The corporate shills at the Farm Bureau aren’t sugar-coating the farm economy. According to its Fertilizer Availability Survey of over 5,700 farmers conducted April 3–11, only 6% of farmers say Trumponomics has made their financial situation greater:
This NPR report from the Mississippi Delta explains the economics harms done by the warmonger farmers picked for President:
Nitrogen is a critical fertilizer for farmers. About one-third of the world’s supply flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently closed amid the US-Israeli war with Iran. It’s the same with roughly 20% of global fuel.
…The war couldn’t have come at a worse time. It’s spring — planting season — when Delta farmers are burning the most fuel and spending the most on fertilizer.
And they were already struggling.
The Trump administration’s tariffs, and other countries’ retaliatory measures that followed have gutted the export markets Delta farmers depend on, leading to major losses for small farmers like [Sledge] Taylor who is now also grappling with rising costs caused by a war thousands of miles away.
China has largely stopped buying American soybeans. Rice exports to Latin America cratered. Corn prices plummeted. Cotton markets’ prices bottomed out.
“Everybody picks on the thing that’s one of our bigger exports,” Taylor said. “They quit buying all of our crops. We have lost customers forever. They will never come back. Because we’re deemed an unreliable supplier” [Drew Hawkins, “The Rising Cost of Fertilizer and Fuel Prices Is Pushing Some Farmers to the Brink,” NPR: Morning Edition, 2026.04.25].
I notice scowling Toby Doeden’s lead issue on his gubernatorial campaign website is to “Stand with President Trump“. Farmers reading that line should check their bottom lines and then run to vote for someone else who won’t blindly follow a dictator whose trade war and shooting war are wrecking their business.
Zippy the Pinhead clearly understands that the squeakiest wheels get the pork fat.
And, as the Trump Organization wars against its own constituency, ends environmental protection and ag bankers enslave landowners more farmers are headed for bankruptcy. The number of farms filing for bankruptcy increased in 2025 after the relative prosperity during the Biden years according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/more-american-farmers-are-filing-for-bankruptcy-heres-why/
Those six percent of farmers that said its better got the most welfare. The rest don’t like being categorized as welfare farmers. Its simple, Biden stayed out of their markets. Trump continued to ruin their markets. Republicans have traded everything they used to believe in for power.
But where is the follow up question: Would you still vote for Trump? I will bet that the vast majority — enough to elect — would cast the same vote for President again.
Most likely depends on which farmers had their diesel, seed, fertilizer, chemical, etc contracted out before the Iran nonsense. I would guess most in ND, SD, NE, and MN did so no real impact yet on a lot of them.
Putting Same or Worse in the same number isn’t a good representation because of contracting imo.
Also, beef ranchers have been making out like bandits so that may soften some of the blow.
While Doeden “stands with Trump,” Dusty proclaims we are at the beginning of a “Golden era.” Can we, please, try something different for a change? I know S. Dakotans don’t like change, but…
Loren, SD loves guns and hates abortion (and lives with the cognitive dissonance between those beliefs). What need for change is there? (snark)
Feast, leopards, feast! Warning: Content is often fatty and full of $hit.
What can we do, besides move?