Tag: farmers

Trump announces $19B program to help agriculture sector

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday announced a $19 billion program to help the struggling agriculture sector and distribute food to families in need amid the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will purchase crops and livestock from farmers and ranchers facing a steep decline in orders and massive supply chain disruption. Funding will come from the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic relief bill and separate USDA funds to support commodity prices.

USDA will offer $16 billion in direct grants to farmers and ranchers to compensate for short-term drops in demand and oversupply driven by the coronavirus pandemic. The department will also purchase $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy, and meat to distribute to food banks, community organizations and charities. Continue reading.

UMN study finds climate change is helping some crops, but hurting more

It’s likely that climate change already is affecting world crop production — hurting it in some areas, helping it in others, but on balance pushing it lower, according to a new University of Minnesota-led study.

“There are winners and losers, and some countries that are already food insecure fare worse,” said lead author Deepak Ray of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.

The study, conducted with researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Copenhagen, used weather and reported crop data to evaluate the potential impact of observed climate change on 10 crops: barley, cassava, maize, oil palm, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane and wheat. The 10 accounted for a combined 83% of all calories produced on cropland.

View the complete July 1 article by Jonathan Knutson on The Pioneer Press website here.

‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.’ Some once-loyal farmers begin to doubt Trump.

Washington Post logoORIENT, SOUTH DAKOTA — The sky had finally cleared after weeks of record-setting rain, and now farmer Ray Martinmaas was facing a time crunch.

He was out in his white Ford F-150 Raptor pickup, searching his family’s 15,000 acres for areas dry enough to plant corn in time to mature by fall harvest, passing places where new bodies of ruinous water glittered. He spotted his neighbor Mark Cotton, another farmer, and slowed his truck to talk.

“Still too wet?” Martinmaas asked.

“We’re spinning our wheels,” Cotton replied. “This trade thing is going to kill us.”

View the complete June 21 article by Annie Gowen on The Washington Post website here.

Trump official dismisses US farmers facing huge losses from trade war

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 19, 2018:

‘It’s a little bit like weight loss,’ a Trump official said of the huge hits coming to U.S. farmers.

Credit: Oliver Doullery, Pool, Getty Images

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue belittled American farmers on Wednesday.

“It’s a little bit like weight loss,” Perdue said of the tariffs that are damaging the bottom line for lots of red state, U.S. farmers. “It’s going to be good to get there but it is a little painful in the meantime.”

Perdue referred to Trump’s reckless tariffs as “trade disruptions we’re experiencing,” as if they weren’t specifically manufactured and imposed by the Trump administration. His remarks echoed Trump’s dismissive rhetoric about how trade wars are “easy to win.”

View the complete article here.

Farmers who propelled Trump to presidency fear becoming pawns in trade war

The following article by David Weigel was posted on the Washington Post website April 8, 2018:

President Trump posted a tweet on April 8 saying, “China will take down its trade barriers,” but he didn’t explain why he is confident a deal will be made. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

MANKATO, Minn. — Many of the farmers who helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency fear becoming pawns in his escalating trade war with China, which threatens markets for soybeans, corn and other lifeblood crops in the Upper Midwest.

But Jim Hagedorn, a former GOP congressional aide and Treasury official running for an open House seat, says they should keep their faith in Trump. Continue reading “Farmers who propelled Trump to presidency fear becoming pawns in trade war”

As Trump Appeals to Farmers, Some of His Policies Don’t

The following article by Ana Swanson and Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website January 7, 2018:

Tim Hully harvests corn at Walnut Grove Farm in Adairville, Ky., in 2016. Credit Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump will head to Tennessee on Monday to appeal to farmers, a key demographic that helped elect him, as he promotes his tax law and previews a new White House strategy to help rural America.

But back in Washington, some of the economic policies his administration is pursuing are at odds with what many in the farm industry say is needed, from a potentially drastic shift in trade policies that have long supported agriculture to some little-noticed tax increases in the $1.5 trillion tax law. Continue reading “As Trump Appeals to Farmers, Some of His Policies Don’t”