The letter complains of the “indiscriminate and haphazard nature” of Trump’s tariff policies.
Letter to Ranking Agriculture Committee Members
Please consider a Letter to Ranking Agriculture Committee Members by 26 agriculture experts.
Dear Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Craig, Chairman Boozman , and Ranking Member Klobuchar,
We are writing today to express our significant concerns about the state of America’s farm economy and the harmful and compounding effect that Administration policies are having on our farmers and on the long-term competitiveness of U.S. agriculture .
We write as a group of bipartisan former leaders of American agricultural commodity and biofuels associations, farm leaders, and former USDA officials. We have spent our entire careers working to build U.S. agriculture and are dismayed at the damage that is being done to American farmers.
Farmer bankruptcies have doubled, barely half of all farms will be profitable this year, and the U.S. is running a historic agriculture trade deficit. These metrics reflect a sharp reversal from record farm export surpluses and farm incomes experienced just a few years ago .
The reasons for the dramatic turnaround are complex, but it is clear that the current Administration’s actions, along with Congressional inaction, have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical ag research and staffing. And these impacts are not happening in a vacuum.
At the same time that farm country is reeling from these blows to agriculture, rural health care cuts are threatening a vital safety net for America’s farm families. Congress needs to assert itself on behalf of farmers if we are to avoid a widespread collapse of American agriculture and our rural communities.
Increased Cost of Farm Inputs
We respect the desire to enhance American manufacturing and acknowledge that in some targeted circumstances tariffs can be an effective tool to protect America’s national security interests. Unfortunately, the indiscriminate and haphazard nature of the current tariff policies have not revitalized American manufacturing and have significantly damaged American farm economy.
By placing tariffs on farm inputs — from fertilizer, to farm chemicals, to machinery parts– the Administration’s tariffs have increased prices for farm inputs and have pushed the cost of production well above commodity prices. While we applaud the recent decision to exempt fertilizer imports from tariffs, we question why the government was ever placing tariffs on fertilizer and ask why the Administration has not moved to remove tariffs on all farm inputs. It makes no sense to drive up farm input costs, taking money out of the pockets of America’s farmers.
Loss of Market Access
This Administration’s trade policies and lack of Congressional action have also hurt American farmers by reducing our global competitiveness, disrupting export markets, and reducing commodity prices.
One of the current President’s first actions when elected in 2016 was to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a twelve-nation free trade agreement strongly supported by America’s farmers. The American Farm Bureau estimated that this agreement would have boosted farm exports by $4.4 billion per year. Farmers at the time were willing to accept that loss of those export benefits, assuming that it would be more than offset by new bilateral trade deals with other countries.
Unfortunately, that hope has not been realized. Consider – the impact of the China trade war on soybeans alone – in 2018 , when the China tariffs were initially imposed, whole U.S. soybean exports represented 47% of the world market. Today, whole U.S. soybeans represent just 24.4% – a 50% reduction in market share. Meanwhile, Brazil’s share of the world export market grew by more than 20%. Put another way, during the same period, harvested acres of soybeans produced in Brazil grew from 83.0 million to 119 million, while soybean acreage in the U.S. fell by more than 7.0 million acres. Other U.S. commodities have suffered similar losses.
Brazil has been the big winner in these trade wars, allowing it to become the world’s dominant ag exporter, now the top exporter in soybeans, cotton, beef, and chicken. But other countries, including Argentina and Australia, have stepped into this vacuum as well. Any farmer will tell you, once lost , it is extremely difficult to win markets back.
The U.S. is simply no longer viewed as a reliable supplier. The one significant bright spot for trade during the current President’s first term in office was the successful negotiation and passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)in 2018- 2019. This agreement passed Congress with historic bipartisan support and stabilized trade with two of America’s largest ag export markets and has provided significant economic benefits to our corn, pork, poultry, and dairy producers. Unfortunately, recent comments by representatives of the Administration have cast into doubt the future of the USMCA and whether it will be renewed after this review period.
Weakening of International Trade Partnerships Bellicose rhetoric and chaotic trade policies have caused our traditional trading partners to question the reliability of the U.S. as a trading partner and to turn to other countries to stabilize international trade.
