Oregon Public Broadcasting

The global recession uprooted Oregon farmers last year – despite record food prices.

In fact, the state’s entire ag industry got hit, according to a new report from the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Shannon Neibergs is a livestock economist with Washington State University.

He says the global economic slowdown has hurt Northwest farm exports.

Shannon Neigbergs: “For the pork and the beef cattle, the profits aren’t there. So the breeding herd are at 30-plus year lows. The farm producers are losing money. And really the only way to change that is for consumers to start paying a larger percentage of their budget towards food.”

Income for the state’s farmers in 2008 held basically flat from the year before – and continued a downward slide going on since 2003.

The state agriculture report showed that another real culprit for slowing profits was a big increase in costs for things like fertilizer, pesticide and gas.