a whole other story. We're up for the challenge. Let's see if we can make it last.