John Deere posted a 17 percent jump in profits in the second quarter, topping analyst expectations and reinforcing a narrative of the strength of the American farm sector.

Analysts eagerly anticipated Deere’s second quarter results, claiming that the state of the company could reflect the state of the agricultural sector. While the farm sector as a whole is booming, with crop prices currently at all time highs and with farm incomes on the rise, rising fuel prices and the failure of Congress to pass a new farm bill have some farmers worried about the future.

While farmers may be apprehensive, farm equipment supplies appear to have nothing to worry about. Deere’s 17 percent profit jump translates into earnings of about $1.06 billion, or $2.61 per share, an increase of more than $100 million from last year. In addition to massive second quarter profits, Deere officials are expecting sales to increase this current quarter, rising 25 percent above Wall Street expectations.

Deere’s success reflects the current state of the ag industry. Crop prices, particularly corn prices, are at all time highs. High crop prices have led to increases in farm value and farm income, making agriculture one of the top producers in the overall American economy. In addition, while high Deere profits reflect the increasing purchasing power of farmers, it also reflects the upcoming record harvest planned by American farmers. The anticipated corn harvest will be the largest in American history according to U.S. Department of Agriculture predictions.

While the next few years may see an inevitable drop in crop prices and farm incomes, companies like Deere can certainly expect to continue reaping the benefits of a strong farm economy.

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer

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A bipartisan coalition of 42 senators recently sent an open letter to the Senate leadership urging them to bring the 2012 Farm Bill to the Senate floor.

The 2012 Farm Bill has been at the center of a political firestorm for more than a year. While renewing and replacing the omnibus legislation dealing with almost every aspect of federal farm policy is not typically controversial, this year’s legislation is up for renewal in the midst of a contentious presidential election and increasingly partisan debates in the House and Senate.

While the farm bill passed the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this month, it has not yet been sent to the Senate floor for debate. The Senate farm bill contains about $25 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, including the elimination of direct payment farm subsidies.

While the bill passed the Ag Committee in a 16-5 vote, it faces tougher opposition on the Senate floor, with many Southern Senators expressing dissatisfaction at the elimination of direct payments, which disproportionately hurts Southern rice, cotton, and peanut farmers.

Regardless of internal support, the bipartisan Senate coalition believes that the farm bill deserves a vote. Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin recently joined 42 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urging both Senators to bring the bill to the floor for an open debate.

“We believe there is strong support in the full Senate to consider the bill in a fair and open manner that allows senators the opportunity to offer amendments,” the letter states.

Senator Reid’s office has reiterated the Senator’s support for the agricultural sector. Reid hopes to bring the bill up for debate within the next few weeks.

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According to a report recently released by Human Rights Watch, female farmworkers, particularly undocumented immigrants, face frequent sexual abuse, running the gamut from sexual harassment to sexual assault, while on the job.

The Human Rights Watch report comes at a tense moment in American agricultural history. Last summer and fall, several agricultural states, Georgia and Alabama most prominently, passed tough new immigration laws designed to prevent undocumented workers from obtaining employment. Farmers and farm advocacy groups, in an effort to reverse the nationwide trend against immigrant labor, have countered by pressuring Congress to reform guest worker laws that would allow guarantee an adequate supply of farm labor while limiting illegal immigration.

The farmworkers report reveals some sobering details about the lives of immigrant farmworkers. According to Human Rights Watch, about 650,000 of the 3 million migrant and seasonal farmworkers are women. Among these women, sexual assault is disturbingly common. According to the report, “Our research confirms what farmworker advocates across the country believe: Sexual violence and sexual harassment experienced by farmworkers is common enough that some farmworker women see these abuses as an unavoidable condition of agricultural work.”

Particularly problematic is the imbalance of power many of these farmworkers face. Immigrant laborers, particularly undocumented workers, are often intimidated and pressured not to report abuse to the police, with many citing fear of deportation as a major motivator of their silence. The report calls on Congress to pass laws better protecting immigrant women and calls on the Department of Homeland Security to reverse rules encouraging local police to report immigration violations to federal authorities.

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The rapid decline of the honeybee population appears to be taking its toll on farmers across the country, forcing them to rely more and more on wild pollinators to protect their crops.

