Representatives for Trump, Harris Frame Agricultural Issues
Published: Friday, October 11, 2024
Farm Foundation hosted a forum in September featuring Kip Tom, Leesburg farmer and former ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, and former Environmental Protection Agency senior adviser for agriculture Rod Snider. The two discussed the agricultural platforms of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris and what farmers should expect from each.
Tom gave his expertise on the Republican agricultural platform, while Snider spoke about the Democratic side of the issue. Tom is an eighth-generation row crop farmer and has served globally as an agricultural consultant. Snider has a farming background in West Virginia dating back to the 1700's and spent over two decades working in agricultural policy. The following are the two speakers' opening comments during the debate:
"Vice President Harris is working to build an opportunity economy where farmers, ranchers and rural communities can thrive. This starts by ensuring that producers of all sizes have access to diverse markets, a robust safety net, a reliable workforce, an innovation pipeline and a level playing field with competitors around the world," Snider said in his opening comments. "It's also vitally important that rural communities where most of our food is grown are healthy and thriving places."
He also noted financial investments in rural energy such as electricity, water systems, high-speed internet and rural transit systems.
Snider highlighted the nearly $10 billion invested in rural electric cooperatives across the nation, over $50 billion invested in water infrastructure and high-speed internet access and over $4 billion in support of rural transit systems, all under the Biden-Harris administration.
"The USDA ERS 2023 Rural America at a glance report shows that rural population is growing again after a decade of overall population loss," he said.
The addition of Tim Walz from Minnesota as Harris' running mate should put farmers at ease, Snider said, due to Walz's experience in agricultural policy.
"Prior to being elected, Gov. Tim Walz spent 12 years in Congress where he served six terms on the House Agriculture Committee and helped write three farm bills. His district in southern Minnesota was among the top 10 districts for value-added ag commodities in the entire country," Snider said. "This is a leader who is deeply familiar with rural America and who gained a reputation for working across party lines to support farmers in Minnesota and across the country.
"Together, Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz represents a team that is ready to fight for farmers, ranchers and rural communities on day one."
He characterized the rural economy under the Trump administration as chaotic and uncertain, warning that "the outlook for a second term would be even more severe."
Quoting National Corn Growers former CEO John Doggett, he said, "'There are things former President Trump has said that should raise significant concerns for anyone making a living in agriculture if enacted. The policies he says he supports would make life more uncertain for those who work to put food on our tables.'"
He reminded farmers of the trade war during Trump's term, which cost farmers $29 billion in lost exports in 2018-19.
"His most recent proposal of 10-20% across-the-board tariffs for all imported products would lead to further loss of global market share for U.S. agriculture, not to mention rapid inflation for consumers in terms of farm labor," he said.
"A second Trump term would be equally devastating. Roughly 70% of workers in the United States are foreign born and nearly half of those are undocumented. Trump is promising mass deportation on an unprecedented scale without any consideration for our country's ag system, food prices or least of all the human toll. There are thoughtful bipartisan proposals in Congress to address workforce challenges and legal pathways."
Snider noted the key role biofuels play in the domestic market for corn and soybean growers. He said the investments made by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration in oil refineries "undercut renewable fuel production by nearly 4 billion gallons."
A final point Snider discussed was Trump's impact on U.S. climate initiatives, including the decision to withdraw the U.S. from Paris Climate Accord, noting the only other countries not involved in the agreement are Iran, Libya and Yemen; and dismantling "major climate initiatives across the federal government."
"By contrast the Biden-Harris administration has invested heavily in voluntary farmer-led climate and sustainability initiatives that are helping position America's farmers and ranchers as leaders in the low carbon economy while building the long-term resiliency of our agricultural sector," he said.
"I think it's important to acknowledge that the farm economy currently is experiencing a down cycle which all of us should be concerned about however in terms of policies being advanced by Donald Trump, in my opinion, the cure is worse than the disease."
Tom began his opening comments by quoting President Eisenhower: "'Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the field.' And I think when we look at agriculture today, and we look at our policymakers, I think we see so much policy in Washington that's enacted that is far from what we need in rural America—far from what we need to make sure that we're a reliable source of a strong economy and agricultural ecosystem."
