The Trump administration announces its new wave of tariffs Wednesday, and with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding still a question mark, Minnesota farmers are having trouble planning ahead.
Ag economists say the latest tariffs and retaliatory moves by trade partners could be blows felt by farmers and ranchers, especially for beef and pork.
Cindy VanDerPol and her husband, owners of Pastures A Plenty Farm in western Minnesota, are monitoring market upheavals due to tariffs and just saw a one-year pause in federal grants to help supply locally grown food to schools. She said it makes it hard to map out what they need to buy for the year.
"Do we go and purchase more laying hens? Do we purchase broiler chickens to be processed later on?" VanDerPol asked. "Those all are uncertainties right now."
She pointed out they would already have made such moves. VanDerPol added the uncertainty does not just potentially limit her farm's output but also demand for local meat processors. As in the first Trump administration, the USDA is weighing emergency aid for farmers if needed. But economists warned countries like Brazil are bigger ag competitors now and if a trade war heats up, foreign markets could just look there.
Federal officials have released some agriculture funding initially frozen during downsizing efforts led by the White House.
Jennifer Fahy, communications director for Farm Aid, said there are still not enough details about grants seeing movement again, leaving farmers in the lurch.
"The very fact that this money that is legally due to them is being held up and they're not getting any answers on when they might receive it, if at all, it's creating inordinate stress that really is completely unnecessary and damaging to our entire food system," Fahy contended.
Fahy noted it also could mean layoffs for farmworkers, as some operations downsize or close.
Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, said when other things like rising interest rates are factored in, farmers face a crisis similar to the 1980s, when the nation lost millions of farms.
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