America Bet the Farm on Soybeans. Then Came Trump.

[Celerity]

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-10-16-amercia-farming-soybean-monoculture-bailouts/



Soybean farmers across the U.S. are facing a uniquely difficult harvest season. Nominally priced at about $24.5 billion, soybeans are the US’s top agricultural export, popular due to their flexible usage and stability in storage. The world relies on products born from soybeans, which are used for everything from tofu to livestock feed, and people will pay big money for them. Last year, China bought around $12.6 billion worth of American soybeans (about half the total, as usual), with the European Union ($2.45 billion) and Mexico ($2.3 billion) following in second and third place. But as a result of President Trump’s ongoing trade war, China stopped buying soybeans from the US in May, leaving the agricultural industry with a gaping void that has exposed the true instability of the farm economy.

There’s little prospect of those sales ever coming back, as China has already found replacement soybeans from Brazil and Argentina. Without that export market, the American farm economy is in deep and immediate trouble. Yet there are more profound problems revealed by this crisis: namely, an attachment to large-scale monocrop farming and a corresponding habit of passing farm bailouts when this leads to disaster—as it often does. In the past year, two farm aid packages have been passed, and another is likely. But without deeper reform, this will bank up even more problems for the future.

A new report from Farm Action published this month details the multiple problematic elements contributing to the precarious state of the farm economy. Farm Action is a nonpartisan, farmer-led watchdog group that works to support the needs of farmers, workers, and rural communities over the interests of the government and large corporations. “We published this report because this is really capturing some of the resiliency issues that we're concerned about with this system, where we really are dependent on an overproduction of certain crops, and those crops are very reliant on a handful of global trade partners,” Sarah Carden, Farm Action’s research and policy director, told the Prospect.

After opting not to purchase soybeans from the U.S., China turned to two of the country’s top competitors: Brazil and Argentina. In September, China bought 93 percent of Brazil’s soybean exports, and purchased millions of tons of soybeans from Argentina when the country dropped its grain export taxes. This has been a godsend for Argentina, which is on the brink of economic collapse touched off by its ultra-libertarian president, Javier Milei, but still not as useful as the $20 billion in American aid that Trump recently directed to the country. It’s remarkable: Trump is simultaneously wrecking American agriculture while also subsidizing its foreign competition, where several friends of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent coincidentally have large business interests. America first!

snip

[Moostache]

1. I hope that every one of them that voted for Trump gets EXACTLY what they deserve.

Bankruptcy.

We also need a serious 'come-to-Jesus' moment in this country reagrding exactly how we allow capital (and in particular venture capital and private equity) to dominate industries and control things in monopolistic fashion and STILL get bailed out by tax payers and government bails outs.

We seem stuck between the idea that all socialism is 'bad' until there's a crisis and then the empty cups come streaming out from all angles and the cries of poverty and ruin are deafening.

You fucker voted for this. Enjoy the results.

[Thunderbeast]

2. Help the farmers out. Eat more Tofu!

[leftstreet]

3. DURec

[Tetrachloride]

4. by coincidence, Happy Halloween.

No turkey no cry

and

if you have money, thank a banker or the bankruptcy judge. Trump knows.

[Cirsium]

5. Thanks for that

Here is more about Farm Action from their website:

America’s farmers are facing a dire economic crisis that threatens the future of our food supply, the health of our children, and our national security. Major cuts to key farm programs at the USDA have left farmers who grow healthy local food without the markets or support they need.

Meanwhile, for the past several decades, monopoly power in the food system has strangled farmer profits, and now tariff turbulence and rising input costs have left many unable to sell their crops, while market prices remain flat. Farmer bankruptcies are soaring as the USDA cuts programs that protect soil, support family farms, and feed our kids.

Since 2017, the U.S. has lost over 160,000 farms, or an average of 63 family farms a day, due to monopoly consolidation and soaring input costs. With a looming farm and debt crisis, these numbers are expected to skyrocket as the USDA is now prioritizing a future bailout plan for only the largest commodity farmers. Small and Mid-sized farmers need your help today!

Industrial agribusiness giants like Bayer, Cargill, Smithfield, and JBS are raking in tens of billions in subsidies each year, while organic and regenerative farms—the ones we need to make America’s children healthier—are being driven out of business. Without funding for soil health, conservation, and local food infrastructure, we cannot rebuild rural economies or improve the health of America’s children.

https://farmaction.us/tell-secretary-rollins-and-the-usda-to-promote-healthy-food-and-protect-americas-farmers/

[Warpy]

6. Maybe we'll see a few startups adopting Asian soybean tech

and we'll start brewing our own tamari, producing miso for a range of lovely soups, bring the price of tofu down (and teach people how to cook the stuff, it's great when properly prepared), producing enough tempeh of various flavors to fill a whole case at the market. I can't see a huge market for natto, the texture is off-putting to USians, but the huge range of fermented soy foods will certainly be welcome as the price of everything else skyrockets.

I don't know if you can make Depression Coffee out of soy, I found chickpeas produce the best flavor. A lot of people are going to be looking for good fake coffee as the tariffs really start to bite us all.

[progressoid]

7. Every day those farmers check their right wing news source waiting for word that Trump is going to bail them out.

The hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness is stunning.