Rolling Stone: From the American farmer’s perspective, how has it been watching this trade war develop with China?
John Heisdorffer (Keota, IA): Well, this kind of news is not only financially draining when the markets go down but it’s also emotionally draining, thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is going to go along again for how long?” I thought we were close to a settlement, but that didn’t happen I guess.
Bill Gordon (Worthington, MN): It’s crazy. You sit there and try to raise a crop and do everything you can. You fight mother nature like we did last year and again this year, and then you come to find out,
“Oh, hey, by the way, the government got in the way and you don’t have a market. They took the market away.” Soybean farmers have sunk their own money, blood, sweat and tears for the last 40 years into building the Chinese market up and getting trade partners and building this two-way relationship, then it gets taken away overnight.
Bret Davis (Delaware, OH): I understand what the president is trying to do in bringing them to the table, but we’ve been a year at this and nothing’s happened. We’ve heard from trade representatives that we’re just a couple weeks away and we’ve heard that for months now. With adding more tariffs, I feel like it’s throwing more fuel on the fire. The tariffs haven’t worked and it’s completely crushed our market.
We went from a year ago being able to sell beans at this time for $10.30 and we’re at $7.50-$7.60 right now. It’s been a complete detriment to the farmer. And to the rural economy, too.
Even if a trade deal gets worked out, do you feel this has been damaging to future trade relationships with China?
Gordon: Absolutely, we already know it is. They’ve already shifted more of their purchasing power to the South American market.
Krista, many farmers like yourself sell to a local merchandiser who then sells to China. Are you worried the market effects are going to trickle down and start impacting you?
Krista Swanson (Oneida, IL): If you look at the prices, you would say it already is impacting us, the price that we can sell for. It’s a direct factor in our income. China is still buying soybeans [from the U.S.]; that’s an important point to make — but losing even 20 percent of the market there is a really big deal because they’re such a big customer.
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just concering?
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. these idiots for thinking that moron was their "champion." And sadly, many of these farmers are still looking up at the sky waiting for him to drop the cargo. Trump might be the most persuasive cult leader in human history. They, as Cub would say, won't "forsake" him.
