Farmer opinion: 'The pain has spread far beyond my fields. Every person and business in rural America is feeling it.'

U.S. farmers sold nearly half of nation's 2024 soybean crop
to China. (Adobe Stock photo)

Even with a relief package, U.S. farmers can't recoup losses from the U.S.-China tariff war. "We’re on the verge of the nation’s worst farm crisis since the 1980s," writes Mark Heckman in his opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal. Promises from China to "buy a 'tremendous' amount of soybeans, as President Trump put it, aren’t good enough either. We want fair trade."

American farmers sold $12.6 billion in soybeans to China in 2024, which equals roughly half of the soybeans grown in the U.S. But in retaliation against Trump's 2025 tariffs, China snubbed U.S. farmers and bought billions of bushels of beans from South American countries. Heckman writes, "Most of mine will sit unsold in a warehouse."

He said the media often describe "potential relief payments to American soybean farmers as a 'bailout.' I see it as a slap in the face," Heckman adds. "The money won’t come close to making up for the hurt in farm country. . . . The pain has spread far beyond my fields. . . . Every person and business in rural America is feeling it."

"Meanwhile, Trump is boasting," Heckman writes. "Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s elaboration on Trump’s promise from China — feels hollow. What happens if the Chinese don’t come through? More tariffs causing more pain to American farmers like me."

Border taxes serve "no financial purpose if the federal government simply intends to redistribute the money it collects," Heckmans explains. "It turns self-sufficient producers into supplicants pleading for subsidies. . . .The government should get out of American farmers’ way and allow market forces to work. Don’t give us handouts. Let us sell what we grow to the people who want to buy it, at home and abroad."

Mark Heckman is a hog, cattle, corn and soybean farmer who serves as vice chairman of the Global Farmer Network.