The BRICS coalition (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), is dramatically expanding its share of world ag markets, and may well be the single largest threat to American agriculture. Just this year, the EU has announced the creation of a major free trade bloc with the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) while last month Canada announced a new trade agreement with China.
Cuts to Foreign and Domestic Food Aid
Even as the Administration has disrupted our overseas export markets, cuts to foreign aid and domestic food programs are negatively impacting important domestic and overseas markets for many U.S. commodities, including rice , wheat, and peanuts, undermining U.S. foreign policy, and exacerbating food insecurity here and abroad.
Disruptions to Farm Labor
Securing the border and discouraging illegal immigration should clearly be a national priority. But mass deportations, removal of protected status, and failure to reform the H -2A visa program is wreaking havoc with dairy, fruit and produce, and meat processing . Those disruptions are causing food to go to waste and driving up food costs for consumers. These disruptions are also financially squeezing food and agriculture businesses and sowing the seeds of division in rural communities. Farmers need these workers.
Cuts to USDA Staffing and Ag Research
The massive and indiscriminate firings of USDA employees is impacting the ability of farmers to effectively and efficiently access important USDA services. Farmers can’t get payments in a timely fashion or the assistance they previously received. Moreover, dramatic reductions in USDA research and funds to land grant colleges are causing additional hardships and threatening the long-term competitiveness of U.S. agriculture . The cuts to research are particularly troublesome given the need to develop value-added markets or the next “new molecule” with potentially grave consequences over the long-term. As advocates for farmers and agribusiness with decades of experience, we know that farmers don’t want government handouts – they want markets. They want world-class research so that they can compete. They want their families and communities to have affordable health care services.
The policies of this Administration have caused tremendous harm to U.S. agriculture. But it is not too late to turn this around . We ask that Congress take the following actions to begin restoring America’s farm economy to a stable, dependable footing:
- Immediately exempt all farm inputsfrom tariffs;
- Repeal tariffs that are disrupting agriculture export markets;
- Pass Trade Promotion Authority to enable the Administration to pursue and secure meaningful enforceable free trade agreements that can be passed by Congress and have the full force and effect of law
- Direct the Administration to prioritize the negotiation of binding trade agreements with countries that need our agricultural products and that can help offset other market disruptions
- Encourage the Administration to expeditiously complete the review of the U.S.- Mexico Canada Agreement favorably resolve the pending dairy dispute settlement case with Canada and ensure that the USMCA is extended for the next sixteen years
- Pass legislation to enable nationwide E15 year round ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel to boost domestic markets for U.S. corn and soybeans
- Pass new farm bill
- Pass farm labor reform including reform to the 2A program and
- Restore funding for land grant agriculture research critical USDA staffing and domestic and international food aid programs
That is the most damning letter one could ever expect to see from farm groups to Republicans.
It has 26 signatures.
As I glance through the group, nearly all of them all “past” presidents or CEOs of some agricultural group. Here are some examples
- Past President National Corn Growers Association
- Past President & CEO Renewable Fuels Association
- Past President American Soybean Association
- Past President National Pork Producers Council
- Past Chair U.S. Grains Council
- Past CEO National Corn Growers Association
- Past President Farm Foundation
- Past President Illinois Farm Bureau
- Past Director Nebraska Department of Agriculture
Apparently the current presidents of all these associations are too fearful to tell Trump the same obvious things.
Trump Says He Loves Farmers
South Dakota Searchlight notes Trump says he loves farmers. He’s dismantling the agency helping their communities survive.
About 10% of the 15,000 federal employees who have left the U.S. Department of Agriculture worked for Rural Development, the agency most responsible for federal investment in farming communities.
To date, more than 1,500 Rural Development staffers have left, the USDA said — likely leaving the agency with fewer staffers than at the end of the first Trump administration. That’s roughly 10% of the 15,000 total USDA employees who have left the department.
Across the country, only 55% of farms have broadband access, and Starlink has been pushed as an alternative in rural areas because it relies on satellites instead of traditional cable infrastructure. But the federal official who led the government’s broadband program pilloried Starlink in a resignation letter in March, according to Politico.
Trump has often declared his love for farmers and rural communities, but, like now, his first administration targeted Rural Development for job cuts.
