Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington; courtesy of NAFB News Service
Foreign retaliation against U.S. agriculture over President Trump’s tariffs was a key immediate concern at a Senate hearing on the farm economy. Farm leaders had many concerns amid a farm economy in trouble, including the lack of a new farm bill, expiring tax breaks, labor shortages, and access to pesticides.
But perhaps none drew the kind of immediate concern as President Trump’s tariffs and the loss of markets. American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said “We need more access, not less. We need more fair-trade deals, not less. We need this administration, because we haven’t seen it for almost a decade now, really getting fair trade deals to be put in place and stick.”
That’s a possible reference to USMCA with Mexico and Canada, now under the shadow of threatened new tariffs. The feared impact is not just on the export side but must-have imports. National Farmers Union head Rob Larew said in his testimony that “The real kind of experience out there that we’re hearing about suppliers of fertilizer and other goods already adding costs onto goods that we’re buying. We’re hearing some places that are not selling for delivery products beyond a certain date because of the threat.”
Farm leaders’ meantime said the farm bill baseline must be increased, reference price triggers raised, crop insurance expanded, labor needs met, and crop tool access protected. But trade was tops with the agreement that farmers want markets, not a government check.
