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On a recent snowy afternoon on a farm in central Illinois, Dan Byers parked his pickup at the end of a dirt road and looked over some of his fertile land. A few years ago, high grain prices earned farmers here about $400 per acre for their corn and soybean crops. This year, it's possible that every acre Byers farms will cost him $50.

"It just takes a certain amount of fixed money to put a crop in and raise it," says Byers. "At today's prices, not much of anything works right now until there's a rebound."

Across the country, a number of farmers are likely to take a big pay cut this year. Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects farmers will earn a third less than they did last year.

The Salt

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That blow to the bottom line is rippling through farm towns.

Economy

As Commodity Prices Plunge, Groceries May Be Next

Record corn production with no increase in demand – as well as a leveling off market for ethanol – have led to the lowest prices in six years: $3.80 a bushel, down from an all time high of $8.49 a bushel in August 2012.

Some farmers won't break even this planting season, which could force them to tap into their savings. That's bad news for Corn Belt towns whose prosperity depends largely on farmers and businesses linked to farming.

Frank Hofreiter owns the New Holland farm equipment dealership and employs 17 people in East Havana, Ill.

When corn prices peaked, Hofreiter sold close to $11 million worth of shiny blue tractors in a single year. He says he doesn't expect to crack $3 million in 2015.

"Everybody's just trimming back and not doing much buying on new equipment," says Hofreiter. "Especially big, large equipment — anything over $20,000."

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Kyle Garman, a technician at the the New Holland dealership in East Havana, Ill., takes apart the feeder head on a large combine. Owner Frank Hofreiter says farm customers are opting to repair old equipment rather than buy new. Abby Wendle/Harvest Public Media hide caption

itoggle caption Abby Wendle/Harvest Public Media

Kyle Garman, a technician at the the New Holland dealership in East Havana, Ill., takes apart the feeder head on a large combine. Owner Frank Hofreiter says farm customers are opting to repair old equipment rather than buy new.

Abby Wendle/Harvest Public Media

Hofreiter hasn't let anyone go yet. So far the company's machine shop — attached to the back of the dealership — is keeping employees busy. But if repair work falls off, Hofreiter said he'll have to cut employees' hours.

The industry leader John Deere reports that its sales are down by 40 percent from this time last year. That prompted the company to lay off nearly 2,000 workers in recent months – and more cuts could come.

"And you'll see more when the economy's like this, guy's will spend more on repairs," he says. "Instead of maybe guys, that tractor's got a bad engine, we'll trade it off today, well, no, we'll see if we can patch it together and fix it back up."

Todd Schaeffwer owns a bar down the road from the dealership. He estimates that three-quarters of his customers work in the farm sector.

"People will probably get laid off," Schaeffwer says. "We'll have to get back behind the charbroiler, behind the bar. Rather than just managing it, we'll have to work and manage it."

The Salt

From War To Plow: Why USDA Wants Veterans To Take Up Farming

Even as grain prices plummet, grain farming isn't getting any cheaper. The fixed costs of seed, fertilizer and chemicals are about the same as when corn was selling for twice as much.

Land is one of the biggest expenses. Sky-high prices put it out of reach for many farmers, so they rent acreage instead. The rising price of grain pushed rents to unprecedented levels. And even though prices have fallen, many landowners are refusing to lower the rent.

Scott Irwin is a professor of agriculture and consumer economics at the University of Illinois. He says high rents are forcing some renter farmers to breach their contracts.

"We're seeing stories of farmers who had signed multiple-year, cash-rent leases at those high rates actually just walking away from the leases this winter," Irwin says.

If corn prices stay low, rents will eventually have to follow. But in the meantime, many farmers are struggling to pay for their rented land.

Dan Byers rents some of the land he farms. While his budget's tight, he says he's paying up and staying put.

"In our situation, we've got some very long term relationships," Byers says. "You don't want to screw those up."

He'll continue to farm even though it's not likely to be profitable. With corn production expected to remain high, the USDA is predicting that prices will continue to fall well into next year.

Abby Wendle is a reporter with Tri States Public Radio and Harvest Public Media, a public radio reporting collaboration that focuses on agriculture and food production.

The Federal Reserve moved a step closer toward ending its zero interest rate policy. In a statement released moments ago, the Fed dropped a pledge to be "patient" before raising rates. But, the Fed's Open Market Committee said, it is unlikely to raise rates in April.

"The Committee anticipates that it will be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate when it has seen further improvement in the labor market and is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term," the Fed said in a statement. "This change in the forward guidance does not indicate that the Committee has decided on the timing of the initial increase in the target range."

Fed officials had long signaled that they would be patient before raising rates.

As the Wall Street Journal reports:

"The central bank for years has been using carefully chosen words about the likely level and direction of short-term rates as policy tool, hoping promises about the future will influence other borrowing costs today, such as the level of long-term rates on mortgages or car loans.

"The approach has become particularly important since December 2008, when the Fed pushed its benchmark federal funds rate to zero amid the financial crisis and began promising it would stay there for an extended period."

