A range of government farm support programs and legal set­­tlements, including the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), Coronavirus Food Assistance Pro­­gram (CFAP1 and CFAP2), Pay­­check Protection Program (PPP), Syngenta payments, ARC/PLC payments and crop in­surance, pumped close to $40 billion into the U.S. farm economy in 2020. In February 2020, the U.S. Department of Ag­­riculture was predicting a re­duction in U.S. farm income, but now is predicting growth in farm income, up to $115 billion.

Unexpected consequences

This...