I grew up on a cattle and sheep ranch in Montana. It helped prepare me for the 35 years I spent advocating for the interests of farmers and ranchers in Washington, D.C. – first working for a very conservative Republican who sat on the House Ag Committee and then for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the National Corn Growers Association.
Growing up, I heard from my granddad, Dad, my uncle, and my brother the same thing I heard many times from the members I had the honor to represent in Washington: On farms and ranches, we deal with the uncertainty of the weather and markets. We do not need more uncertainty - especially from Washington.
We hear a lot from politicians in years divisible by two – and this year is no exception. However, there are things former President Donald Trump has said that should raise significant concerns for anyone making a living in agriculture. If enacted, the policies he says he supports would make life more uncertain for those who work to put food on our tables. At the least, we need more details about his policy positions on issues important to farmers.
Labor is one area where we cannot afford more uncertainty. Americans are rightfully concerned about the border, but the fact is that more than 70% of our nation’s farm and food production is done by immigrants and foreign-born nationals. Trump is promising mass deportation on day one, raiding farms, packers, and processors. What impacts would there be should the country engage in mass deportation of the approximately 12 million people living in the U.S. illegally? Who will pick fruit and vegetables? Who will milk the cows? If we deport millions of people, how do cattle, hogs, and poultry get processed? We have heard the statements. We need some answers – some certainty.
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Certainty around farm programs is equally important. For four years as president, Trump sought cuts to the Department of Agriculture’s budget and to conservation programs. Since then, he has continued to discredit conservation programs, renewable energy, and climate-smart investments. In the last four years, the Biden-Harris administration invested billions in farmer-first conservation, as well as long-term plans to build new markets for farmers through carbon sequestration, animal byproducts and feedstocks. Those programs, left in place, provide market opportunities and certainty for farmers.
As any farmer knows, markets rely on certainty. However, Trump’s trade wars wrecked global trade relationships, which took American agriculture decades to build. He sought to make amends with farmers by handing out billions in government payments that pitted commodities against each other. He pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – thus handing our competitors preferential access to 40% of the world’s consumers on the Pacific rim. Now, he is promising to do it again with bigger tariffs on imports that will set us back even more. We hear the campaign speeches, but farmers and ranchers need some detail – some certainty.
Donald Trump has a strong following in rural America. I understand that. But as someone who spent much of his career working to undo the unintended consequences of federal policy impacting agriculture, I am very worried that some of the strongest statements from the Trump campaign have a lot of “the what” but not a bit of “the how.” How do people continue to manage farms, ranches and feed the world if these policies were enacted? They need some answers – some certainty.
This election is an important one. And voters in agriculture need to have answers to how election rhetoric impacts their family, their farm, and their community. Of that, I am certain.
Jon Doggett, who describes himself as a Montana ranch kid, is the former CEO of the National Corn Growers Association.