2019 fall farm

Page 24 2019 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News Nov. 1, 2019 Story by Jim Youngquist T he continued trade war with China has caused significant tariffs to be added to products on both sides causing a reduction in purchases due to higher prices. Agriculture, one of the largest U.S. export items, has been affected by Trump’s partisan trade war, and China has gone elsewhere for supplies of soy- beans and other U.S. Ag products like pork. The individual producer has been the one af- fected firsthand. The U.S. government reacted, much the same as it did in the 2008 automaker bailout, for the same reasons. Some say that President Trump bailed out the farmers so they would vote for him again in the 2020 election, and the money dispensed to farmers, called the MFP program, did indeed enhance his chances of retaining their vote. But the real intent of the 2018 and 2019 program was to prevent producer failure and bankruptcy. The trade war had depressed producer pricing to the point that the majority of farmers could not achieve sustainable sales. In addition to producer failure, the entire Ag supplier chain remains threatened. The 2018 and 2019 MFP programs were only similar to the automaker The impact of Trump Bucks, Donny Dollars Bulk carrier unloading soybeans in China Continue 8