American Children Are Going Hungry in the COVID-19 Pandemic

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kraftiekortie
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08 May 2020, 7:27 am

That’s being done by most banks for home mortgages.

There are moratoriums on evictions in many places—but only for homes and nonfarm businesses.

The “missing mortgage payments” are usually backloaded to the end of the loan, rather than being owed by the homeowner right away.



magz
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08 May 2020, 7:31 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
That’s being done by most banks for home mortgages.

There are moratoriums on evictions in many places—but only for homes and nonfarm businesses.

The “missing mortgage payments” are usually backloaded to the end of the loan, rather than being owed by the homeowner right away.

That makes sense. Pity it doesn't stretch to farming.


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QuantumChemist
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08 May 2020, 9:35 am

Some farmers are under contracts with their food products. Basically, they signed paper stating that they would only sell to one place. Breaking those deals would cost them dearly in lawsuits. Most of these deals involve food service industries, things like Disneyland. Well, when those places closed, the farmers are left without a market to sell their food stuffs per their contracts. Yes, they can give it away, but that does not help them pay the bills. I know that some farmers tilled under fields of produce simply because it would have cost them fuel to harvest for something that they could not sell. It is wasteful, but I do not blame them for making that financial decision.

In California, this issue got so bad last month that some farms were selling complete boxes of harvested tomatoes for $5 or less a box. People would say that the farmers should be allowed to sell it to supermarkets. Some of them can and do, but the prices that they get for there products is severely depressed as the markets already have their supply set. As soon as it gets delivered into the store, the prices go back up to the regular price. The consumer is lucky if they ever see a dime in discount due to greedy market owners raising prices. You will see many family farms go under if things do not correct back to what they where before.



magz
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08 May 2020, 9:41 am

That doesn't sound like "free market" at all :(


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QuantumChemist
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08 May 2020, 9:56 am

In a way, it is, yet it is not. The farmers got locked into those contracts with promises of high prices for their products. They could never see this event coming as a financial storm that it did. Who would have thought that major businesses would just shut down and they would be stuck holding the bag?

The grocery store owners are doing free market stuff at the lowest level, buy low/sell high. Unfortunately, the farmers are getting the worse of it as many will go under if they cannot pay the bank for the upcoming crops. If they go under, the farms will b sold to larger commercial farms. We pay a price, as those type of farms have a larger control of where the food market goes over time.



kraftiekortie
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08 May 2020, 10:39 am

I’m wondering if the companies with which the farmers had exclusive contracts would have covered them if crop failures, droughts, etc. occurred, which was, perhaps, why they signed those contracts in the first place.



QuantumChemist
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08 May 2020, 11:00 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
I’m wondering if the companies with which the farmers had exclusive contracts would have covered them if crop failures, droughts, etc. occurred, which was, perhaps, why they signed those contracts in the first place.


You are probably right on that point. I know that they are guaranteed a certain price for their crops with those contracts. It would make sense that there would be a rider for certain issues, bit not this one.

My rural aunt and uncle are ranchers now. They used to be into farming, but decided to rent out their land that they farmed on to other farmers. They still have pasture land for their cattle. You would think that they would be in trouble, but they sell fresh beef locally. They are actually doing quite well the last time I heard. People are wanting their beef because it was not processed at a large meat packer, but at a much smaller local one. It also tastes better than commercially processed beef one can get in stores.

I heard yesterday that there is a run on large freezers in California because people are scared of an upcoming meat shortage. We have been having an issue in Kansas with people from neighboring states attempting to buy up the meat supplies. Local meat packers have new rules in place that restrict the amounts one buys unless they are local. My mother has plenty of cold storage space, as I bought three good freezers at garage sales years ago. Yeah, I was preparing for something like this (or was it for storing my books?). My aunt said that we could buy a side or two of beef from them at a cheap price, so that will likely be a done deal. My only worry is if the power goes out for a long time with storm season just starting up. Guess I will need to look into a power generator for them just in case that happens.