Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 | 2 a.m.
A majority of farmers voted for Donald Trump — a president-elect whose financial agenda is antithetical to the monetary pursuits of American agriculture.
For the reason that starting of this century, the world has added 398 million acres of land for the manufacturing of meals grains, feed grains and oil seeds. A lot of that acreage has been in tropical areas. On the identical time, inhabitants progress in China, a main purchaser of U.S. agricultural items, has slowed, and its inhabitants is getting older. Comparable developments could be seen in different international locations which have been conventional importers of U.S. items. We’re additionally confronted with main geopolitical occasions, such because the Ukraine-Russia battle, and most resolutions of that battle would probably adversely have an effect on U.S. farmers.
The world has modified. Competitors amongst main producing nations has modified the power of American agriculture to be a most popular and low-cost supplier of grains to different nations.
In opposition to this backdrop, one should ask how an isolationist overseas coverage and using heavy tariffs might result in something apart from critical opposed penalties for our U.S. agricultural sector?
Through the first Trump presidency, vital tariffs had been imposed on China, resulting in main unfavorable impacts on U.S. farmers. The Trump administration’s response was to create an advert hoc catastrophe aid program that paid billions of taxpayer {dollars} to farmers.
Trump was elected primarily based on many guarantees, together with lowering authorities outlays for all types of applications and departments. He additionally promised to place America “first” by imposing huge tariffs on imports manufactured overseas.
However America shouldn’t be an island. It is a crucial a part of the bigger world. Withdrawal from engagement with different nations, whether or not within the context of commerce or total overseas relations, can’t result in good penalties from the standpoint of financial safety for America, nor for our nation’s capacity to play a powerful position in sustaining a secure and peaceable world.
My fellow farmers, it’s time for a actuality test. There’s far more than a theoretical threat of shedding a big share of the markets for our grains and livestock. Don’t depend on that brown envelope from Uncle Sam in your mailbox to bail you out from hardship. From the in depth studying I’ve performed on the financial impression of Trump’s tariffs, no credible economist paints any image apart from considered one of vital detrimental penalties to our agricultural sector.
The identical is true for a lot of different segments of the financial system.
America has to take care of a worldwide perspective — slightly than one which stops at our shores — to remain aggressive and to stay in its position as a world chief. The proposed paths of Trump’s subsequent presidency are antithetical to these roles.
Ben Palen is a fifth-generation farmer and agriculture marketing consultant in Colorado and Kansas. This visitor column initially appeared within the nonprofit Kansas Reflector.
