President Trump's looming tariffs will have an impact on many sectors, including the farming industry. National Black Farmers Association founder and president John Boyd Jr. joins Catalysts to discuss how the trade war is hurting US farmers.
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I know that you have spoken with members of the Trump administration about the impact of these tariffs. Talk to me about who you spoke with, what you told them about her how tariffs could impact your industry.
Well, I reached out to the White House and talked to Lynn Patton in reference to the tariffs and the effect on America's farmers. President Trump's trade war is running American farmers out of business. Every time the president says the word tariff, it creates havoc in in the markets. And many Americans don't understand that corn, wheat, and soybeans are all market-driven commodities. Uh so they think that farmers can just pull up beside the truck, you know, beside the road with their trucks and and determine what the price of their commodities are going to be. That's not how this works, people. We rely on the markets to sell corn, wheat, and soybeans at harvest time. And the prices are dropping, the markets are unstable, and it's a cast of uncertainty over America's farmers. This administration has created doubt with agricultural lenders because we have to put those projections on our loan applications what we're going to sell our commodities for. So this is a bad time right at planning season. Uh the president is talking about imposing more tariffs on April 2nd right at planning season where America's farmers are pulling out our corn planters and filling them up filling them up with corn trying to plant our crop. And we're getting calls from farmers from around the country who are afraid to plant their crops this year. I've told them to go ahead and put their crops in the ground, but that's the type of uncertainty that President Trump has created for America's farmers.
Yeah. It's a lot of uncertainty. I wonder you you talk about some of the potential impact here. Walk me through how farmers are preparing from a financial hit perspective, because from the market perspective, the idea might just be, well, it's a one-time price hike. Just increase your prices and then from there it'll be okay. Talk me through your thought on that.
Well, we won't have the opportunity. Those commodity farmers like myself, and I raise corn, wheat, and soybeans. I've been farming for 42 years. Uh the the president says there's going to be some bumps in the road and have fun trading, you know, our products here at home. Who's going to buy them? You know, who's going to buy the soybeans? We rely on China primarily for that market. Uh the largest purchaser of US grown corn is Mexico and he's imposing tariffs there as well. Those are our markets. Uh so I think it's very disheartening that the president is telling America's farmers that we're going to have to wait. It's going to be a troubling time for us right now. We need some things put in place and the agriculture department is sending farmers some sort of application that we have to fill out uh uh to get some sort of relief. That's not what farmers need. We need a good solid market that we can rely on and stability. Uh this is the oldest occupation in history for America, which is farmers, and the president is gambling with our livelihoods and gambling with our profession right now.