But with unemployment rate falling and inflation moving toward the Fed's 2 percent target, policymakers may have decided it was time to be less assuring about rates.

Rates, of course, are just one thing Fed policymakers have their eye on. As Jacob Goldstein of NPR's Planet Money team reported on today's Morning Edition, when the economy seems strong enough, the Fed will start pulling that money – approximately $3 trillion of it — out of the economy. He says:

"The economy will start humming again at some point. Banks will start lending out all that money. If that happens too fast, it could be a problem: Inflation could take off. To be clear, that hasn't happened yet: Inflation is still quite low.

"Eventually, Fed officials will start destroying the money they created — winding down quantitative easing. But figuring out exactly when to do this is fraught. Do it too soon, and you plunge the economy back into another recession. Wait too long, and inflation takes off."

Federal Reserve

interest rates

The Federal Reserve moved a step closer toward ending its zero interest rate policy. In a statement released moments ago, the Fed dropped a pledge to be "patient" before raising rates. But, the Fed's Open Market Committee said, it is unlikely to raise rates in April.

"The Committee anticipates that it will be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate when it has seen further improvement in the labor market and is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term," the Fed said in a statement. "This change in the forward guidance does not indicate that the Committee has decided on the timing of the initial increase in the target range."

Fed officials had long signaled that they would be patient before raising rates.

As the Wall Street Journal reports:

"The central bank for years has been using carefully chosen words about the likely level and direction of short-term rates as policy tool, hoping promises about the future will influence other borrowing costs today, such as the level of long-term rates on mortgages or car loans.

"The approach has become particularly important since December 2008, when the Fed pushed its benchmark federal funds rate to zero amid the financial crisis and began promising it would stay there for an extended period."

But with unemployment rate falling and inflation moving toward the Fed's 2 percent target, policymakers may have decided it was time to be less assuring about rates.

Rates, of course, are just one thing Fed policymakers have their eye on. As Jacob Goldstein of NPR's Planet Money team reported on today's Morning Edition, when the economy seems strong enough, the Fed will start pulling that money – approximately $3 trillion of it — out of the economy. He says:

"The economy will start humming again at some point. Banks will start lending out all that money. If that happens too fast, it could be a problem: Inflation could take off. To be clear, that hasn't happened yet: Inflation is still quite low.

"Eventually, Fed officials will start destroying the money they created — winding down quantitative easing. But figuring out exactly when to do this is fraught. Do it too soon, and you plunge the economy back into another recession. Wait too long, and inflation takes off."

Federal Reserve

interest rates

In 1616, Hernando Arias de Saavedra, the governor of the Spanish province that included Buenos Aires, banned the population from drinking a green herbal drink called yerba mate.

The governor had seen the region's indigenous Guaran people carrying this drink with them everywhere they went. It was a filthy vice, the Spanish had decided. And it was spreading like wildfire among the Spanish colonists — as far away as what is now Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

"All Spaniards, men and women, and all Indians, drink these dusts in hot water," one dismayed Jesuit priest wrote, lamenting, "And when they don't have with what to buy it, they give away their underpants and their blankets ... When they stop drinking it they fade away and say they cannot live."

That passion for mate (unlike the governor) is still very much alive and well today in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and southern Brazil, where it is known as chimarro (pronounced she-ma-how).

Indeed, in 2013, mate was officially declared a "national infusion" of Argentina, where an estimated 250,000 tons of herb are consumed every year. Paraguay has a National Terer Day (terer is a drink made with yerba mate, but it's drunk cold). The brew is now a common sight in health stores and specialized coffee shops in the U.S.

Technically, mate is not a tea, but rather, an infusion. "Tea" refers to a drink made from the leaves of the evergreen Asian shrub camellia sinensis, whereas the leaves in mate come from Ilex paraguariensis, a shrub with small greenish-white flowers that grew especially abundant in Paraguay.

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(Left) A bombilla, the metal drinking straw with a strainer at one end that's used to sip yerba mate. (Right) Mate leaves. Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo/NPR

(Left) A bombilla, the metal drinking straw with a strainer at one end that's used to sip yerba mate. (Right) Mate leaves.

Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo/NPR

"The Guaran people put mate in small calabashes and drank it as a cold infusion, through hollow straws," historian Luca Glvez recounts in her book De La Tierra Sin Mal Al Paraso: Jesuitas Y Guaranies. "They also chewed on it to have more energy on their walks, a tradition which has disappeared."

I've heard variations on this Guaran legend of how mate came to be: The moon had been told by the sun about all the joys of the jungle that she could not see in the darkness of the night — the birds, the leaves, the flowers. She got very curious, and one day came down to earth in the form of a young woman. She went exploring, and was almost attacked by a yaguaret (a jaguar), but a Guarani hunter saved her. The moon was so grateful, she gave the Guarani people the gift of mate.

So how did this ancient drink go from prohibited brew to beloved South American pastime? Thank the Jesuits.