Across the country, farmers rely on pollinators like bees to ensure abundant harvests. Countless crops nationwide need pollinators to thrive, with orchard crops like fruit and nuts particularly dependent on a stable population of pollinators.

Many farmers have been hit hard by the collapse of the honeybee population in the United States, a population that has served as the primary pollinator for most farmers. Beginning in late 2006, scientists across North American began noticing a dramatic decline in honeybee populations, with worker bee populations of colonies across the continent mysteriously vanishing. The overall number of honey producing hives in the country has dropped dramatically since the 1980s. In early 2008, there were 2.4 million honey producing hives in the United States, down from 4.5 million in 1980. In 2011, overall estimates of honeybee losses were placed at 30 percent.

In response to this ecological and agricultural crisis, farm researchers are spreading awareness about how best to react to colony collapse disorder. Penn State University and Cornell University, thanks to funding offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have published a pamphlet advising farmers to diversify their pollinators, relying more heavily on wild pollinators to replace dwindling bee populations and to avoid costly bee rental fees.

According to the pamphlet, there are 450 non-honeybee bee species. Of these species, 100 visit apple orchards, making their conservation and protection vital to the continued profitability of fruit productions.

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After severe market volatility caused a nationwide losses of $10 billion, dairy farmers have pushed to include stronger milk protections in the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill.

In 2009 in South Dakota, milk prices dropped from $20 per hundredweight to an all-time low of $10 per hundredweight. While the market has since stabilized, with prices shooting back up to $16 per hundredweight, dairy farmers report that they cannot long remain in business with that level of volatility.

The dairy proposals in the new farm bill, some dairy farmers say, do not go far enough to protect the milk industry. As it currently stands, farmers would be protected if the margin between the cost of feed and the price of milk grows too narrow. In addition, farmers would have the option of participating in federally subsidized risk management insurance, in exchange for agreeing to limit production if prices fall too low.

Many dairy farmers, including those in rapidly expanding farms in South Dakota, believe that these caps are too limiting to an industry that could experience rapid growth. “Supply controls are not good for dairy, and certainly not for a state like South Dakota. We’ve got 90,000 cows, and we want 200,000 in the next five to seven years. We’re not going to do that if they put a cap on us,” said the CEO of Davidson Food international.

Many state officials have carefully worked to lure California dairy farmers out to South Dakota, and feel that a cap would undo years of hard work. While some farmers are willing to accept the provisions in the farm bill, others continue to hope for a bill containing crucial price protections without the production caps.

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Minnesota farmers are challenging a state ban on raw milk delivery, with some opposing the measure so strongly that they continue to sell in the face of criminal charges.

Minnesota farmer Alvin Schlangen is an organic egg farmer who operates a club called Freedom Co-op, whose members sign contracts to buy and consume raw milk. Schlangen picks up local raw milk products and delivers them to members of the co-op. His ongoing efforts have landed him in hot water and he currently faces trial for violating the state’s food safety code.

Recent debates over raw milk have erupted in several states across the country. While many states do not explicitly ban the production or consumption of raw milk, many severely regulate its sale and transportation, often forbidding it to be delivered across state or county lines. Minnesota’s law allows raw milk to only be sold directly to consumers on the farm where it is produced.

Raw milk advocates claim that the pasteurization process kills helpful bacteria, destroying important nutrients. Opponents say that the pasteurization process is necessary to kill harmful bacteria and prevent to spread of foodborne illnesses.

Schlangen and his lawyer are using his upcoming case to present raw milk in a favorable light, hoping that it becomes a flashpoint for raw milk farmers nationwide. Schlangen’s lawyer recently attacked state agricultural officials, saying, “We have a bureaucracy that’s intent for whatever reason on making sure people aren’t able to get raw milk.”

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Cleveland area farmers and local activists are pushing Congress to include urban farming measures in the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill, hoping that a national urban farming movement could help reinvigorate sluggish local economies.

Cleveland is hardly the first major U.S. city to embrace urban farming measures. Cities across the country (including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco) are rewriting local ordinances to allow larger and larger urban farm plots within municipal borders.. While the movement has deep roots in the United States (it was used during the late nineteenth century in major urban centers to combat economic depressions and, more famously, as a part of the national war effort during World War II), its more recent incarnation appears more permanent, with supporters claiming that it has the ability to radically transform agricultural production in the U.S.

