Farmers need help. Let’s see if a Dem-led congress can provide it

Though grain and soybean prices have come up a bit in recent months, the American Farm Bureau thinks that farmers will continue to see tough times. Prices for their crops just aren’t  keeping up with input costs, principally fertilizer and diesel fuel. 

So far, the Trump administration’s policies haven’t been able to make much of a difference by way of financial relief, so the White House turned to making direct cash payments to farmers in order for many of them to stay afloat.

Much as I support federal financial aid in order to keep producers functioning – food security is priority number one – an efficiently structured relationship between farmers and policy-makers in Washington is what the ag industry needs.

The Trump administration has been helpless when it comes to framing policy that works for farmers, which makes cash bailouts a necessity and only extends official ineptitude.  

Last night’s overwhelming rejection of Trump and his policies was driven in large part by rural states that turned on the president’s party. Though South Dakota didn’t participate in the political overhaul, farmers in our state will be impacted by the changes in ag policies that should materialize in D.C. next year.  

The first order of business should be passing a Farm Bill. Agriculture is a high risk business, subjected to sometimes wild price fluctuations and the vagaries of weather. Farm bills provide safety nets that farmers and their lenders can depend on. 

Farmers also need an administration that knows something about how trade policy can affect rural livelihoods. Trump’s wild and irrational trade wars have permanently altered the soybean market, and not for the better as far as American producers are concerned.

Now that Democrats from rural areas are part of the political landscape in D.C. we should expect better when it comes to dealing with the headstrong Trump, who up to now had a Republican congress green-lighting policies that drove crop prices down and pushed input prices up.

Will the Democrats perform? I think they will, especially as much of their newfound political strength comes from the rural districts that terminated their Republican reps yesterday. 

John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission. 

Photo: South Dakota farm, public domain, wikimedia commons

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