With Thanksgiving this week, the farming community is stressing the importance of crop protection tools, and how they help keep food affordable in the United States.  Jessica Christian, Head of Bayer’s Crop Science Communication said crop protection tools save the average family of four up to 48% on groceries annually.  She noted that if these tools that are used to fight weeds and keep harvests high disappear, the consumer will be the one to suffer.

 

“If Roundup were to not be accessible to farmers, it could more than double inflation of food," Christian noted.  "That basically equates to $10 billion more that American families would be spending every year at the grocery store.  So, a really, really critical impact that just this one tool could have on the food pricing that we see; that we all see.”

 

Christian said removing tools from the toolboxes of farmers will make an already challenging job even more difficult.

 

“We want our farmers to stay in business.  It's a very small part of our population that feeds us all, so we need farmers to stay successful, to stay profitable, to do that, they have to have the most affordable system that you can have to make sure they get the most crop at the best price.”

 

Click Here to read the survey in its entirety. 

 

According to a study by Purdue University, Oregon has the 3rd most expensive holiday dinner in the county, Washington comes in at #13, while Idaho sits at #23. 

 

 

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com 

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