‘Shock to the system': farmers hit by Trump's tariffs and cuts say they need another bailout

The Guardian

15-04-2025

Farmers across the United States say they could face financial ruin – unless there is a huge taxpayer funded bail out to compensate for losses generated by Donald Trump's sweeping cuts and chaotic tariffs.
Small- and medium-sized farms were already struggling amid worsening climate shocks and volatile commodities markets, on top of being squeezed by large corporations that dominate the supply chain.
In recent weeks, farmers in Texas and across the midwest have suffered millions of dollars of crop losses due to unprecedented heavy rainfall and flooding.
The climate crisis-fueled extreme weather is compounded by the US president's looming trade war and the administration targeting popular federal programs and staff, leaving farmers reeling and resigned to needing another bailout.
'There's a lot of uncertainty around and I hate to be used as a bargaining chip. I am definitely worried,' said Travis Johnson, who lost more than 1,000 acres of cotton, sorghum and corn after a year's rain fell within 48 hours in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in southern Texas last month, turning parched fields into lakes.
RGV farmers sell sorghum, wheat, corn and vegetables to Mexico among other crops, while buying fertilizer and equipment – and relying on Mexican farmhands for cheap labor. Mexico is the US's largest trading partner, while China is the main buyer of American sorghum and cotton. All US products destined for China face a 125% tax thanks to Trump's tariff war, and could cut farmers off from core markets.
'I can see how some tariffs might help us compete with Mexico but are we really getting targeted by every other country or are we on the wrong side of this? We've already had two years of absolute disaster with falling prices and weather patterns … no farmer wants this but without a bailout this could be devastating and a lot more people could go under,' Johnson said.
Rural counties rallied behind Trump in 2024, winning a majority in all but 11 of the 444 farming-dependent counties last year, averaging 78% support, according to analysis by Investigate Midwest.
Trump's vote share rose among farming communities, despite his last trade war which required a $23bn taxpayer bail out for farmers in 2018-19.
Yet anxiety is mounting among the agricultural base.
First came widespread cuts to oversubscribed and chronically underfunded federal climate and conservation schemes designed to reduce costs and greenhouse gases, and improve yields and environmental health.
Trump is also shuttering local food programs which provide farmers stable domestic markets like public school districts and food banks, helping make farms more resilient to global economic shocks. The USAID, which purchased around $2bn every year in agricultural products particularly wheat, sorghum and lentils for humanitarian aid programs, has been dismantled.
The loss in federal programs alone would have been tough to cope with, but then came the trade chaos. Trump's tariff announcements began when most farmers already had spring crops in the ground – or at the very least had prepared the land and purchased inputs such as seeds and pesticides, making it impossible to switch to crops that could potentially find a market domestically.
Consensus is growing among experts that the turmoil represents an opportunity for rival agriculture economies – and disaster for US farmers.
'It's all happening so fast and in the middle of the growing season, it's a shock to the system that's going to be tough for farmers, especially those growing commodities for export,' said Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IAPT). 'Tariffs are not magical, they need to be used strategically as part of wider reforms to the domestic economic agenda.'
'The volatility of the tariff policy decisions, with new tariffs frequently being announced, paused and placed will take a toll on the American agricultural industry,' according to economist Betty Resnick for the Farm Bureau, a right-leaning lobby group. 'Without direct support from USDA or a farm bill with an updated safety net, farmers will almost certainly bear the brunt of these tariffs.'
Ben Murray, senior researcher with the consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch, said: 'Without a bailout, we can only imagine how bad this will be for farmers and what an opportunity for Brazil – and this is all being done for a tax cut for the wealthy.'
For decades now, US farmers have been heavily incentivized through the Farm Bill to grow commodity crops destined for export such as wheat, corn, soy, sorghum, rice and cotton, rather than produce for domestic consumption. The price of commodities is tied to the global market, even if sold domestically. Meanwhile US imports of fruits and vegetables mostly from Latin America have risen, now accounting for more than 50% of consumption, according to USDA data.
This globalized agricultural system favors large and corporate-owned operations, as smaller farms struggle more with boom and bust prices, and access to government subsidies and other credit. The number of farms continues to decline, while the average size continues to rise. Market consolidation and corporate profits tend to surge in the agriculture industry after every economic shock including the Covid pandemic, Trump's last trade war and the banking crisis.
Biden implemented a range of modest, imperfect policies to try and ease the pain for smaller scale farmers including a greater focus on anti-trust, local and regional food systems, and climate resilience – all of which are under attack by the Trump administration.
The vast majority of a $19.5bn funding package by the Biden administration for evidence-based conservation practices that improve soil health, air quality and reduce the use of costly fertilizers, pesticides and water will not be honored. The 10-year fund allocated through the Inflation Reduction Act was an addendum to money ring-fenced in the Farm Bill for four oversubscribed programs, after years of pressure from farmers to expand access to the initiatives.
Two Biden-era healthy eating schemes worth a combined $1bn to local farmers have been canceled: the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program matching producers to food banks, and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program which helped public schools add healthy, locally grown produce onto lunch menus. (The USDA recently agreed to unfreeze funding for existing contracts.)
