Too Many Ag Cuts May Hurt Food Security

As President Donald J. Trump and his administration live up to their campaign promises of a more efficient government, those in the agricultural business are somewhat worried about what the future holds.

Like other industries, agriculture welcomes a more efficient government, but we are also worried tariffs and layoffs may cause extreme pain. I just hope Trump and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins realize their actions affect food security.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has numerous programs to assist farmers and ranchers by improving lands across America.

While some say farmers and ranchers don’t deserve these program dollars, they don’t realize this money is put towards land and water or crop and livestock insurance. Without some USDA programs, the cost of groceries would go up.

There are a couple of reasons the Trump administration should not get too severe with agriculture. One reason is those in agriculture have been on Trump’s side since his first term in office and the other is that Rollins understands agriculture.

As Rollins said, “Farmers and ranchers have been with Trump since he came down the escalator in 2015. I sincerely believe those programs are essential to keeping communities thriving and hopefully more prosperous going forward, and we’ll work with those who are understanding of how important these programs really are.”

Rollins also said, “Any commitments made previously, we will, of course, fulfill those commitments.” 

This is good news.

Those who support commodity checkoffs are worried they will be eliminated or changed drastically. I for one hope this doesn’t happen, as these checkoffs not only help producers, but consumers as well. 

Agriculture has always shuddered at the mention of tariffs, but we realize the need for the U.S. to have a trade balance with other countries. The past few years have been unfair to the U.S., as seen by an imbalanced trade deficit. While some tariffs may help, they may also hurt certain industries at times.

During Trump’s first term, he placed a tariff on China which caused them to stop buying soybeans from the U.S. This caused the U.S. soybean market to really drop as China was the biggest export buyer of our soybeans. China then looked to South America for soybeans instead.

A government will impose a tariff to raise revenue to rebalance its trade deficit and to protect domestic industries, its consumers and its national interests.

Tariffs are used to restrict imports as they will increase the price of goods and services purchased from another country, making them less attractive to domestic consumers.

Tariffs may produce revenues, open negotiations between countries and ensure domestic products receive a preference within a country to support businesses and the economy.

The downside is they may initiate a trade war or create issues between governments if used to punish another government. I think we need to be careful with tariffs since we are shaking the dice in the response of the other country.

Tariffs are what caused the Boston Tea Party and, ultimately, the colonists to form their own country – America. 

Everybody wants to eat at the government table, but nobody wants to do the dishes.