During Trump’s first term, he launched a trade war with China that caused a crisis in the farming community. However, the farmers have not learned their lesson. By the time the 2024 elections came around, farmers were suffering a kind of collective amnesia as they did it all to themselves again. Only this time it’s even worse.
Trump has already hit farmers with his tariffs and trade wars. Trump received nearly 78% of the vote from farming communities in 2024, and the president thanked them by closing USAID and eliminating SNAP.
A new survey among farmers for the American Farm Bureau Federation shows that things are about to get a lot worse for the country’s farmers:
The survey, conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation from April 3 to 11, found that 70% of respondents say fertilizer is so expensive they can’t buy all the fertilizer they need.
More than 5,700 farmers, both Farm Bureau members and non-members, from every state and Puerto Rico participated in the survey. Farm Bureau economists analyzed the results in the latest Market Intel.
The analysis shows that nearly 8 in 10 farmers in the U.S. South say they cannot afford all the supplies they need this year, followed by the Northeast and West at 69% and 66%, respectively, compared to 48% of farmers in the Midwest.
Only 19% of farmers in the South pre-booked fertilizer purchases before the planting season. In the Northeast, only 30% of farmers booked in advance, followed by 31% in the West and 67% in the Midwest. Even with higher pre-booking rates, nearly one in three Midwestern farmers still report starting the season without securing all their fertilizer needs.
Trump’s war of choice did this to his own supporters, and it could be more devastating for them than during his first administration.
