Crushed by Debt

Farming has always run on credit — you borrow in spring and hope to repay at harvest. But when input costs climb, commodity prices swing, and inflated land values pad collateral without adding a dollar of cash flow, that ordinary debt cycle turns into a trap. This pillar covers the farmers caught inside it.

The tools of the squeeze are familiar to anyone who has watched a farm fail: operating loans that roll over and compound, equipment financing on machines that cost as much as a house, and Chapter 12 — the bankruptcy chapter written specifically for family farmers when everything else runs out. USDA's Economic Research Service tracks farm-sector debt in the aggregate; we report what it means for the households behind the numbers.

We follow the lenders, the loan terms, and the policy choices — from Farm Credit to the Farm Bill's credit titles — that decide who gets to keep farming and who gets foreclosed. Consolidation feeds on distress: every family forced out is acreage the biggest operators absorb.