During Trump’s first term, he launched a trade war with China that caused a crisis in the farming community. However, farmers didn’t learn their lesson. By the time the 2024 election rolled around, farmers had some sort of collective amnesia because they did it all to themselves again. Only this time, it is even worse.
Trump already hit farmers with his tariffs and trade wars. Trump got nearly 78% of the vote from farming communities in 2024, and the president thanked them by shutting down USAID and cutting SNAP.
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A new survey of farmers for the American Farm Bureau Federation shows that things are about to get much worse for the nation’s farmers:
Conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation April 3-11, the survey shows 70% of respondents say fertilizer is so expensive that they will not be able to buy all the fertilizer they need.
More than 5,700 farmers, both Farm Bureau members and non-members, from every state and Puerto Rico took the survey. Farm Bureau economists analyzed the results in the latest Market Intel.
The analysis reveals that almost 8 in 10 farmers in the southern U.S. say they can’t afford all needed supplies this year, followed by the Northeast and West at 69% and 66%, respectively, compared to 48% of the farmers in the Midwest.
Just 19% of farmers in the South prebooked fertilizer purchases in advance of planting season. In the Northeast, only 30% of farmers prebooked, followed by 31% in the West, and 67% in the Midwest. Even with higher pre-booking rates, almost one in three Midwestern farmers still report entering the season without securing all of their fertilizer needs.
Trump’s war of choice did this to his own supporters, and it could be more devastating for them than it was in his first administration.