A growing number of farmers and rural advocates say President Trump’s trade and rural infrastructure proposals would further damage the struggling farm economy, despite his vow to boost rural America through renewed investment.
Of particular concern to rural advocates is Trump’s proposed cuts to the Department of Agriculture, which oversees an enormous amount of rural investment programs, from broadband infrastructure to food aid. The White House’s budget proposal would cut nearly a billion dollars from USDA, and notably defund the agency’s Rural Business Service, which is often a lender of last resort for small business owners who can’t get bank financing.
“When we really break it down and we look at where that job growth is in rural communities, it’s happening through those small businesses,” Johnathan Hladik, of the nonprofit Center for Rural Affairs, told NPR earlier this week.
In that same NPR report, Chais Meyer, co-owner of a custom T-shirt company in Kearney, Nebraska, said: “It would be a huge disservice to businesses like us to not even have [the Rural Business Service] as an option.”
And then there’s Trump’s controversial trade proposals. Many policy organizations and farmers have expressed concern that Trump’s desire for steel and aluminum tariffs could lead to retaliation that would damage the U.S. agricultural export market.
Farmers for Free Trade, an advocacy group that represents conventional, large-scale agriculture, will this week release a 30-second advertisement opposing the tariffs. The advertisement asks Trump to “protect free trade and keep our agriculture economy strong.” The ad will air in the Washington, D.C., and West Palm Beach media markets, perhaps catching the attention of the notoriously TV-obsessed president himself.