Report: Family farm bankruptcies jumped 20% in 2019
by KNOE(CNN/Gray News) - 2019 was a tough year for American farmers. U.S. farm bankruptcies jumped 20 percent last year.
That's the highest level since 2011 when the country was still recovering from the Great Recession. This comes despite $28 billion in aid extended to farmers over the past couple of years.
According to the American Farm Bureau, 595 family farms declared Chapter 12 bankruptcy.
The increase is being blamed on uncertainty in the markets spurred by the trade wars and rewritten international agreements.
Many Midwestern states saw its worst numbers of the decade in 2019. The number of bankruptcies in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois hit decade highs.
Wisconsin had the most farm bankruptcies with 57, up eight from 2018.
You can read the American Farm Bureau's full report here.
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