I’m a Soybean Farmer Who Voted for Trump. I’m Begging the President to End the Trade War.
The U.S. became the leader in soybean production about 30 years ago. That’s when China started buying our soybeans as it went through its own industrial transformation, making its people wealthier. With more money to spend, the demand for meat exploded—and so did the need to feed soybeans to poultry, cattle, and pigs in China. To this day, they still use 70 percent of their soybean imports to feed livestock.
Some say we should aim to sell all our soybeans domestically. But to do that, we would need to double the markets that we currently have in the U.S. That’s just not going to happen at the snap of a finger. It would mean doubling the U.S. consumption of pork, poultry, and beef as well as biofuel production.
As a businessman, President Trump must know how urgent this is. The current trade war with China is a gamble with American livelihoods, especially for farmers—those of us who grew up with soil and sweat—who can’t imagine doing anything else.
Mr. President, I hope you hear our plea: Please make a deal with China now.
If the Democrats want the coal miners to code, maybe the Republicans want the farmers to mine?
Truly the work of a Very Stable Genius™.