Tag: U.S. farmers

Left Behind

Washington Post logoFarmers fight to save their land in rural Minnesota as trade war intensifies

MONTGOMERY, Minn. — The feed chopper was the only machine Bob Krocak ever bought new, back when he was starting out as an ambitious young dairy farmer.

He used it to chop acres of alfalfa and corn to feed his herd of Holstein dairy cattle, which repaid him with some of the creamiest milk in Le Sueur County. The chopper and its fearsome blades lasted through four decades of cold winters, muddy springs and grueling harvests.

Now, on a chilly Saturday morning, Krocak, 64, was standing next to the chopper in the parking lot of Fahey Sales Auctioneers and Appraisers, trying to sell what he had always prized. The 128 Holsteins were already gone, sold last year when his family quit the dairy business after three unprofitable years.

View the complete August 3 article by Annie Gowen on The Washington Post website here.

Trump claims farmers wept behind him when he signed an executive order. Video shows otherwise.

The scene President Trump illustrated while addressing a southwest Iowa crowd this week was like something out of a storybook.

He harked back to Feb. 28, 2017, when he sat in the Oval Office surrounded by, as Trump put it Tuesday, “homebuilders and farmers mostly, and ranchers.” The president was preparing to sign an executive order instructing a review of the Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, which he and other critics opposed for levying excessive federal regulation over farmers’ land.

When he put pen to paper, Trump recalled, the nearly two dozen men and women standing behind him wept with joy. The emotional outpouring was apparently a first for a contingent in the room, as many of them had never cried before.

View the complete June 13 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.

The Unintended Consequences of Trump’s Tariffs

Tariffs haven’t done much to shrink the U.S. trade deficit, and experts are warning about collateral damage.

President Donald Trump‘s ongoing effort to rewrite America’s role in several long-standing trade agreements appears to have done little to rein in the country’s ballooning trade deficit last year, as America’s goods imbalance clocked in at a record $891.2 billion.

Economists broadly agree that the trade deficit isn’t a particularly accurate indicator of economic health – and, in fact, many have argued that the deficit climbed in part last year because the U.S. performed so admirably in the face of global economic malaise. Continue reading “The Unintended Consequences of Trump’s Tariffs”

The White House admits its trade war is hurting farmers — with a $12 billion bailout

The following article by Aaron Blake was posed on the Washington Post website July 24, 2018:

Back in April, President Trump shrugged off the pain his tariffs could cause American farmers. “We’ll make it up to them,” he said. “The farmers will be better off than they ever were. It will take a little while to get there, but it could be very quick, actually.”

Not quick enough, apparently.

The White House is set to announce what is essentially a $12 billion bailout for farmers who have been hurt by his escalating trade war, The Washington Post’s Damian Paletta reports:

View the complete article here.