Saturday, June 05, 2010

RUSSIAN WHEAT EXPORTS THREATEN AMERICAN FARMERS

I was surprised to see that the Russians are now exporting wheat and selling it for less than American wheat farmers. It is possible that US farmers will be losing world market share to cheaper Russian wheat. Not only has America lost its manufacturing lead to a number of Asian countries, America may no longer be the agricultural bread-basket of the world.

Ever since Stalin enacted the collectivization of Soviet farms in 1928, agricultural production has been a disaster for the Soviet Union. In the 1970s and 1980s the USSR was forced to import US wheat to feed its people. Now that communism is gone, maybe agricultural capitalism will put Russia and the Ukraine on a sounder economic footing. But it sure will curtail the bragging rights of American farmers if Russia now becomes a competitor.

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