According to Glvez, the missionaries may have been critical of Ilex paraguariensis, but they also began cultivating it towards the end of the 17th century, believing it was perhaps not only good for health, but also a good substitute for alcoholic drinks.

Turns out, the Jesuits had a green thumb: Mate soon became the most profitable industry on the missions, and it was sold from Buenos Aires to Peru. It even came to be known in certain circles as "the Jesuit tea." In 1747 one Jesuit priest wrote: "it is the herb of Paraguay, which here and in Chile, and in much of Peru, is what chocolate is to Spain, and even more common, for it is used by the rich, the poor and the slaves."

Another Jesuit who loves drinking mate? Pope Francis. "What's that bowl-pipe thing he carries around and frequently takes a hit off?" Gawker wondered aloud a few years ago. "It's a mate cup with a silver straw. And it's how you drink the caffeine-loaded 'national infusion' of Francis' homeland, Argentina."

Pope Francis sips his mate as he arrives for his general audience at St. Peter's Square in December. Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

Mate is woven into the very fabric of the region's culture. In The Voyage Of The Beagle, Charles Darwin writes about the comfort of a warm sip: "When it was dark, we made a fire beneath a little arbor of bamboos, fried our charqui (or dried slips of beef), took our mate, and were quite comfortable."

One of the first tango-like songs to be penned, in 1857, is called "Tom mate, che" ("Drink mate che), by Spanish musician Santiago Ramos. He sings: "A girl said, when she saw me, this porteo kills me. Drink mate, che, drink mate. Here on the River Plate, we don't do chocolate." (A porteo is a person from Buenos Aires.)

Brazilian poet and musician Jayme Caetano Braun used the drink to describe aging: "V chupando despacito/Que triste matear solito/Quando a velhice nos bate." (Sucking slowly/ how sad to drink mate alone/ when old age hits us.)

There's a whole art to preparing a hot mate. Here's how I was taught. First, you have to get a good container for the brew. Cups made of bone are particularly gorgeous. I love the traditional way of drinking it, in a dried calabash gourd. Otherwise, I go for wooden cups. Plastic or metal cups are no-nos for me — you lose that great aged-wood flavor.

A lot of gourds are passed from generation to generation and have a sentimental value (I have my grandfather's gourd at home). But if you buy a gourd made of wood, calabash or cow bone, you must prep it. I was taught to give it a wash and fill it with wet yerba. Leave the leaves there for a day, then rinse and repeat a few times.

As for the mate itself, I've seen it sold in small packages at trendy health-food chains, but it just won't give you that many servings. Go to a South American specialty store and buy a few pounds for a few bucks, you'll thank me for it.

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My yerba mate gourd Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo/NPR

My yerba mate gourd

Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo/NPR

Now that you have your herb, and you've cured the gourd, you are ready to drink a nice hot mate. Fill the gourd about half way in with the dry tea leaves. Next, cover the gourd with your hand or a piece of paper, and shake it just a little, so that the powdered leaves rise to the top and you don't end up drinking them.

There are a lot of different methods to prep mate, but here's what I was taught: Heat water until it is about to break into a boil. Tilt the gourd and pour in the water so that only half of your leaves get wet.

That wet section is where you are going to stick your bombilla, a metal straw with a strainer at one end. Once the bombilla is in, pour more water into that wet little pouch, then start sucking on the metal straw.

How To Make Yerba Mate

After adding the tea leaves, 1. Cover the gourd with your hand, tilt and lightly shake out the dust. 2. Pour the hot water so only half your mate leaves get wet. 3. Insert the bombilla into damp area. 4. Add water to the depression created by the spoon.

Source: NPR

Credit: Ryan Kellman/Meredith Rizzo

I know a lot of purists who look with disdain upon those who add sugar to the drink. But there are so many great ways to prep and flavor mate. I sometimes toast orange and lemon peels, then add them to the gourd. A friend of my father's used to pour hot milk instead of water. I've heard of people pouring alcohol or coffee into their mate. That's a little much, if you ask me, because mate already has plenty of caffeine.

A lot has been said about the health benefits of mate. My grandpa swore by it, and he lived until almost 100. But he also went dancing every weekend, which probably did more to keep him young.

The drink is popularly used to lose weight, a virtue which is debated. One study found that a mix of mate and other herbs administered to overweight patients helped them feel full faster. And while research suggests mate contains plenty of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals, don't go guzzling it by the gallon. Some studies have also hinted at a link between heavy consumption and an increased risk in oral and lung cancers – especially in smokers.

"When it comes to teas or herbals that might have medicinal properties, it's not a regulated thing," Katherine Zerasky, a registered dietician with the Mayo Clinic, tells The Salt. "[Drink] it in moderation, and within the context of a healthy diet."

And don't forget to keep it social. The beauty of mate is that you share it with friends and family: Pour yourself some hot water, drink until the gourd is dry, then pass it along to the next person.

yerba mate

Tea Tuesdays

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foodways

South America