Cleveland farmers recently testified to the importance of urban farming at a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing. “Urban farmers are real farmers who can create jobs and grow fresh produce to help our cities,” one farmer testified. ”We need and deserve the same assistance given to rural farmers so we can grow and thrive.”

The major focus of Cleveland farmers’ concerns were access to farm credit. Like other farmers, urban agricultural producers frequently require access to credit to guarantee ongoing production and to guarantee access to necessary agricultural tools like storage, coolers, and tractors.

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Dakota’s farmers are recovering after last year’s historic flooding, causing optimistic forecasts for the economic recovery across the northern Great Plains.

Last spring, heavy snowmelt and torrential rain led to massive flooding across the Great Plains, hitting North and South Dakota especially hard. With floodwaters swamping fields, farmers were unable to plant and harvest spring and summer crops, seriously damaging local economies across the state.

Many small Dakota towns reported that the ongoing oil boom was the only thing that allowed many businesses to remain open. Without local farmers spending and consuming, local economies were on life-support, hoping that the situation would turn around the following spring.

The weather forecast so far is promising. Without the heavy rains or massive snowmelt, and with a relatively mild winter, farmers are anticipating higher crop yields across the Dakotas. North Dakota’s durum wheat acres, for example, are expected to double this year, with the barley crop almost doubling as well. In South Dakota, corn crops are expected to reach record highs with farmers across the state hoping to take advantage of record prices nationwide.

According to local crop insurance managers, Dakotas farmers will plant and harvest higher than average yields. “This will be one of the lowest years in both states (for unseeded acres) — if not the lowest,” one insurance company stated.

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Across the country, farmers markets, long seen as more local curiosity than major component of agricultural production, are booming as consumer grow more concerned with buying local produce.

Thirty years ago, many farmers would hardly consider farmers markets a valuable avenue of agricultural marketing and sales. The Buzby family of Woodstown, New Jersey, and hour south of Philadelphia, embodied that mentality, selling most of the produce grown on their fruit and vegetable farm to wholesalers, rather than bothering with an hour-long trip to farmers markets in Philly.

With recent safety scares, however, consumers are becoming more and more aware of where they purchase their food. Last year’s listeria outbreak, the deadliest foodborne illness outbreak in recent history, combined with fears of mad cow disease and controversies over pink slime and other food additives have driven more and more consumers to local farmers markets to buy produce from local farmers.

The federal government has certainly aided the process. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign was designed to encourage consumers to buy agricultural goods from local farmers in an effort to improve local nutrition and benefit the local economy. Recent action by the USDA to improve wireless technology in farmers markets to allow Food Stamps participants to buy goods will only increase attendance.

The results have been remarkable. The Buzby family, for instance, has gone from ignoring farmers markets to generating about 20 percent of their $1 million annual revenue from them. Nationwide, USDA estimates place farmers market sales at about 2 percent of total farm sales (or about $1 billion).

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Alabama farmers are reporting smaller than average plantings across the state, citing fears of labor shortages in the wake of the state’s illegal immigration crackdown.

Last spring and summer, several states across the country passed tough new immigration laws designed to curb the flow of illegal immigrants. Citing a failure of the federal government to adequately protect the border, Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia all passed laws empowering law enforcement to verify the status of detainees, required state employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of potential employees, and made it a crime to harbor illegal immigrants.

In the wake of these laws, local officials have reported severe shortages of farm labor, with both illegal immigrants and legal farm workers leaving the state for fear of harassment. Because of these shortages, farm officials in Georgia and Alabama have reported millions of dollars in lost revenue as crops rotted in fields due to the lack of farmhands.

Several farmers in Alabama, citing last year’s shortages, are planting fewer crops for fear of continued losses. Several tomato farmers in the heart of the state’s tomato country claimed that there was simply too much uncertainty about the availability of labor to plant large crops.

While it’s not entirely clear how many farmers across the state will reduce their planting, farm officials say this year will serve as a test case for the law and its impact on labor. More than 1,000 Alabama farmers grow labor-intensive crops. State officials say the final harvests at these farms will indicate the depth of the labor shortage.

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