Right now the price is between 40 to 50 cents per pound and as recently as December the price was 35 cents a pound. A book entitled The Embattled Farmer by Jay Staten was published in 1987. It contains a quotation from Tim O'Malley, a farmer in Iowa. I want to share that quotation because it helped me get a feel for farming's anxieties. I might be able to hang on.
Every job has stresses and fears and uncertain ties.
I know that. Farmers know that. But the stress of farmers is often for gotten because the percentage of Americans involved in that industry is so small. But our dependence on that industry is fundamental. Food crops and livestock for nutritional sustenance and fiber crops for clothes are meeting needs that are essential to our lives.