He discussed agricultural trade, taxes, foreign policy and the so-called American dream.
Tom said Trump's trade policy was an example of success.
"We had some trade wars with China. Soon afterwards we had the 301 Tariffs, which are still in place today under the Biden-Harris administration. We know that soon after phase one was installed with the Chinese we saw nearly a $26-38 billion increase in trade and we signed an $80 billion trade deal with China at the same time, and we've done over 50 trade deals with China during the Trump administration," Tom said. "I think Donald Trump is clearly the lead in making sure that we have a strong ag economy and making sure we can continue to export our excess here in this country."
"Today under the Harris administration, they still keep those tariffs in place, and we need to remember that. But we've had no trade deals under the Harris administration. None. And that's why we see a decline in our export sales, nearly $42.5 billion this next year. We were on an increase until Donald Trump left office, and now we're seeing a decline. Now we're seeing the decline in farmers income."
Tom noted a recent Farm Bureau report which estimated farm incomes to be lowered nearly 50% from what it was in the years between 2022-24.
"If you look at Midwest agriculture, at some of our livestock sectors, they're paying the price today for not having those trade agreements in place."
"When I listened to my father talk before he passed, about two and a half years ago, we went to the farm where he first walked in the furrow behind his father, behind horses, and looked at that field and we talked about life, talked about farming," he said. "Dad looked at me and said, 'when I was a boy this field yielded 30 bushels per acre. What did it yield this year?' I said, '240.' An eight-fold increase! Imagine the innovation that started in the United States that allowed this to happen. We need to untether that innovation once again. We cannot let Washington, D.C. get in the way, we cannot let government get in a way, of bringing new innovations to the marketplace."
"I've lived American Dream. My parents raised five children, we started out with 120 acres, we were in 4-H, FFA, went to church, worked in the community," he said. "So, how do we ensure that American dream becomes a reality into the future? (To) continue on for all of us, we need to have a national agriculture strategy. And this comes from the private sector and the public sector working together to make sure that we have this strategy in place so we can deal with some of the counter conflicts that we have around the world."
But, he said, this American dream is under threat due to policies being proposed by Biden and Harris.
"We looked at the risk that was being posed upon us by the Biden-Harris administration, and now if the Harris-Walz administration becomes a reality, you know one of the biggest significant issues I see us being faced with is probably death tax. What is being proposed today will nearly double the amount of farmers and ranchers that will have to pay inheritance taxes, money they've already paid taxes on.
"And now, when they transition that to the next generation, we'll continue to pay taxes. It could be the most undermining issue taking away the farms and the ranches as we know them today having to sell off assets to continue their family legacy of producing food, fiber and energy.
"I look at the regulatory issues in our country under the Biden-Harrison administration. They've created almost $1.67 trillion of new regulations (and) that's not only cost in industries. This is costing farmers, this is costing the American consumer. That's why we see the 30% inflation is at the grocery store today," he said.
Tom encourages the creation of one, collaborative advocacy agenda for agriculture to reconnect rural and urban residents in order to educate consumers about farming. He also said the U.S. agriculture strategy should include an expanded and enhanced infrastructure to increase independence and reduce vulnerability.
"You know nearly 70% of the crop care products that we use in the United States are produced abroad, much in India but primarily in China. Imagine if they hit the kill switch, imagine if we couldn't have the products that we need to make sure that we can fight back against the weeds, insects and diseases that we have in our crops, or the pharmaceuticals that we need for our livestock to keep them healthy," he said.
"All societies are only three meals from chaos. We need to incentivize careers for young people in agriculture. We need to make sure that we're attracting the right talent back into the industry to play a role in feeding that growing world, especially as we march to towards that population 9.5 (million) or 10 billion people."
Tom also addressed illegal immigration, and advocated for the enforcement of legal immigration, stating that the majority of migrants in the agricultural industry entered through legal processes.
Other agricultural improvements Tom advocated for include: risk management, bipartisanship and governmental boundaries on agricultural and environmental policies, reducing agricultural and food prices, and renewing focus on agricultural innovation.
"President Trump made the comment this past week he wants to invest in new and modern agriculture techniques. That's a really great sign," he said.
The rest of the debate, along with answers to audience questions, will be included in subsequent issues.
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