Dear editor,
Table crops: “The federally funded Local Food Purchase Assistance and the Local Food for Schools programs, both begun during the pandemic, focused on small, local farms in aim of building stronger domestic food supply chains. Grants allowed schools and food banks to buy meat, dairy and produce from small farms. Trump administration last month nixed more than $1 billion for local food programs. Kristi Jones, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture: Illinois had been planning on nearly $15 million from the next round of funding for the food bank program. Farmers already had begun planning and spending on seeds and equipment. (Stateline)
Commody crops: “$522.7 billion in farm subsidies from commodity, crop insurance, disaster programs and conservation payments [were] paid [by Federal Government] between 1995 and 2023.” (EnvironmentalWorkingGroup) Whatever the numbers, farmers have long been at trough of Federal largess.
“U.S. row crop farmers produce enormous quantities of food, and they depend on selling lots of it overseas. They thrive under free trade policies. They’re also big spenders, laying out billions on the heavy equipment, seed and fertilizer they use. Which makes them doubly vulnerable to tariffs.” (IPM)
“‘More than 20% of farm income comes from exports,’ said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. ‘Tariffs will drive up the cost of critical supplies, and retaliatory tariffs will make American-grown products more expensive globally. The combination not only threatens farmers’ competitiveness in the short-term, but it may cause long-term damage by leading to losses in market share,’ said Duvall.
“During his first term, when a trade war he started with China cut deeply into U.S. agricultural exports, Trump’s Department of Agriculture compensated farmers with $28 billion in aid. Recently, just after cutting the local food programs, USDA announced it was expediting $10 billion in direct payments to commodity farmers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. The White House is reportedly considering billions more in farm subsidies. Many farmers believe Trump will take care of them again this time. Not Vance Ehmke [farmer]. He said he ‘wouldn’t bet 5 cents’ on a bailout, given all the budget cuts in Washington.”(IPM) “Joe Janzen, an agricultural economist with the University of Illinois notes that Trump is working to drastically slash spending across the federal government.”(Fortune) ‘None of us like [direct payments],’ said farmer Andy Hineman, who is vice president of the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association. ‘We don’t want to live on government handouts. We’d rather sell the crops we grow. (IPM)
“Farmers endured Trump’s previous trade war with China during his first term. But this time, Trump’s tariffs extend around the globe, so China likely won’t be the last country to retaliate with tariffs of its own. “The hope for farmers is that Trump’s tariffs will lead to negotiations with other countries that will lower tariffs and other trade barriers. ‘That’s the type of positive development that we can do that’s good for everybody involved, and that’s what we need to look for,’ American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said. ‘Instead of beating each other up with higher and higher tariffs — it’s just like punching each other in the face. We’re not going to gain anything from it. It’s just going to cause us to hurt. That would be my encouragement to the administration, is to look for opportunities and get some great deals done proactively.
“One of the biggest long-term concerns is that American farmers and ranchers will lose market share as China turns to Brazil and other countries to buy the soybeans, beef, chicken and other crops it consumes. Loss of market share is a big deal. It takes decades to build trading relationships. The U.S. has long enjoyed a good reputation as a reliable food supplier. Farmers don’t want to throw that away. But Kenneth Hartman Jr., president of the National Corn Growers Association, worries that his best export partner, Mexico, will soon be looking elsewhere for corn. ‘If we get tariffs for too long, these other countries are going to start talking to Brazil and Argentina, and they can take a lot of our markets away,’ said Hartman. ‘And when you lose markets, it’s hard to get them back.’” (APNews) “North of the border, Canadian agriculture economists worry that the U.S. tariffs have already done irreparable damage to the economies of both countries.” (CBC)
-Henry Tideman, Oregon
