Bipartisan farming advocates are concerned the industry could “collapse” in the near future, with the combination of a downturn cycle and the policies of the Trump administration putting the sector in a precarious position.
It points out that policies in President Trump’s first term, such as a trade war with China, dropped the soy bean industry’s market share by 50 percent in 2018. The president also pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that the letter says would have boosted farm exports by $4.4 billion.
In the first year of his second term, Trump started tariff fights with 60 countries, while the trade deficit for agriculture reached $28.6 billion in the first half of the year.
In 2025, crop farmers lost $34.6 billion, according to the American Farm Bureau.