Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump said there might be a "period of adjustment" for farmers. They are noticing. West Virginia farmer Jennifer Gilkerson produces fruit, freeze dries it, and sells it to schools. But the USDA program that helps schools buy school lunches has been cut and the local schools can't afford her fruit anymore. Tariffs are also cutting into her export markets. A number of farmers have said that once you have lost those markets to Brazil and other countries, they are not coming back. This is especially true for products that Americans don't want, like chicken feet or cow tongues. This is not a good time to be a farmer. Farmers who voted for Trump because they don't like it that, in their view, boys are playing on girls' sports teams, were not expecting this, even though Trump mentioned tariffs in every speech for an entire year. They weren't paying attention.
Chuck Conner, head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, sees this from a macroeconomic perspective. He said that whenever there is a trade dispute, other countries know where America's soft underbelly is: food exports. He knows that Brazil, Australia, and other countries are also capable of exporting food, and if theirs is cheaper due to tariffs, they will get the sales.
Yet another problem for farmers is that the Dept. of Agriculture has many programs giving farmers grants and loans to help insulate them from volatile weather. Although the programs themselves have not all been killed, staff shortages at the Department have created delays in getting money distributed, which hurts farmers who need to buy seeds for planting right now and have to pay right now and who don't have the cash.
In some cases, farmers and co-ops have already bought things and were waiting to get reimbursed and that is not happening. They are up a tree. Seth Koeck, a blueberry farmer in Maine, got a $50,000 grant to spread mulch on his fields to improve his yields. It is planting time and the money hasn't arrived. It coming in June will be too late. He is not alone. Many farmers don't have much money in the bank. Their business model is to borrow money in the winter to plant their crops and then pay back the loans in the fall after they harvest them. If the loans to buy seeds and cover labor and other expenses during planting season don't come through on time, they are stuck. John Boyd, a farmer in Virginia, said: "I've got real debt; I've got real expenses. But I also have the will to farm in some sort of way. I can't tell you how, but I am making calls and trying to put some things in place to get through this crisis the president has put us in." Notice who he blamed. It's not the weather or God. It's a guy who just THINKS he's God.
Some farmers have enough money to plant, but that is creating another problem in certain sectors. With an expected glut of soybeans, corn, wheat, and pork bellies due to the closing export markets, there will be an oversupply on the domestic market. Commodity futures markets reflect that. Farmers who want to lock in sales in the fall by buying a contract to deliver a certain amount of product on a certain date after harvest time are noticing that buyers aren't bidding as much as they used to because they expect the glut to force prices down.
All in all, many farmers are already feeling the pinch, and this is just getting started. If Democrats can make the 2026 elections about "Republicans have ruined the economy," that could resonate in rural areas. (V)