The problems with farming in the United States continue to worsen. As if the suicides and bankruptcies aren’t already taking their toll on a flailing industry, farmers are now coping with the fact the president Donald Trump has taken away their largest customer by insisting on continuing the trade war.
Farmers have long been the casualties of this trade war as the government attempts to kill the free market. While consumers are expected to bear the brunt of the tariffs, farmers are now unable to sell their products in China, leaving them with few options as well. China has officially canceled all purchases of U.S. agricultural products, a retaliatory move following President Donald Trump’s pledge to slap 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports.
According to a report by CNBC, Bob Kuylen, a farmer of 35 years in North Dakota, told the media outlet: “It’s really, really getting bad out here. There’s no incentive to keep farming, except that I’ve invested everything I have in farming, and it’s hard to walk away.” Without farmers, this country will go through a massive food crisis as we’ve never before seen; and this one is all on Trump.
China’s refusal to buy U.S. crops piles on to an already devastating year for farmers, who have struggled through record flooding and an extreme heatwave that destroyed crop yields, and trade war escalations that have lowered prices and profits this year. “Trump is ruining our markets. No one is buying our product no more, and we have no markets no more.”
Agriculture exports to China dropped by more than half last year. In 2017, China imported $19.5 billion in agricultural goods, making it the second-largest buyer overall for American farmers. In 2018, that dropped to $9.2 billion as the trade war escalated, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. This year, China’s agricultural imports from the U.S are down roughly 20%, and U.S. grain, dairy and livestock farmers have seen their revenue evaporate as a result. Over the last 6 years, farm income has dropped 45% from $123.4 billion in 2013 to $63 billion last year, according to the USDA.
Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said China’s exit is a “body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by.”
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/american-farmers-are-losing-patience-and-money-in-record-numbers_05142019
China’s exit will most impact grain farmers across the U.S. more than any others, although none appear immune to this trade war. China is the world’s top buyer of American soybeans, buying about 60% of U.S. soybean exports last year. Analysts estimate that soybean prices have dropped 9% since the beginning of the trade war, as the economic law of supply and demand continues to prove concrete. Soybean exports to China have dropped by 75% from September 2018 to May 2019, compared to the same nine-month period in 2017 and 2018, according to data from the USDA.
“It’s killing us,” said Mark Watne, a wheat and soybean farmer who is president of the North Dakota Farmers Union. Watne said he lost $3 per bushel of soybeans he planted this year. Most farmers aren’t happy about the subsidies either, as they understand the Amerian taxpayer is going to be footing the bill. “And I don’t think it’s right for the American taxpayer to subsidize this segment of the economy just because of what I see as a mistake of a trade war,” said Allen Williams, who’s farmed for nearly 50 years in Illinois.
The consensus is that the elimination of free trade and the taxation levied on the American consumer is good for no one.
I feel bad for the farmers.
I have a small manufacturing job shop.
Had 60 employees prior to the Chinese Take over.
Been down to 4 for 15 years. (family business, Just couldn’t quit)
Our sales are up six fold since the tariffs were put in place.
Do I count?
Yes, so long as your production values and hiring standards are better than Red Chinese.
If just one of your fellows tries in good faith, goes without, and you fed a Red Communist (or pink Communist), you’re a disgrace.
ROTFLMFAO !!! 🙂
As I have told this community before, AG Markets are GLOBAL and there are more people to feed in the world than there is food to feed them. If China is buying soybeans from Brazil, it means that traditional, historic customers for Brazil’s soybeans will be needing a new soybean supplier.
More propaganda to support UBER RICH MULTINALTIONAL FARM COMGLOMERATES !!!
That said, the US Government should be BUYING American crops and developing strategic food reserves with the TAXPAYER money that is allocated to reimburse “farmers” for crop losses.
In a world impacted by adverse weather and climate change, a strategic food supply for the USA is essential !!! 🙂
In my area, a mountain spring feeding the desert community was capped off, the cap was protected by fencing, and a too-big-to-fail bottling plant sold that water to the Chinese.
If the dirt, or whatever resource, is ultimately globalist, why must we ID ourselves, serve as jurors, and pay taxes. To which jurisdiction are we answerable?
It sounds alot like shucking and jiving — charging tariffs on tacky, plastic garbage, while they buy up housing and infrastructure for pennies on the dollar.
Use a VPN. Enter a home address. Aren’t they doing that? You can read it for yourself. Don’t just take my word for it.
