American farmers are hurting. Trump's trade war is making it worse
This is a bitter harvest season for many American farmers.There's nothing wrong with their crops, which are bountiful. But even as grain elevators overflow with freshly picked corn and soybeans, farmers are losing money on every bushel. And there's not much relief in sight.
"You have high production costs. You have low crop prices. And then you also have the trade situation that exacerbates the condition," Arita says.
Brady Holst is one of the farmers being hit. He raises soybeans, corn and wheat in western Illinois. Holst typically sends part of his harvest down the Mississippi River and on to overseas markets like China. But thanks to the trade war, China isn't buying any U.S. soybeans this fall. That boycott is putting more downward pressure on already low crop prices.
The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation warned the White House last week that more than half of U.S. farms are losing money, threatening small towns and rural economies.
Court records show farm bankruptcies in the 12 months ending in June were up 56% from the previous year. And that ominous trend has continued.
"We had five new farm cases in two weeks," says Joseph Peiffer, an attorney who helps farmers file for bankruptcy in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. "That's astonishing. Shocking. And we're getting additional calls all the time."
