Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced USDA is issuing up to $10 billion directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program for the 2024 crop year. That’s welcome news to American farmers challenged by low prices and high costs, but uncertainty remains. In a Farmers for Free Trade webinar, Jordan Dux, Senior Director of National Affairs with the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said the help comes just in time.

“I mean, they’re going to be putting crops in the ground here pretty soon and in the not too distant future. And I think there’s a lot of there’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot, whether it be the trade side of things or just general economics and of where things are at, input prices, all those things. Farmers are putting crops in the ground here pretty soon, at a loss. And so this economic assistance will be helpful. Hopefully we can right the ship a little bit, and we can get some benefit moving forward here.”

But the assistance is just a bandaid, according to Joe Glauber, Research Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on ag policy. With tariffs being levied on top trading partners, Glauber is sounding the alarm.

“I mean, Canada and Mexico, right? We’re already have actions on soybeans from China. But if you look at Canada and Mexico, and if you look at the EU, those top four markets, and we’re talking trade wars now, potential trade wars with each of those. 75% of our corn goes to those four markets. 27, 28% of our wheat goes to those four markets. Soybeans, 73%. Beef, 36%. Pork, 55%. Dairy, 48% of our exports. To talk about a multiple front trade war is, frankly, quite disturbing for agriculture.”

Dux echoed the concern.

“I think there’s a lot of uncertainty, and agriculture doesn’t love uncertainty. Farmers and ranchers don’t love uncertainty. And so whether you’re talking about basic economics, whether you’re talking about trade, I think farmers are a little nervous. We’re going to have to continue to see where it is, where everything is, and we’re going to be paying very close attention as to everything that happens. Whether we’re talking this economic program, the weather-related disaster assistance, the conversation on taxes which will be heating up, and then certainly on trade and tariffs as well.”