Farmers hope Trump has their back but many voice misgivings as tariffs loom

The Guardian

01-04-2025

It has been a perilous few years for the Red Fire Farm in western Massachusetts.
Since the pandemic, rising interest rates, labor and seed costs on the 200-acre produce farm have made life for owners Ryan and Sarah Voiland a spiraling challenge.
Having spent millions of dollars building their business from scratch since 2001, last year the farm's barn burned down, taking with it the store, a tractor, irrigation equipment and tools.
This year, Ryan had hoped a $125,000 grant won through the Rural Energy for America Program to build a solar canopy system, and a $40,000 allowance to distribute fall leaf litter from nearby towns across their fields, would help offset the farm's ever-increasing refrigeration and fertilizing costs.
But in January, the Trump administration froze billions of government funding dollars from Biden-era projects – including more than $2bn for 30,000 ranchers and farms such as Red Fire Farm.
'When something is signed and contracted it's just totally unfair for [the government] to rescind something that farmers are already making investments in,' he said.
'It's leaving farmers on the hook for thousands of dollars.'
That prompted Voiland to join an Earthjustice lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture that's seeking a court order against the administration's refusal to disburse the funding.
American farmers are not unused to the impulses of Donald Trump, who in his first presidency fueled a trade war with China that ended up adversely affecting exports of US pork and soybeans. But back then, many farmers stayed afloat in large part due to a $28bn handout from the federal government.
Today, there's no sign of checks in the post for farmers.
Trump has suggested farmers are in for 'a little bit of an adjustment period' with more reciprocal tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada and European countries set to come into force on Tuesday.
This comes at a time when farming, whether at the local producer or commodity crop level, faces major challenges.
Plummeting demand from China, rising land prices and Trump's threats to cut visas for foreign farm workers have put one of the world's most productive agricultural economies in a major spin. John Deere, the machinery manufacturer, has been shedding thousands of jobs across the midwest due to falling demand fueled by farmers' economic struggles. Imports of agriculture products, which can undercut US farmers, have never been as high.
And while ranchers and farmers make up a small part of the wider US economy, its struggles could have major implications: 10% of all US workers are employed in or adjacent to agriculture.
Across the country, farming groups are beginning to voice concerns for Trump's tough tariff approach.
'Trade policies must come with real, tangible protections for the farmers directly affected,' said the National Farmers Union president, Rob Larew.
'We've heard there's a strategy in place – now we need to see it. Promises alone won't pay the bills or keep farms afloat.'
With around 20% of all US agricultural production going overseas, some agronomists fear the ructions caused by the Trump administration could put pay to relations that took decades to develop, and which in particular could ill-affect American corn and soybean farmers.
'It's been a very good relationship with Mexico. But if this tariffs situation gets out of control, I wouldn't be surprised that within five years you hear of Mexico building a deep sea port [to facilitate imports from countries other than the US],' said Jim McCormick, the co-founder of Agmarket.net, a Missouri-based agricultural marketing and consulting firm.
'The best thing you can do is build a trade relationship that works well for both countries. It works well for Mexico – they get a cheap supply of food – and it works well for the American producer – we overproduce in the United States. That is the reality – we are built to feed the world.'
In recent years, China, the world's largest importer of soybeans which until recently was largely sourced from American farmers, has developed a new trade relationship with Brazil as a direct result of the first Trump administration's trade war.
Brazil has rapidly grown its soybean crop to become the world's largest producer today, with 40% of the global share, and is the world's third-largest producer of corn. Its mild climate allows two harvests per year and it has cleared thousands of square miles of savannah and forest for crop farming.
In November, a huge port opened in Chancay, Peru, which was paid for by China in a move meant to give Beijing easier access to South American products.
'My fear is that it's going to be a lot tougher negotiating with these countries than what people think,' said McCormick. 'The first go around [in 2017] we were just battling China. Now, we're pretty much battling the world. It could get very volatile.'
Still, farmers have been widely supportive of the president. In the country's 444 agriculture-dependent counties, Trump won 77.7% of the vote in last November's presidential election, up from 73% in 2016 and 76% in 2020.
Commodity crop growers are this month set for some relief with $10bn in assistance being released through a program signed into law during the Biden administration.
'I think farmers are not exactly thrilled at the economic situation we're in right now, but they still believe he's got their back,' said McCormick, adding that whether or not tariffs go into place on 2 April will shape wider sentiment towards the White House. 'They're going to wait and see.'
On the Red Fire Farm, which employs around 75 people during the summer season on its food subscription, U-pick and wholesale operations, feelings of hope and trepidation mingle as the Voilands gear up for the 2025 growing season. Construction of a new barn is in the works, although its financial implications are worrying, says Ryan.
Another point of concern is the Trump administration's canceling of $1bn worth of local food purchase funding for food banks and schools, which hits producers such as Voiland and in-need consumers alike.
But pressure through calls and emails has helped a small conservation grant won by the Voilands and other farmers previously frozen in January be revived last month.
'I wanted to do everything possible to fight back and resist it,' said Voiland, 'both for the sake of my farm and for the general good of agriculture'.