America’s farmers, a key voting bloc for Trump, are growing increasingly worried as harvest approaches.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting a record corn crop for the season starting in September. While the soy harvest is expected to be smaller than last year after farmers planted less, yields are on track to hit a new high. That means farmers will face a mountain of supplies just as trade tensions with China dim prospects for American exports. Crop prices have been depressed as a result. Tariffs are also raising costs for key farm inputs like fertilizer, adding to the financial strain.
The American Soybean Assn. has warned that growers are near a “trade and financial precipice” and cannot survive a prolonged trade war with China. The National Corn Growers Assn. is sounding the alarm over an economic crisis in rural America. Credit conditions for farmers “deteriorated steadily” in the second quarter, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City report. Bankruptcies are also on the rise.