Family Farms Won’t Escape Biden’s New Tax

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former Democratic governor of Iowa, writes that “Biden’s Tax Changes Won’t Hurt Family Farmers” or small-business owners (op-ed, Sept. 9). Maybe he has been in Washington too long, as he has lost his grasp of today’s capital-intensive, high-risk farming economics in Iowa.

Mr. Vilsack states that his 600-acre Iowa farm is worth almost $2 million, or about $3,300 an acre. It must not be quality farmland—probably more suitable for wild-game hunting. Good farm ground in Iowa sells now for about $12,000 an acre, and 600 acres of corn and soybeans are likely required to have an economically feasible family farming operation. Farming profit margins are razor-thin due to globalization, and land is becoming more expensive due to government-caused inflation. Farms must expand to survive.