A farmer in East Texas in 2014 (Wikimedia Commons)
Farmers in Republican-led states are in crisis, facing plunging export markets, rising costs and the real possibility of foreclosures — unless the federal government steps in with a bailout, a New York Times report warned Monday.
The report highlighted how China’s sweeping halt on U.S. soybean imports, in retaliation to newly imposed tariffs from the Trump administration, has plunged producers like the Gackle family of North Dakota into deep financial peril.
Their 2,300‑acre soybean operation is projected to lose about $400,000 in 2025, with harvests piling up unshipped.
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Last month, President Donald Trump publicly urged China to sharply increase its purchases of U.S. soybeans, calling directly on Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In a post on Truth Social, he wrote: “Our great farmers produce the most robust soybeans,” and pressed China to “quickly quadruple its soybean orders.”
His appeal briefly revived hope among farmers in North Dakota that a trade deal might be imminent. But weeks before harvest, with no deal forthcoming, many warn the crisis is entering a new and more urgent phase.
“I feel like we’re out of time,” Justin Sherlock, a farmer from Dazey, N.D., told The Times.
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Contributing to the squeeze: sharply higher interest rates, rising input costs (e.g. fertilizer, equipment, fuel) and sharply lower commodity prices.
The report noted that many farmers say the pressure now rivals, or even exceeds, the damage visited during the farm crisis of the 1980s.
Bill Wilson, a professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University, told The Times: “I have never seen as monumental a disruption in agriculture as we’re experiencing now."
He continued: “These are turbulent, turbulent times.”
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Meanwhile, multiple reports indicate that discussions are underway about a federal bailout to help offset trade‑losses and keep operations afloat.
But for many small and medium family farms, especially those exporting to markets like China, time is short.