The cost of farming will remain volatile next year, and high grocery prices with it, according to a University of Missouri research associate for the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.
“This isn’t a message I like talking about,” Senior Research Associate Ben Brown told The Center Square. “Most likely, the path forward is going to be a period of high prices and low or relatively low economic growth. It’s the same thing we had in the 1970s. It’s going to cause economic pain, there’s no doubt about it. And it tends to last long.”
Brown said that farmers have few ways to adapt when the operating cost rises. This was especially true in 2021 when farmers and ranchers paid from 200 percent to 300 percent more for fertilizer. Plus, the volatility in the European markets affects the cost of natural gas used to produce anhydrous ammonia for adding nitrogen to the soil to improve plant growth….