American farmers are being crushed — and it isn’t the trade war

This video cuts through the familiar narrative that the American farm crisis is a temporary side-effect of tariffs or bad trade deals. Farmers across Arkansas describe operating at massive losses — $150 to $350 per acre — while watching emergency aid pass straight through their hands to monopolistic seed, fertilizer, machinery, and grain giants.

Watch the video here: We Went to Arkansas. The Farm Crisis Will Shock You

Over decades, mergers and consolidation have hollowed out competition on both sides of the market. On the input side, companies like Bayer (after absorbing Monsanto) dominate seed and chemical markets, while a handful of machinery manufacturers control tractors and combines. On the selling side, global grain traders such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland set prices farmers are forced to accept — often below the cost of production.

Farmers interviewed argue that real reform would mean restoring competition, breaking up monopolies, and rethinking export-driven overproduction. Some point to supply management and price floors — policies that once stabilized farm income and could save taxpayers billions while keeping farmers solvent.

This is not a story about inefficiency or bad luck. It’s about a system engineered to privatize profits, socialize losses, and steadily erase independent farmers — all while calling it “free markets.”