Oklahoma has long struggled with health care access. By 2020, Oklahoma had the second-highest uninsured rate in the country, according to Oklahoma Watch, and Tillman County had one of the highest uninsured rates in the state. About 18% of its several thousand residents had no insurance.
Trump Loves Farmers Into Bankruptcy
The Tribune Chronical reports Trump Loves Farmers Into Bankruptcy
At a 2018 press conference in New York City, Trump said of American farmers, “I love them, and they voted for me, and they love me. … And they said, ‘We don’t care if we get hurt, he’s doing the right thing.’”
During his 2025 joint address to Congress, Trump said, “Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer — I love the farmer.”
Hardly any sector has suffered from Trump’s trade wars more than agriculture. Soybeans were hardest hit.
Before the first trade war in the first Trump administration, China was the biggest foreign market for U.S. soybeans, taking about 30% of total production. Soybean exports to China fell from $12.3 billion in 2017 to $3.1 billion in 2018.
Joe Biden came into office, and exports rose in 2022 to a record $16.4 billion. But farmers didn’t vote for Biden’s successor in 2024. They voted again for Trump, even though he campaigned with a promise for Trade War II, singling out China.
And come “Liberation Day” on April 2, he launched it with heightened ferocity. China retaliated, targeting U.S. agricultural products. This year, just as American soybean farmers anticipate a bumper crop, exports to China are down to about zero.
Other American farm products have also suffered greatly. They include corn, beef, tree nuts and pork.
The political mystery endures. It’s somewhat understandable that Trump appealed to rural voters in 2016. After all, he kept saying he loved farmers. The first trade war undoubtedly took them by surprise, though he did bail them out with $23 billion in aid, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
But why did they vote for him a second time? Trump received an even larger percentage of their support while promising another trade war. Almost 78% of voters in farming-dependent counties supported him in 2024. The reasons were probably part cultural — rural Americans tend to be more socially conservative — and Trump’s inflation argument also hit home. Under Biden, prices were rising for fertilizer, fuel and equipment.
But even if this latest trade war ended tomorrow, growers of commodity crops like soybeans would still face lasting damage. They’ve spent decades cultivating buyers for their products in China and elsewhere. China is looking for new suppliers, and once those relationships are cemented, it will be hard to win them back.
China has turned to Brazil and Argentina for soybeans — Australia for beef. It’s investing in port projects in Peru and Brazil to ensure a reliable supply of farm products from South America. Trump is talking about another big bailout of farmers, but once replaced, Americans have lost long-term. No magic wand can bring their export markets back to their former glory.
The trade war has also further raised the farmers’ prices, especially for fertilizer. Much of it comes from trade-war target Canada.
One doubts that other business interests would have been as accommodating to Trump’s ruinous policies as farmers were after getting whacked the first time around.
Heartland grumbling has turned into louder protest. But no matter. Trump is presumably not running again for president. He no longer needs their vote — or rural scenery for campaign backdrops. And he certainly doesn’t yearn for their love. He’s a city boy, and the company he favors hail from crypto, tech and Wall Street.
How did Trump pull it off, abusing farmers while convincing them, like battered wives, that he still loved them? That took considerable talent, reminiscent of his much-quoted remark, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Thing is, people on Fifth Avenue are doing just fine. It’s the farmers who are bleeding.
Losing Policy All Around
Tariffs are hurting farmers, manufacturers, small businesses, importers, and consumers.
Tariffs even hurt the businesses they strive to protect because of the collateral damage to the economy.
No one gains from this economic madness.
Based on the letter sent to Congress, I suspect we may see a few shocking upsets in the midterm elections in rural America.
Related Posts
January 31, 2026: Competing Claims, How Much Labor Market Weakness Is There?
Some see “No Signs of Labor Market Weakness”. Others strongly disagree.
I am and have been in the strong disagreement camp.
February 2, 2026: The Fed Has Two Huge Problems Starting Now, Acyclical Inflation and Jobs
The Fed is not in a good spot.
February 4, 2026: ADP Payrolls Weak Again, Small Employers with 20-49 Employees Hit Hard
Witness the destruction of businesses with 20-49 employees.
February 4, 2026: Manufacturing Recovery? ADP Says Manufacturing Jobs Down 22 Straight Months
There is no manufacturing recovery.
Article posted with permission from Mish Shedlock
