american agriculture at risk
can Trump help american farmers?
Trump, currently attending the Asia Pacific Economic Forum in South Korea, is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow to discuss a new trade framework and the ongoing US-China tariff war.
Today, Senate Democrats on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee released a report in which they claim Trump’s trade war has “sold out American farmers” and “strengthened China’s hand while weakening America’s leverage.” The report goes on to say that “Trump’s tariffs have raised costs on farm inputs like fertilizer and equipment, squeezing farmers from both sides.”
Bolstering their argument are Chinese buyers having turned to Argentina for soybean purchases after Argentina did away with grain export taxes. For the past month, American farmers have been losing billions in soybean sales as South American suppliers, including Brazil, are now supplying China with what American farmers did before Trump’s tariffs.
Caleb Ragland, a farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, said “every time China turns to South America instead of the U.S., soybean farmers and our farm families here at home lose out. Without a trade deal that removes retaliatory tariffs, farmers like me are left watching key opportunities slip away.”
Then last week, the Trump administration agreed to quadruple the amount of Argentine beef imported into the United States to help lower the cost of beef at home. U.S. ranchers were furious with the move as Justin Tupper, South Dakota cattle producer and president of the United States Cattlemen’s Association, explains:
A deal of this magnitude with Argentina would undercut the very foundation of our cattle industry.
An agriculture industry lobbyist speaking on condition of anonymity told Politico, “The agricultural community is baffled by the president’s decision to focus on beef with everything else we’re dealing with in agriculture right now.”
Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association was explicit in his rebuke:
This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices. We call on President Trump and members of Congress to let the market work, rather than intervening in ways that do nothing but harm rural America.
Following this agricultural realignment, Trump decided to continue backing Argentinian President Javier Milei and his La Libertad Avanza party for ideological reasons in Argentina’s elections on Sunday. Post-election, Trump told reporters travelling with him on Air Force One:
I want to congratulate the victor, and he was a big victor, and he had a lot of help from us. He had a lot of help. I gave him an endorsement, very strong endorsement. And it was really unexpected to have a victory like that.
Argentina still owes $56 billion to the International Monetary Fund, yet will now likely receive the full $40 billion bailout from the U.S. to stabilize the Argentinian peso which is economically troubling given austerity measures were in theory implemented in Argentina to prevent the need of bailouts.
Meanwhile, due to the U.S. government shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be unfunded starting November 1, which will affect the food security of more than 40 million Americans. Despite the government shutdown, the Department of Agriculture could utilize its nearly $5 billion in contingency funds to maintain the food stamp program but has refused to as political leverage over Democrats whom the Republican party continues to blame for the shutdown.
Consequently, 25 states (red and blue) and the District of Colombia sued the Trump administration yesterday over the impending lack of food stamp benefits. According to the lawsuit, “shutting off SNAP benefits will cause deterioration of public health and well-being. The loss of SNAP benefits leads to food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, which are associated with numerous negative health outcomes in children, such as poor concentration, decreased cognitive function, fatigue, depression, and behavioral problems.”
All of this is occurring as Americans across the nation continue to report higher prices and to remain concerned about inflation. The United States very much needs Trump to follow through on his words about his meeting tomorrow with Chinese President Xi Jinping:
It’s going to work out very, very well for everybody, and ... I look forward to seeing him.
And to end on a really spooky note to commemorate Halloween, the International Monetary Fund’s latest Fiscal Monitor forecasts that by 2030 the U.S. government’s debt-to-GDP ratio will overtake Italy and Greece for the first time this century.