The Trump and Republican push to eliminate South Dakota’s small family farms is in full swing
Words of wisdom from an old saying: “If you want to know where we are going then look where we have been.”
The “Big, Beautiful Bill” passed by the Trump-Republican Congress is another giant step in the unrelenting attack on rural America. Adding more insult to injury is the $1.1 billion in cuts to Public Broadcasting — a critical resource for many of us in South Dakota. Unfortunately, Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds, and Rep. Dusty Johnson didn’t see its value.
The message from the Trump Administration and GOP is clear — everything will be privatized. The passage of the BBB (which should be called Bankrupting, Bawdy, and Biased) is just another transfer of wealth to the top.
South Dakota’s main industry is agriculture. Historically, the ag sector does very well under Democratic administrations going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Contrast that to Republican administrations from Eisenhower forward, the ag sector has struggled. It’s an easy fact to check or ask a farmer — they lived through it.
And just like Republicans’ push for big business, the push to eliminate small and individual farming operations is in full swing.
USDA farm programs include payment-limitations on individuals who are directly involved in the day-to-day activities of their operation. While there needs to be continued redefinition of these limitations, these are the individuals who are most in need. On the other hand, the USDA Risk Management Administration (RMA) provides heavily subsidized premiums (65% and up) through private sector insurance companies without any individual or other payment limitations.
The RMA’s crop insurance program is one of the main “risk management” protections that farmers rely on, but ironically is probably one of the main reasons for the demise of the small family farmer. Larger farm operations are usually blended/incorporated and receive unlimited crop insurance subsidized premiums. They out bid their smaller family farm competition for land because of the financial protection offered through the subsidized crop insurance program.
https://landstewardshipproject.org/repository/1/1410/white_paper_3.pdf
So where is the DOGE report on this? It certainly sounds like the “fraud, waste, and abuse” that Republicans keep looking for.
Sen. Thune, Sen. Rounds, and Rep. Johnson have not supported a payment limitation for crop insurance premium subsidy. For instance, this planting season, crop insurance offered an early planting option. For an additional fee, planting could begin several days earlier than the earliest crop insurance planting date and still be eligible for coverage and the $25/acre replant coverage along with free replant seed from the seed companies. A limiting factor for crop farming operations is just how many acres can be planted from the earliest crop insurance planting date going forward.
Another example of the push to eliminate the small family farm was during the Reagan administration. The ‘80s farm crisis brought the highest interest rates to date along with deflation in the Ag sector. At the time, Reagan said “I think we should keep the grain and export the farmers.”
Our small-town communities have a steadily decreasing population. Many once proud and prosperous small-town communities are being reduced to empty buildings, school consolidations, little to no retail businesses, grocery store deserts and fewer health care facilities.
It is very hard to understand why a South Dakota farmer would have voted for Donald Trump. Was it because they received $7/bushel for their corn when he was last president? Wait, that was when Clinton, Obama, and Biden were President.
Must have been because they received $6/bushel for their corn? No, that was Clinton, Obama, and Biden again. Must have been the $5 for their corn — nope Clinton, Obama, and Biden.
While farmers did get $4 for their corn when Trump was last president, he managed to get it under $3 quickly.
Now our ag sector will bear the brunt of Trump’s tariffs. Markets will ultimately be lost to other foreign competitors and will only come back if they can buy cheap. There will likely be an attempt to bolster farm income similar to what Trump implemented during his last term. But then the BBB will explode the deficit.
A new slogan can now be coined: “The Spend and Borrow Trump-Republican Party.”
Corporate agriculture is happening at an alarming pace. Soon, they’ll control it all from the seeds to the grocery shelf. Consolidation of the poultry industry has resulted in skyrocketing egg prices. The confinement animal manure waste issue creates odors that could gag a maggot. The Trump administration is also deregulating many safeguards.
Where are those lower prices that we were promised? More than six months into the Trump Administration and grocery prices are still high. Hamburger is on its way to almost $10 a pound.
This is just a taste of what is to come. Trump-Republican policies will lead to more consolidation of agricultural commodities and livestock. This will result in
higher prices for all of us. Democrat policies have helped to stabilize and sustain a prosperous ag economy. But Trump is tearing that all up and selling us out. We all need to wake up and take action.
That’s one South Dakota rural Democrat’s view.
Dennis Olson of Huron is the national committeeman for the South Dakota Democratic Party. He comes from a family of farmers and had a 38-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service at the county, state and national levels.
Photo: South Dakota cropland, public domain, wikimedia commons
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