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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStruggling US farmers have a new worry: A resurgent Russia
OTRADNAYA, RussiaVladimir Mishurov transformed the remnants of the Lenins Path collective farm in this village into a profitable business. He also helped make Russia the worlds largest wheat exporter for the first time since the last years of the czars.
Over the past decade or so, Mr. Mishurov replaced his aging Russian equipment with a dozen high-tech machines from John Deere and other makers, and started using powerful new fertilizers and seeds. He bought and rented more acres from neighbors and family, eventually reaching about 3,600, taking advantage of Russias overall low prices for land.
And as many farmers do in the U.S., he often worked days on end with little sleep, especially during the harvest.
The major difference between Mr. Mishurov and a farmer on Americas Great Plains: The Russians costs are lower, and mostly in rubles, making his overseas salespriced in dollarsimmensely more valuable.
Amid a multiyear, brutal slump in grain prices, Russian agriculture is thriving. The country exported more than 40 million tons of wheat in the year ending June, around 50% more than the previous year, and the highest level for any country in the past quarter-century. Russia overtook the U.S. as the worlds biggest exporter of wheat in 2016, and again beat the U.S. in 2018.
The growing Russian competition is one more pressure point threatening American farming, which is facing the biggest wave of farm closures in the U.S. since the 1980s. A global oversupply of grain has pushed prices down to around half the level in 2012, when prices peaked, making it difficult to turn a profit in dollars.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/struggling-us-farmers-have-a-new-worry-a-resurgent-russia/ar-AAAyiCP?li=BBnbfcN
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)passage.
ck4829
(35,088 posts)The former head of the so-called science committee, Lamar Smith, has said it, after decades of saying global warming is a liberal lie, recently changed course and said "Global warming is real but it might be a good thing as it would give Russia arable land"
Of course, this would uproot the indigenous Siberians living there, but that's not if things like the anthrax kept in the permafrost don't kill them first... as it's already starting to do.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Big US Ag and the Farm Machinery Manufactures were sticking it up their collective rear ends.
Again,all those Trumpers were lulled to sleep by their masters message instead of paying attention. Sad to say,told you so more than once. Shut the friggin Fox TV off and pay attention.
Oh btw,why did Cummins Diesel build a new Engine Plant in Russia a few back,well if you had been paying attention,you would have seen this coming.
womanofthehills
(8,759 posts)Putin said Russia will become the worlds largest exporter of organic food.