ROTFLMFAO !!! 🙂
As I have told this community before, AG Markets are GLOBAL and there are more people to feed in the world than there is food to feed them. If China is buying soybeans from Brazil, it means that traditional, historic customers for Brazil’s soybeans will be needing a new soybean supplier.
More propaganda to support UBER RICH MULTINALTIONAL FARM COMGLOMERATES !!!
That said, the US Government should be BUYING American crops and developing strategic food reserves with the TAXPAYER money that is allocated to reimburse “farmers” for crop losses.
In a world impacted by adverse weather and climate change, a strategic food supply for the USA is essential !!! 🙂
This is an interesting problem.
We raise more than enough food to feed our people,
so we have a good domestic supply.
China and other countries ( plus our unions and EPA)
destroyed our steel industry. Not too many people squawked.
We can’t supply all the domestic steel we need.
Japan, Korea, et al( plus our unions and EPA) destroyed our shipbuilding industry. We can’t supply our domestic needs for
shipbuilding. Same can be said for many of our domestic industries.
I believe that America should be self sufficient in essential industries to point where we meet our needs and can then consider exporting in a competitive world market.
If in response to a tariff, that builds up an essential industry,
a country like China chooses not to import what we export, to get “even”. We are going to have to take a hit. So be it.
Quit growing soybeans, switch to hemp or oilseeds. I understand the capital costs of Farming can be significant, and maybe the bankruptcy laws need to be modified to protect
essential businesses like farming.
I’m a free market guy, but only in that the market is fair.
I don’t expect an American to work at Bangladesh labor prices,
but that isn’t a fair labor market. That is an exploited one,
which is what tariffs are for. What Americans need to avoid is to keep from letting unions, government regulations, and corporate greed to return us to the days of producing expensive and imperfect crap.
TRUMP is a White Racist Pig who hates everybody, especially WHite people. We need a REVOLUTION. ,,We need the “International” and the policies of Karl Marx (who was hired by the Rotchild Family to write Das Kapital)…we need the proletariate to control…….Rise up. …drop out….free sex…groovy.
I wish it was true that Trump is a White racist pig. however he is a 3ew lover. Go to the daily stormer. White Racist hate 3ews more than they hate shitskins. Isreal can do no wrong as far as Trump is concerned.
I live in farm country. I was born and raised on a large family Dairy farm in the 70’s and 80’s. Many of these farmers are Democrats because they still believe the LIE that the Democrat party is “the party of the farmer and laborer”. Thankfully many of the new generation of farmers can see through the Lie that is the Democrat party. Many of these farmers are actually thankful we have a President putting this country first and can see the big picture. The farmers are not in as much jeopardy as this article would lead you to believe.
All the farmers I know in my area are conservative Republicans. They might be registered Dim, as I am, just to screw with the primaries.
Farmers here have outstanding crops, except for the corn. Eastern NC didn’t get rain when the corn needed it. You can pull an ear of corn now, and only find a full grain here and there on the cob. It’s a total loss, but the crop insurance won’t call it a total loss. And then they’ll pay only a percentage on the part they say is lost. So the corn farmers in eastern NC will be losing money for a second year in a row. It will be hard for them to continue.
The soybeans and cotton look good around here. The tobacco further south is okay, but the bottom leaves turned yellow, which I hear wasn’t good.
I think the answer for the small farmers is to diversify more, especially getting into truck farming and exotic vegetables for the rich people.
WAAAAAH, the zips don’t want our GMO garbage. Neither do a lot of countries. Too damm bad, grow something else freakin monsanto buttpuppets.
I do NOT see this being true at all but the opposite. With the recent weather war …. the farmers are lucky to get anything growing. What are they going to sell dirt to China. hahhahahahaa there are no crops and such crops are being used in America. So this is all BS!
USDA says 19 million acres were not planted because of weather. May all average out. The real problem is too much debt.
This year may be typical of several decades of years to come. What happened this year will happen in the years to come if the concept of grand solar minimums are correct. Farmers might survive one really bad year but a number of bad years like this one or worse will mean their ruin. We’ve all seen a series of dire emergencies that haven’t panned out (the sky is falling!) but this seems more credible. Predictions aren’t like a German train schedule so hopefully this year was a fluke but I wouldn’t bank on it.
Nice anti-Trump screed there.
The farmers in my area are doing fine, except for the corn farmers who have suffered from the lack of rain at the proper time. That only means that the corn farmers in other parts of the country should be able to demand higher prices.
We either stop China’s practices, or give up. Some say that China is hurting because of Trump’s policies. There are always people hurt in wars. This is another war, a war with China.