Hey Farmers, You’re Not the Problem—You’re the Heroes

So why does it feel like you’re drowning?

Because the game is rigged, my friend. And it’s time we all said it out loud.

Meet Adam Chappell: A Farmer Who Tells It Like It Is

Adam Chappell farms 2,400 acres of soybeans, rice, and corn in east Arkansas’ Woodruff County. He’s 46 years old, and in a recent interview with Chris Bennett on AgWeb.com, he said something that should wake up every single person in this country: “This is the worst agriculture economy of my lifetime over at least the past three years, and right this minute, guys are going under—as in bankruptcy or leaving the farm.”

Think about that. A farmer in his mid-forties saying this is the worst he’s ever seen. Not just bad. The worst.

Adam isn’t mincing words, and neither should we. As he puts it: “Year after year of sweeping all this s*** under the rug and pretending it’s not happening has got us to this point. Years of barely squeaking by, surviving with a bailout and then doing it all again. That is the definition of insanity.”

He’s right. And he’s brave enough to say what a lot of farmers are thinking but are too exhausted or too beaten down to say out loud.

 

The Math That Doesn’t Add Up

Here’s the deal in the simplest terms possible: Farmers can’t pass their costs down the line. When your fertilizer bill goes up, you can’t charge more for your corn. When seed prices jump, you can’t raise your soybean price. When machinery costs skyrocket, you can’t add a surcharge to your rice.

Farmers are the only players in the entire agriculture chain who have to eat every single cost increase while having zero control over what they get paid for their product.

Think about that for a second. The seed company raises prices? They pass it to you. The chemical company’s costs go up? They pass it to you. The fertilizer manufacturer wants better margins? They pass it to you. The machinery dealer needs to hit their quarterly numbers? They pass it to you.

But when you need to cover your costs? You get whatever the market gives you. And lately, the market has been giving you the middle finger.

Adam Chappell describes it this way: “I’m sick of USDA graphs saying agriculture income is set to rise. They’re baking cattle and coming payments into their recipe and pretending things are good. Bulls***.”

He’s calling out the people who are supposed to be helping, because the numbers they’re putting out don’t match the reality on the ground.

Let’s Talk About the Elephant in the Barn

Monopolies. There, I said it (actually Adam said it). The word that makes politicians squirm and corporate boardrooms nervous.

Adam doesn’t dance around this issue. “Seed, chemicals or fertilizer, it’s all in the hands of a few companies that are the only game in town,” he told Chris Bennett. “You want to fix farming? Start a federal investigation on those big companies. Booming quarterly earnings and big stock dividends make no sense when farmers can’t pinch a penny.”

When a handful of companies control 70%, 80%, even 90% of the seed market, that’s not a free market—that’s a rigged game. When four companies control more than 80% of the fertilizer market, that’s not competition—that’s a chokehold.

And here’s what Adam sees happening in real time: “If corn prices were to suddenly jump this month, nitrogen prices will magically rise the following year. If soybean prices explode to $15 tomorrow, a bag of beans will climb to $90. Guaranteed. Potash will hit $1,000. The monopoly problem is real.”

That’s not paranoia. That’s pattern recognition. That’s a farmer who’s been paying attention to how the game actually works.

The Truth Politicians Won’t Say Out Loud

Want to know something that should make your blood boil? Adam shares that behind closed doors, away from microphones and cameras, federal politicians acknowledge the monopoly problem. “They all tell me they’re aware of a monopoly problem, and they don’t deny it exists,” he says. “But they do nothing.”

Read that again. They know. They admit it privately. And they do nothing.

Why? Because those same corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year lobbying to make sure things stay exactly the way they are. In 2023 alone, agribusiness spent $177 million on lobbying—more than oil and gas, more than defense contractors.

Why Bailouts Are Just Band-Aids

Now, I know some folks will say, “But what about farm aid? What about subsidies?”

