American farmers have had one of their worst years in history. Before the flooding and unstable weather patterns decreased output, farmers were dealing with bankruptcies and suicides at alarming levels. Now, they are blaming President Donald Trump and his tariffs for pushing them even closer to the edge with the trade war.
Another Blow To U.S. Farmers: China Suspends Agricultural Imports After Trump’s Additional Tariffs
Farmers were having a tough time even before Trump started the trade war with China. But now, many more are reaching their limits and they are starting to see the major problem with killing free trade.
Minnesota Farmers Union President: "At the beginning we spoke out that we supported the president looking at trade agreements. Maybe we can do things better, no disagreement with that at all…We've gone on for over a year. We've lost markets, we lost the China market." pic.twitter.com/kBbgrHQqqS
— The Hill (@thehill) August 19, 2019
According to The Hill, Iowa farmers are increasingly becoming angry and saying Trump broke his promises to them. Iowa farmers are pushing back after President Trump reneged on a promise to review a national program that gives waivers to small refineries that don’t add ethanol to their gasoline.
The president had promised corn farmers he would review the exemption program after a June trip to Iowa, but a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to issue new waivers to fuel producers signaled an end to the administration’s study.
According to a report by Reuters, some farmers are so ticked off that they have taken to threats in hopes of making their voices heard.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday it had pulled all staff from an annual crop tour after an employee was threatened, and three sources said the threat of violence was made during a phone call from an angry farmer.
Tour organizers said in a statement the threat was taken “very seriously.”
U.S. farmers have complained this month that a government crop report did not reflect damage from historic flooding this spring. They are also frustrated about unsold crops due to the trade war with China, falling farm income and tighter credit conditions. –Reuters
Soybean farmers are in crisis mode. In recent years, China has purchased approximately 60 percent of all U.S. soybean exports. Even if a trade deal is eventually reached, it is unlikely that all of that demand is ever going to come back, wrote Money Maven. Right now, the Chinese are spending enormous amounts of money “to build transportation infrastructure to ship soybeans grown in what used to be rain forests” in Brazil.
This isn’t looking good for farmers, and a whole lot of rhetoric and regulations tacked on to already disruptive legislation is making it impossible for farmers to even get by. It is likely that the United States will face a food crisis sometime in the near future thanks to the destruction of farming. The U.S. government has destroyed farming and while it’s partially Trump’s fault, his predecessors should also share the blame.
Sounds to me like they’re eliminating the food supply. It worked on the Indians, killing the buffalo. But what do I know?
Why do you need a waiver, *not to use ethanol, if you don’t want it.
“…It is likely that the United States will face a food crisis sometime in the near future thanks to the destruction of farming.”
Grants for the browning of America come out of the same trade deals, in which farmers were given fake sales, non-competitively.
Farming has not been destroyed, outrightly, but given to conspicuous quota cases, in my region, owing to it being nationalized / globalized.
The replacements act like they have just randomly stumbled across something valuable, and like WASP’s were too lazy or preoccupied, though under state sabotage.
There is no reason to believe that our consumption is limited to this year’s domestic production, any more than capital, labor, and ownership, where limited by national borders.
Farmers ??? Again ??? Really ??? 🙁
Farmers ??? Again ??? Really ??? 🙂
ALL COMMODITY MARKETS ARE GLOBAL. IF CHINA BUYS ITS SOYBEANS FROM BRAZIL, THEN CUSTOMARY BUYERS OF BRAZILIAN BEANS WILL HAVE TO PAY MORE FOR THE BB OR BUY FROM OTHER PRODUCERS LIKE THE USA !!!
THAT IS THE ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE OF SUBSTITUTION IN OPERATION THAT BUYERS & SELLERS & CONSUMERS MAKE EVERY DAY !!!
FUCK THESE MULTI-MILLIONAIRE CORPORATE WELFARE DEADBEATS !!! 🙂
Clown, I don’t know about tariffs affecting the farmers but I do know other factors have knocked the hell out of them like all the freak weather earlier this year. I’m not so sure the ‘shortage’ is not being exaggerated.
If you’re telling me you could see flood waters, I’m gonna say, trust your eyes.
Production is not limited to those areas.
Maybe a bit off subject here but are not soybeans all a gmo crop in America? The grocery stores are full of gmo foodstuffs with no labeling as such. So the people have lost the fight against gmo foods. Those foods have been jacked up on price also. Fake food, fake medical care and fake government. FAKE OUT!
We Americans are not going to have a food crisis. The farmers being hurt are people that feed the world by exporting food grown here. Soybean farmers are really hurting, but they can switch crops and make money. I fundamentally oppose using ethanol in fuel. That Democrat Econut boondoggle has cost me thousands in ruined machinery and poor fuel economy. That same land could grow corn and exported to feed people or animals.
Get the government out of food production. Let the markets work. Only use tariffs to protect farms we want to keep for national security and national food supply needs.
Communists use famine and starvation. I would not be surprised if the communist/corporations/globalists non-patriotic/non-American elite want to create a famine in the USA.
Suicide in white America is an epidemic. Antidepressants are suicide makers. Drugs for kids are being handed out like candy. It is a crime against humanity.
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Well said, Honeypot.
Reports are being posted. China is stockpiling good on a large scale. If true, what’s up with that?
The gov’t needs to stop mandating blending ethanol with gasoline. First of all, ethanol is nothing more than a federal subsidy of farmers. Secondly, I cannot imagine a more wasteful practice than burning diesel fuel to grow corn for producing ethanol. Not to mention all the petroleum oil based energy required for the corn to be fermented, distilled, and distributed before it is combusted. Furthermore, intense corn growing only adds to soil erosion and depletion of nutrients in the soil. Many farmers also depend on irrigation (using groundwater) for their ethanol corn crops. Soil and groundwater are the two most precious natural resources a nation can possess. We need to preserve our soil and aquifer water, not use it to grow corn for ethanol.
Ethanol is lower in BTUs (energy content) than the gasoline it is mixed with, therefore engines operate less efficient and you get less milage per unit of measure. Ethanol also doesn’t not burn as well and contributes much more volatile organic compounds (VOCs are components of smog), nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter than gasoline.
Gasoline, contrary to special interests claims, is abundantly plentiful and becoming more so, and it burns cleaner. Ethanol is just another gov’t boondoggle and even biofuel lobbyists know it. It needs to stop.
Wake the fudge up. These farmers are at fault for taking on excessive debt. They did not learn the lessons of the 1980’s era Farmers who lost family farms in the 120 to 240-acre size. These are now Family Corps working 1500 acre and up farms. They have chosen to carry a larger debt load due to the false economy with the low-interest rates. They all need an operating loan to put crops int the ground. They chose to do business with Big Ag. There are other ways and with a future collapse coming they will need to change those ways. If true food shortages ever do hit our shores those young corporate farmers better head to the local coffee shops and retire homes and get some help from men who know what actually works and does not need a computer modeling program to tell them.