'My farm will survive because we've been working with school districts for 20 years, but for others in our coalition the funding cliff is very real,' said Anna Knight, who owns an 80-acre citrus farm in southern California.
Piling on further misery are mass layoffs within the USDA that were seemingly orchestrated by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk.
More than 10% of USDA staff have already reportedly agreed to voluntary buyouts, with more expected in coming weeks. This is in addition to several thousand probationary employees who were laid off last month – a move which disproportionately hit local offices beefed up under the Biden administration, and is being challenged in the courts.
USDA field offices play a crucial role in rural communities, the place where farmers go for tailor made technical help from agencies including the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) on the latest pest control and planting practices, conservation programs, loans, and disaster assistance programs.
'It makes no sense taking billions of dollars off the table for programs that improve long term farm viability and resilience – and which farmers have been lining up for years for – and then spend billions bringing back farmers from financial collapse,' said Jesse Womack, policy expert at the National Sustainable Agricultural Coalition. 'It's looking really bleak with a lot of pain ahead for farmers.'
A coalition of environmental and agricultural groups is suing the USDA after it purged an array of climate-related online resources including information on the NRCS website helping farmers access federal grants for conservation practices, and technical guidance on cutting emissions and strengthening resilience to extreme weather like floods and drought.
Even if there is a bailout, getting them money to farmers in time to avoid bankruptcy will be much more complicated this time, according to Lilliston from IATP.
'Another bail out seems inevitable but there are serious questions about how quickly it could be implemented with such a dysfunctional congress, local USDA offices shuttered and fewer staff. It's a very messy situation and farmers are already experiencing harm.'
And in the medium- and long-term: 'The US reputation has taken a huge hit. We can no longer be considered a reliable trading partner which is terrible for farmers,' added Lilliston.
Even before the current mayhem, almost two-thirds of US rural bankers surveyed in March expected farmer income to decline in 2025, with farm equipment sales dropping for the 19th straight month, according to the latest Rural Mainstreet Economy survey by Creighton University. Grain and cotton prices have plummeted since 2022.
'We were already in a precarious situation but now, unless there's a bail out or this trade war is resolved by harvest time, it will be disastrous and a critical mass of farmers could go out of business,' said Adam Chappell, 46, a commodities farmer growing corn, cotton, soybean and rice in Arkansas, where dozens of local USDA staff have reportedly been furloughed or fired in recent weeks.
Chappell's town Cotton Plant was hit with 13in of rain in early April, causing crop losses for many farmers. Chappell's fields survived the rain but he spent a nervous few weeks after the USDA froze all conservation funds, unsure whether the government would reimburse him, as agreed, for an upfront investment in cover crops and a compost operation. Eventually, after a backlash, the administration backtracked and agreed to honor existing contracts.
'The weather is getting stranger and more challenging to deal with every year, while big monopoly corporations are allowed to manipulate the system and squeeze us at every part of the supply chain. Farmers like me lean heavily on the NRCS conservation programs to improve soil health and reduce input costs,' said Chappell. 'The tariffs are like adding salt on the wound.'
Despite last week's partial U-turn, Trump's ongoing and increasingly chaotic trade war risks causing irreparable harm to international markets for farmers, especially but not exclusively China, as well as pushing up the cost of agricultural imports such as pesticides, fertilizer and machinery.
China is the US's third biggest agricultural export market worth $24.7bn in 2024, down 15% from 2023, as soybean, corn and sorghum sales fell amid rising competition from South America, according to USDA data. China's top imports from the US are oilseeds and grains. US exports to China supported almost a million US jobs in 2022, according to the US-China Business Council, mostly around agriculture and livestock production.
As of Friday, at least 15 agricultural department programs worth billions of dollars to American farmers and rural communities remain frozen, according to Politico, more than two months after they were halted for review to ensure compliance with Trump's priorities opposing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts as well as his crackdown on climate change initiatives.
This includes the Biden-era partnerships for climate-smart commodities (PCSC) program – a five-year $3.2bn real-life study into the effectiveness of conservation practices such as cover cropping and reduced tillage for commodity farms.
'PSCS was about increasing our evidence base on climate benefits that also help commodity farmers improve soil health, air and water quality – and their bottom line,' said Omanjana Goswami, a scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. 'Abandoning this will come at a cost to American farms and the taxpayer.'
On Monday, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins defended dismantling PSCS, claiming it amounted to a Biden-era 'climate slush fund' of which less than half the money went to farmers.
A spokesperson added: 'The USDA has a variety of programs available to producers who have been impacted by recent disasters … [and] is currently building a framework to deliver over $20bn in Congressionally appropriated funds to producers who suffered losses during the 2023/2024 crop year. With 16 robust nutrition programs in place, USDA remains focused on its core mission: strengthening food security, supporting agricultural markets, and ensuring access to nutritious food.'
And some Trump supporters are keeping the faith.
'There are some concerns out there but our farmers are willing to make sacrifices for long term gains,' said Sid Miller, the Texas agriculture commissioner. 'Tariffs are a temporary tool, they won't be permanent, China needs our grains, they are prideful but will come around like last time.'