As weather patterns change, tariffs worry food producers, and changes unfold at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), farmers increasingly unnerved by the uncertainty they face, says Rob Larew, President of the National Farmers Union (NFU).
Uncertainty is “inherent” in agriculture, Larew says, and it’s something producers are accustomed to. But under the Trump-Vance Administration, he tells Food Tank that the uncertainty “seems to be placed on us by our leaders, our elected leaders.”
The National Farmers Union is one of the oldest farm organizations in the United States and the second largest farm organization, representing a diversity of farms. “But I think across the board, this uncertainty and additional stress is affecting nearly everyone,” Larew says.
According to Larew, the funding cuts, such as those supporting local food procurement, are partly to blame. They “pulled the rug out from underneath so many farmers here,” Larew tells Food Tank. He points to West Virginia, where several farmers in their network had “amazing contracts” with schools and food banks that gave them a more secure market. But that’s now gone.
Larew says that staff and members from NFU have met with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and they are waiting to see if she follows through on recent promises to put small and medium farms first. But, he adds it doesn’t make sense to disrupt existing networks while still talking about the need for it.
NFU is also keeping an eye on tariffs and the escalating trade war. Larew believes tariffs “have a role” in trade policies. But he calls those imposed by the Trump-Vance Administration “unprecedented attempts to try to bully the rest of the world into policy change.” The consequences for farmers, who can’t be sure where they can sell their products, is more uncertainty.
Although the White House announced that they would consider bailouts for farmers if the harm from the trade war continued, Larew argues that this isn’t what they want. And while he notes that the desire to provide aid is appreciated, he says, “as farmers, we want to get our prices out of the marketplace…Hope for a government bailout is certainly not the approach that any farmer I know wants to have.”
Listen to the full conversation with Rob Larew on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear more about concerns about the capacity at USDA, why food and agriculture policy can’t pit farm and nutrition priorities against one another, and hope for action on antitrust enforcement.
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Photo courtesy of Jed Owen, Unsplash
