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Democrats warn Trump trade, economic policies are costing farmers

The Ranking Member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee suggests the Trump administration is undermining farm families.

During a webinar hosted by Angie Craig Tuesday, the Minnesota Democrat said the war in Iran has driven up fertilizer and fuel prices.

“Our largest agricultural competitors like Brazil and Argentina are seizing the markets that U.S. farmers spent decades and billions of dollars to develop, because the White House has blown up trade agreements with our closes allies and chief rivals alike.”

She says farm bankruptcies in the Midwest are up 70 percent this year and the U.S. has lost more than 15,000 farms since 2025.

Wisconsin state senator Brad Pfaff also participated in the call and said under Trump, farmers are making less while consumers pay more.

“How does that work? What kind of economic policy is that in which farmers who grow the food that we enjoy and we need, they can barely break even? But yet we as consumers, we go to the store (and) we’re seeing prices go up and up.”

Iowa Farmers Union president Aaron Lehman accused the administration of taking U.S. agriculture down the wrong path.

“And all our elected leaders need to say how important this is to our farms, to our rural communities, and our consumers and our country.”

Craig says if the Trump administration continues the policies of the last year and-a-half the U.S. is in big trouble.