Providing taxpayer support for disaster aid for farmers remains significantly higher than it is for compensating farmers for lower prices, and support for trade compensation is increasing, according to a quarterly survey.
Support for disaster aid has remained consistently high, averaging about 80% across all 11 of the surveys since May 2022 of the Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey, which is conducted by experts at the University of Illinois and Purdue University. By comparison, support for market-based relief has averaged about 43%, the survey found.
Congress approved about $31 billion in farm assistance in December, $21 billion of which was for losses from natural disasters. The remaining $10 billion was intended as compensation for declines in market prices.
“Interestingly, support for payments for farmers following export or trade restrictions saw an uptick in November, following the election,” according to the survey report. Support for trade-related payments rose in November. About 60% of both Democrats and Republicans who were surveyed in November in the latest poll support trade-related assistance. About 49% of independents did also.
“It seems likely that these changes were driven by increased saliency of the issue during the presidential election," the report said.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he could impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico as soon as Feb. 1, raising concerns about retaliation on U.S. exports.
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