Jonathan H. Harsch

Farmers should join the enthusiasm about industrial hemp’s huge potential, ranging from medicinal uses to bioplastics, chemicals, fuels, paper and bioremediation – but proceed with caution.

The rural vote that was key to electing President Donald Trump in 2016 has focused a spotlight on rural America and on the need for more effective rural development policies.

Farm sector exports and profits are down sharply as escalating tariffs choke off international trade. Yet one group is benefitting from the tariff wars: over 40 million food insecure Americans who struggle to buy groceries.

One example of collateral damage from the Trump administration’s escalating trade battle with China is dairy exports.

From California to Georgia, farmers can’t find enough workers to harvest their crops or milk their cows. Combined with Congress’s decades-long failure to act on long-promised comprehensive immigration reform, the result is that U.S. consumers are paying more for a less-secure food supply as more production moves south of the Mexican border in search of farm labor.

With 95 percent of California’s Central Valley wetlands lost over the last century to urbanization and highly productive agriculture, researchers warn that the area’s once prolific native salmon could disappear within 50 years.

Despite sharp attacks on two specific changes affecting the National Organic Standards Board, the U.S. organics industry has enthusiastically welcomed the new farm bill that President Trump signed into law Dec. 20.