Wheat farmer Andy Juris finds his balance sheet agonizing.
The cost of necessities such as fertilizer zip along a continuous incline, while the price of wheat he grows in southern Washington State falls short of his expenses.
“A lot of the inflation that started post-COVID never really left agriculture,” Juris told Straight Arrow.
The price of diesel fuel, for example, hit a record high this month.
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Juris’ farm is a short drive from the river that separates Washington from Oregon, where dried out grass and wheat grow from level terrain bathed in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains. While the western portion of Washington is renowned for dense forests sustained through frequent rainfall and picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean, Juris said his section of the state is decidedly more desolate.
“We’re basically a desert that, in some places, doesn’t look any different than Death Valley,” he said.
The farmer grows dryland wheat, so named for its climate, and counts himself among the fortunate ones.
“We’re on the edge of profitability,” he said, but added “we have to be very, very careful.”
Juris hasn’t resorted to one of the most drastic measures: declaring bankruptcy. But hundreds of American farmers haven’t been as lucky these past two years.
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Bankruptcies filed under Chapter 12, the section of the bankruptcy code created specifically for agriculture, were up 46% last year compared with 2024, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. And those bankruptcies in 2024 were up 55% compared with 2023.
The trend continues in 2026: April had the highest monthly total of Chapter 12 bankruptcies in six years, 62.
Agriculture’s financial woes were driven by the same forces vexing Juris and his Washington farm, experts told Straight Arrow.
In fact the bankruptcy surge inspired a group of former politicians, agribusiness professionals and farmers to call on Congress to act. Their efforts were met with silence, they say.
Why did Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies hit a six-year high?
In an interview, Juris went through the cost of inputs.
“Before 2020, nitrogen fertilizer was $200 to $300 a ton,” he said. “In the early summer, we were seeing $700 to $800 a ton.”
He added: “We’re paying $6 [per gallon] right now for diesel.”
A war with Iran choked off a major trade route for crude oil, pushing up gas prices. And a trade war with America’s largest trading partners, some of whom are allies, stifled overseas markets for American crops.
USAID once bought billions of dollars of rice, wheat and vegetables, but is now largely defunct.
These forces aren’t new — the war with Iran is in its seventh month — but experts say bankruptcies are a lagging indicator of financial health.
“You don’t file bankruptcy after the first year of low income,” said Nathan Hulinsky, an educator for the University of Minnesota’s agricultural extension.
U.S. farmers saw record-breaking net income of $182 billion in 2022, USDA statistics show. But that fell to $147 billion in 2023 and $128 billion in 2024. It bounced back to $162 billion in 2025, thanks in part to an infusion of government payments. The USDA projects it will drop again in 2026 by 5.5%.
“The last five years have been pretty volatile,” Hulinsky said.
Growers can stave off insolvency by taking out loans or selling land, but those steps sometimes amount to kicking the can down the road.
Farmers in Juris’s region of Washington are accustomed to lean years, having experienced multiple droughts.
Many live off their savings or borrow money in bad times, said Nicole Berg, who grows wheat not far from Juris, near the town of Patterson.
“But I’ve always felt like that is a quiet wolf at the door,” she told Straight Arrow. “You can make your payments and pay your bills, but you’re gradually eroding your equity. That’s why you’re seeing a lot of bankruptcies.”
These bankruptcies “are not a sign of sector-wide collapse,” stressed Alejandro Plastina, director of the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center at the University of Missouri, but “are clearly a sign of concern.”
How does Congress plan to assist US farmers?
In a series of letters and press conferences, the fledgling advocacy group Restore American Agriculture tried to needle lawmakers into action.
The letters’ signatories include dozens of former USDA officials, agribusiness leaders and academics.
“We’re asking lawmakers to get out there and listen to farmers,” said Dawn Riley, a former high-ranking USDA official who signed one of the letters.
She noted that President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs — a power vested to Congress under the U.S. constitution — with little pushback from his own party.
“We’ve really seen this Congress abdicate its responsibility over and over and over again,” Riley told Straight Arrow.
Advocates for farmers want Congress to make sweeping changes that include ending tariffs on agricultural goods and directing the Trump Administration to secure binding trade agreements.
Riley and her fellow signatories say Congress has not listened.
“I don’t have much optimism,” she said. “It’s sad but true.”
The USDA announced $12 billion in so-called bridge payments to farmers last December.
But “that’s not a long-term plan,” said John Foltz, a retired professor of agriculture at the Ohio State University and the University of Idaho. Foltz also signed one of the letters.
“Congress has been working very hard to pass the Farm Bill,” said Republican Dan Newhouse, who represents a largely rural congressional district in Washington State hugging the Canadian border.
“That addresses many of the things farmers are concerned with,” Newhouse told Straight Arrow.
The bill would change labor laws to make hiring easier, he said. The Trump Administration, he added is “is working very hard to sign new trade deals. I think to date there’s been at least 20 new ones signed, which is great progress.”
But the odds of any action from Congress before November’s midterm elections are exceedingly low, said Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who represents one of Maine’s two congressional districts.
That Congress has yet to pass a Farm Bill, she said, “in itself is pretty devastating.”
Pingree is one of 30 sponsors — all Democrats — of the Farm and Family Relief Act, which is separate from the Farm Bill and provides financial assistance to cash-strapped farmers. But the bill has not come up for a vote.
The congresswoman, however, acknowledged providing money to struggling farms won’t end ongoing trade wars or reopen trading routes.
“I haven’t heard too many farmers saying ‘we’re making money hand over fist,’” Pingree said.
Democrats are favored to win back control of the House of Representatives and stand some chance of winning the Senate, but that doesn’t give advocates like Foltz much hope.
For now “it appears that Congress and Senate are both kowtowing to the president,” he said.
And Democratic success in November raises the possibility of unending clashes between a Republican White House and a Democrat-controlled Congress.
But Riley says lobbying lawmakers is still worth it.
“The American farmer deserves better,” she said. “They deserve to be represented by honest brokers in Congress.”
READ MORE: How high corn production hides the financial strain of US farms
Newhouse disputed the notion that Congress is not listening to farmers.
The chair of the house agriculture committee told Straight Arrow he has visited nearly every state to discuss the Farm Bill. And he expects Congress to revisit the law after the midterms.
“The good news is we’ve made progress,” Newhouse said.
Can market shifts offer relief to crop growers?
Market forces may provide a small boost to farmers in the short term. Prices for corn and soybeans are on the rise and are higher than the average cost of production in some regions.
However, experts stress that cost varies from farm to farm, and some of the underlying challenges remain in place.
Tariffs, for example, create countervailing forces that both reduce the market for U.S. crops and increase the cost of goods farmers depend on, Foltz said.
“We can say empirically that tariffs are increasing the cost of farm inputs,” he told Straight Arrow.
These high costs will cast a long shadow for farmers like Juris, who grew up on a farm and left a career in the airline industry to return to agriculture.
“The geopolitical situation is going to be extraordinarily difficult to unwind,” he told Straight Arrow.
Still, he hasn’t lost hope.
“Farmers are the most optimistic pessimists you’ll ever see,” he said. “It’s kind of an ironic personality that makes up agriculture.”
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