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1. I recently spoke to the President of the Minnesota Farmers Union. He told me that soybean farmers are getting hammered by the trade war. Family farms & young farmers are getting forced out of farming because they can’t weather the storm.
2. He also told me they are being squeezed on both ends; no market for their soybeans and equipment is more expensive because of steel and aluminum tariffs. So they can’t sell their products, consumer goods are getting more expensive, and their equipment cost is rising.
3. Even if there are subsidies, it does nothing to salvage the overseas markets they’ve spent decades to build. The subsidy is short-term. But if countries start buying soybeans from elsewhere, the loss of that market might be permanent. That’s a huge deal for them.
4. 8 of the top 10 soybean producing states are Trump territory. Minnesota is the third largest soybean producer, and Trump narrowly lost the state in 2016. The trade war could savage the US economy, but it is already savaging many farmers—a key segment of his political base.
