On Sunday the leader of America's largest farm lobby expressed support for President Trump's trade war with China, but said farmers are having a rough time and warned that such support might not last forever, Chuck Abbott reports for Successful Farming.
"We’re with you, Mr. President," said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, as the group opened its convention in New Orleans. But he added a caveat: "The runaway of our patience is going to be determined by the financial situation of our farms. We went into the battle very weak."
That attitude was reflected much more sharply today in a New York Times column by Robert Leonard, news director of KNIA in Knoxville, Iowa. Noting that Trump will speak to the convention, he writes, "any promises of help will be too late for many farmers. Had he set out to ruin America’s small farmers, he could hardly have come up with a more effective, potentially ruinous one-two combination punch than tariffs and the shutdown."
Senate Agriculture Committee chair Pat Roberts, who spoke after Duvall, suggested that the U.S. should trade with China while negotiating to decrease or end China's unfair trading practices and intellectual piracy. Abbott reports. Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday.
Abbott notes, "Farm and rural voters were key to Trump’s election in 2016 and he remains highly popular in rural America. He scored a sky-high 76 percent approval rating in late December, just before the partial government shutdown, in a straw poll of producers by Farm Journal. By contrast, Trump has an approval rating of 41 percent in a tracking poll maintained by the analytical site FiveThirtyEight."
Duvall said 2018 was a "terrible year" for farmers, citing hurricanes, wildfires, lost income from the trade war, a farm-labor shortage and low commodity prices. And though farm income is about half the record high set in 2013, "the year was a success as far as federal policy, he said, with tax cuts for farmers and ranchers, regulatory relief, passage of a five-year farm law that modestly strengthens the safety net and administration promises to begin year round sales this summer of E15, a 15-percent blend of corn ethanol into gasoline," Abbott reports.
Leonard writes, "Most rural American farms are not big corporate operations. The most recent available farm census data, from 2012, shows that Iowa has nearly 89,000 farms, and 57 percent are small farms under 180 acres. Generally, to make a living on farm income, operations of at least 225 to 750 acres or more are needed. Of the farmers that Mr. Trump’s tariffs and shutdown are hurting, about 80 percent are family businesses. So 'big ag' — the only farmers with the capital to survive over the long term — profits from the blundering crisis. If and when small farmers fail, larger operations can swoop in and buy up the land at fire sale prices. The large seed and other input companies would rather deliver product to one farm in a township than 27."
"We’re with you, Mr. President," said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, as the group opened its convention in New Orleans. But he added a caveat: "The runaway of our patience is going to be determined by the financial situation of our farms. We went into the battle very weak."
That attitude was reflected much more sharply today in a New York Times column by Robert Leonard, news director of KNIA in Knoxville, Iowa. Noting that Trump will speak to the convention, he writes, "any promises of help will be too late for many farmers. Had he set out to ruin America’s small farmers, he could hardly have come up with a more effective, potentially ruinous one-two combination punch than tariffs and the shutdown."
Senate Agriculture Committee chair Pat Roberts, who spoke after Duvall, suggested that the U.S. should trade with China while negotiating to decrease or end China's unfair trading practices and intellectual piracy. Abbott reports. Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday.
Abbott notes, "Farm and rural voters were key to Trump’s election in 2016 and he remains highly popular in rural America. He scored a sky-high 76 percent approval rating in late December, just before the partial government shutdown, in a straw poll of producers by Farm Journal. By contrast, Trump has an approval rating of 41 percent in a tracking poll maintained by the analytical site FiveThirtyEight."
Duvall said 2018 was a "terrible year" for farmers, citing hurricanes, wildfires, lost income from the trade war, a farm-labor shortage and low commodity prices. And though farm income is about half the record high set in 2013, "the year was a success as far as federal policy, he said, with tax cuts for farmers and ranchers, regulatory relief, passage of a five-year farm law that modestly strengthens the safety net and administration promises to begin year round sales this summer of E15, a 15-percent blend of corn ethanol into gasoline," Abbott reports.
Leonard writes, "Most rural American farms are not big corporate operations. The most recent available farm census data, from 2012, shows that Iowa has nearly 89,000 farms, and 57 percent are small farms under 180 acres. Generally, to make a living on farm income, operations of at least 225 to 750 acres or more are needed. Of the farmers that Mr. Trump’s tariffs and shutdown are hurting, about 80 percent are family businesses. So 'big ag' — the only farmers with the capital to survive over the long term — profits from the blundering crisis. If and when small farmers fail, larger operations can swoop in and buy up the land at fire sale prices. The large seed and other input companies would rather deliver product to one farm in a township than 27."
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