There are many items farmers have to pay for to raise livestock and grow crops, like electricity, equipment, water, fertilizer, animal feed, seeds, and fuel, as well as employees to help them get all the work done on the farm. Even though food prices have been going up at the grocery store, this doesn’t mean most farmers are being paid more for what they sell. Many fruit and vegetable growers, for example, are still receiving the same prices – and in some cases less – for their produce as they were several years ago. That means that farmers always have to look for new ways to produce more food more efficiently so that they can stay in business. And there are things outside of a farmer’s control that impact their businesses too, such as transportation or processing strikes, new trade agreements and political spats between countries, weather events, or global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
