US farmers are the first to suffer from Trump’s actions and tariffs

USAID aid cut hits farmers

The American agency CNN quotes a farmer from Southern Virginia as saying that the actions of the Trump administration, which is only a month old, have hit his industry with a new level of concern.

“The president creates a web of uncertainty every time he makes one of these crazy statements… tariffs on China, tariffs on Mexico, tariffs on Canada. USAID is done, it’s done. Every time he makes these sweeping statements, he affects American farmers,” farmer Boyd told CNN.

The publication recalls that on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all funding promised under the Inflation Reduction Act, including $3.1 billion in loan relief for farmers and $19.5 billion in support of the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) conservation programs.

Tariffs on imports from Mexico and China, which could trigger retaliation, are still under consideration, and cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have sent shockwaves through food aid recipients, agency workers and, not least, American farmers who grow food.

The changes have been swift and drastic, and Boyd says he and other farmers don’t have time to wait for things to calm down. With just days left before planting season on his 1,000-acre farm near the North Carolina border, but no idea what the demand for his crop will be or whether safe loans from the USDA will be available again, Boyd says he doesn’t have the answers he needs for banks to give him money to buy seeds.

“We grow good soybeans, we grow good corn, we grow good wheat — that’s not the problem,” he said. “The problem is the politics of how they’re playing with the commodity and the lives of farmers.”

Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, is no fan of Trump. But the concern is also present among the president’s supporters halfway across the country in Kansas.

On a whiteboard at the Pawnee County Cooperative Association, Kim Barnes tracks commodity prices. Wheat, sorghum, corn and beans all have a red arrow next to them, indicating falling prices per bushel.

Barnes’ group can move a million bushels of the crop in and out of massive grain elevators each week, but right now the movement is very low.

Over the past 10 years, he says he has become accustomed to the USDA’s Food for Peace program and other programs issuing contracts that specify how much grain they are looking for and at what price.

“I was hoping for another contract right now because there is no other market. I was hoping we would do another one so we could get more sorghum into the system,” he said.

His elevators are full of sorghum, and if it doesn’t sell and there’s a big wheat crop this summer, the cooperative can get creative with storage, Barnes says.

“We’ve never had any problems moving sorghum before this year,” he said. And while farmers love to feed people, Barnes says he’s considering selling sorghum for pet food or ethanol production.

He hears the same concerns from Kansas farmers as he does from Boyd.

Barnes, however, says he remains optimistic.

“We’ve been down this road before. Over the last 50 years, I’ve seen the ups, I’ve seen the downs,” he said. Pointing to some of the new storage facilities, he added, “Our new expansions that we’ve made are optimistic that we’ll have another crop, and we want to be the ones to take care of it.”

He applauds legislation introduced by two U.S. senators from Kansas, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, along with Representative Tracy Mann, also from Kansas, and Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, to move the Food for Peace program from USAID to USDA.

Barnes said he was confident the program, with its assistance to farmers and humanitarian assistance, would continue. “We don’t want to see anyone go hungry, whether it’s here, locally, or globally.”

Trump’s Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, met with farmers after her Senate confirmation and heard their concerns.

On Feb. 20, she announced that about $20 million of the money Trump froze on Jan. 20 would be released to fulfill contracts already signed directly with farmers. In an interview with Farm Journal, Rollins acknowledged that the money “has to move quickly.”

“We’re patching and stitching and gluing this thing together a little bit, but please know… this is a top priority,” she said.

Rollins said the first call she received after the Senate approval was from Trump. “He said, ‘Please let farmers and ranchers know that we’re going to do everything we can to get them back to being prosperous,’” she said at a summit in Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this month.

The message rings hollow to Boyd, who says he’s putting off the work he usually does on his equipment before planting because of all the upheaval.

“This president will not take away my gift of farming and my farming skills. I will not give up, so I will die trying. And that is the message I have for this president. Are they helping me? No? Are they making my life difficult? Yes. Shame on this administration for not putting American farmers first.”

US farmers: Trump tariffs will bring ‘nothing but pain’ to rural America

US farmers have reacted angrily to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the FT reports, excerpts from which were kindly provided by The Price of State, saying the trade war would threaten their markets, raise the cost of inputs such as fertiliser and “deal a blow to rural America.”

Farmers have expressed particular concern about the impact of the retaliatory tariffs, saying they would limit their access to some of the most important U.S. export markets, including corn, soybeans, red meat and pork, and have urged Trump to negotiate a quick end to the conflict.

“Contrary to what the president thinks, this means nothing but pain,” said Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union. “Our domestic markets are not ready for this, and that means lower prices for what we grow.”

Farmers fear the friction could cause unnecessary damage to a sector struggling with what National Corn Growers Association President Kenneth Hartman Jr. called a “disturbing economic landscape” due to low commodity prices.

“Farmers are frustrated,” said Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Growers Association. “Tariffs are not something to be taken lightly or to have fun with.”

“Not only do they hit the pockets of our family businesses, they also undermine the fundamental principle on which our trading relationship is built, which is trust,” he added.

Industry leaders have warned that countries like Brazil are likely to step in if trade tensions force importers to turn away from the U.S. and seek alternatives.

Brazil and other soybean producers are expecting a bumper crop this year, Ragland said, and are “ready to meet any demand that arises from the renewed U.S.-China trade war.”

Joe Shule, vice president of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said, “People often associate trade tensions with different governments, but we are really affecting business relationships that have taken years, and in some cases decades, to build.”

“Exports have been a real driver that has kept the U.S. meat and livestock sectors thriving at a time when many other agricultural sectors are struggling.”

China has long sought to diversify its economy away from U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans, and the latest round of the trade war will only reinforce that trend.

Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at broker StoneX, said China has recently begun to favor soybean imports from countries with weaker currencies and more favorable exchange rates, such as Brazil, over the U.S. American farmers, who export about 10% of their pork production to Mexico, say they are also losing out to their competitors in Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Farmers fear a similar negative impact to that of Trump’s last trade war with China in 2018, which farm groups estimate cost U.S. agriculture $27 billion, even though farms received $23 billion in compensation from the federal government for trade disruptions.

But this time, the sector has proven less prepared: commodity prices are down nearly 50% from three years ago, and the costs of inputs such as seeds, pesticides and fertilizers are higher.

Fertilizers could become even more expensive. About 80% of U.S. potash supplies come from Canada, the world’s largest producer. Such imports would also be hit by Trump’s tariffs.

Tags: USA, agricultural sector