Like a lot of folks in a state where agriculture is a major economic engine, I’ve been following the struggles farmers are facing as a result of Donald Trump’s pointless and dangerously counterproductive trade war with China.
It’s been especially damaging to soybean farmers. At $24.5 billion annually, soybeans are the largest US agricultural export. More than half of those soybeans went to China before Trump’ orgy of tariff tantrums. So, as of now, China isn’t buying a single U.S. soybean. You need not be a mathematician or an economist to see how grave the situation has become. In the blink of an eye, US soybean farmers lost a quarter of their entire market. This means that one buyer — China — effectively underpinned much of the farm economy. When that buyer walks away, the entire system shakes.
If you think the loss of American soybeans is bringing China to its knees, think again. China has simply pivoted to South America, replacing US soybeans with those from Brazil (second only to the US in soybean production) and Argentina (third in the world). As U.S. farmers struggle, frustration has deepened over Washington’s decision to direct $20 billion in U.S. Treasury funds to Argentina, a direct soybean competitor. Almost immediately after receiving U.S. support, Argentina dropped its 26% export tax, and China bought over a million tons of soybeans. Trump has opened new market in South America to the Chinese. With a strategic reserve of 40 million tons, China now wields outsized influence over global soybean prices — leaving U.S. farmers holding crops they can’t sell and facing prices below the cost of production.
Trump, being a “very stable genius,” has cut American soybean farmers off at the knees while turning them into Welfare Queens. Washington is now debating a third round of farm aid in less than a year. Farmers would much prefer to earn their own money and keep their dignity if they had a say in the matter. (They don’t.)
Of course, all of this could have been avoided if China would simply put America first. What’s wrong with those people, anyhow?
Maybe there is a blessing in disguise here. Perhaps all this will change how we approach farming in this country and especially in Mississippi.
The farm industry in Mississippi does a great job feeding livestock (most of the corn and soybeans in the state are used for that purpose) but a terrible job feeding people despite a climate well-suited to a large variety of food crops. Most of the food we eat comes to us from out of state.
So maybe we are growing the wrong stuff.
Instead of focusing almost entirely on the row crops of soybeans, corn and cotton, maybe it’s time to diversify our farming industry to include food that doesn’t rely on the whims of the world market or the lunacy of the current president.
Maybe the time is right to shift from expensive, recurring bailouts to incentivizing production of fruits, vegetables, nuts.
Farm Action, a nonpartisan, farmer-led watchdog organization, advocates investing in infrastructure that enables farmers to convert from row crops to specialty crops, which are more labor-intensive, requiring near-constant attention from early July up until the first frost in October. Of course, that would mean we would have to quit hating brown people who talk funny and provide them legal status as farm workers. Hate is a hard thing to give up in these parts, unfortunately. Is it too much to ask?
Farm Action isn’t alone in seeing the opportunity. The World Wildlife Fund has identified Mississippi and its neighboring states as the “a new mecca for commercial-scale American produce.”
California currently grows nearly three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of its vegetables. With the emerging threats of water scarcity, extreme weather and wildfires on California’s resources, WWF’s Markets Institute is exploring what it would take for farmers in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas to embrace — and equitably profit from — specialty crop production like strawberries, lettuce or walnuts.
So maybe we owe the blundering Trump a debt of gratitude for a paradigm shift in Mississippi farming.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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