Here’s where Adam Chappell really nails it: “The solution is supposedly another bailout or a gap payment the following year? Wake the hell up: Where do you think that money is gonna go? It won’t go to farmers. It’ll go into supplier’s pockets.”

Bailouts are like giving someone with a bullet wound a Band-Aid. Sure, it might soak up some blood, but it’s not fixing the actual problem.

And you know where that bailout money really goes? Not into farmers’ savings accounts. Not into their retirement. Not into their kids’ college funds. As Adam says: “This is real talk. This is what farmers know and experience. You can bet your ass, the monopolies will get their money. If you think otherwise, you’ve got blinders on.”

The money goes straight through farmers’ hands and into the pockets of the very companies that have them over a barrel—the seed companies, the chemical companies, the equipment dealers, the banks. Meanwhile, those same corporations lobby for farmers to get the bailouts, because they know exactly where that money ends up.

 

You Are the Backbone of Everything

Let’s talk about what farmers really are for a minute, because I don’t think they hear this enough.

Farmers are the reason this country eats. Period. They are the reason we have national security. No farms, no food. No food, no country. It’s that simple.

Farmers are the original entrepreneurs, the original risk-takers, the original innovators. They bet everything they have every single season on variables they can’t control—weather, markets, global politics, disease, pests. They manage more complexity before breakfast than most CEOs handle in a month.

They are stewards of the land, protectors of soil that their grandchildren’s grandchildren will depend on. They understand long-term thinking in a world that can barely see past the next quarterly earnings report.

They should be celebrated. They should be role models. Their kids should be proud to say their parents are farmers. Their communities should look at them with respect and admiration, not pity.

Because they’re heroes. Real, actual heroes. The role models we need. 

And heroes like Adam Chappell shouldn’t have to go bankrupt to feed their country.

So What Needs to Change?

Here’s where we need to get real about solutions, because Band-Aids and bailouts aren’t cutting it anymore. What would actual change look like?

1. First, we need to break up the monopolies. Real anti-trust enforcement. States have laws on the books—use them. Force the federal government to follow. When companies control 80% of a market, that’s not capitalism, that’s corporate feudalism, and farmers are the serfs.
2. Second, we need a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions in food and ag. No more consolidation. Not one more merger. Not one more acquisition. The big companies are big enough. More than big enough.
3. Third, we need to fix the lobbying problem. If you work on an agriculture committee in Congress, you shouldn’t be allowed to turn around and work for John Deere, Bayer, or Cargill the day after you leave office. Five-year cooling-off period, minimum. Maybe ten.
4. Fourth, we need to diversify what we grow. Right now, too much goes to feed and ethanol, not enough goes to feeding Americans. We need a structure that allows farmers to grow food that actually feeds people, builds food security, and creates more market options.

The Question We All Need to Answer

Here’s what it comes down to: What kind of country do we want to be?

Do we want to be a country where the people who feed us can’t afford to keep farming? Where fifth and sixth-generation farms disappear because the economics have been deliberately stacked against them? Where we hand our food security over to a handful of corporations who care more about quarterly earnings than about soil, communities, or the farmers themselves?

Or do we want to be a country that values its farmers, protects them, ensures they can make a living doing the most essential work there is?

You Deserve Better

To every farmer reading this: You deserve better. You deserve a system that works for you, not just one that works through you to get money to corporations. You deserve to be able to pass your farm to your kids if they want it. You deserve to go to bed at night without that knot in your stomach wondering if this is the year you lose everything.

You’re not the problem. You’ve never been the problem.

You’re the solution. Farmers like Adam Chappell who are willing to speak truth to power—they’re showing us what courage looks like.

The question isn’t whether you’re good enough. You are. The question is whether we—as a society, as a nation—are good enough to build a system that treats you with the respect and support you’ve earned.

It’s time we demanded better. For you. For your families. For every rural community that depends on you. For the future of food in this country.

Because if we lose our farmers, we lose everything.

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