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Secretary of Agriculture Candidate Tim Gannon joined Iowa farmers on a press call to explain the very real damage being done to Iowa’s farm towns and rural communities.
Iowans need a real, long term solution and a plan to end this Trade War now. Instead, Governor Reynolds and Secretary Naig keep telling Iowa farmers to be patient, but patience has only brought them lower commodity prices while the President doubles and triples down at the expense of our farmers and producers.
The only thing the Trump Administration has offered is a $12 billion handout that is nothing but an expensive, political attempt to silence farmers speaking out against the GOP’s Trade War.
Pork producers alone could lose $911 million. From the beginning, this Trade War was a betrayal of rural and working Iowa. Agriculture is the largest economy in our state. If farms collapse, no Iowan is safe from the devastation it will cause. For soybean and corn farmers, two of the top agricultural exports of this state, they could lose $520 million and $337 million, respectively.
“We’ve seen, as I feared, that when we lose markets we may not get them back,” said candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Tim Gannon. “The Administration has not had a coherent, well thought out policy and effort to bring the changes that we need to see there. If we had gotten our other allies to work with us to change China’s behavior we may not be in the situation we’re in right now.”
“Our income is going down and our costs are going up. That’s the one thing that gets missed most often by people when they look at headlines,” said Hardin County farmer John Gilbert. “This is all going to rain down real hard on the state of Iowa. Since we’re 3 or 4 years into this pretty dicey mismanagement of the state’s budget, this kind of shock to trade, when you don’t have any real reserves, is going to cause real havoc for all of us around the state.”
“I live in an area where within 25 miles of me there are three ethanol plants, and that is the primary market for my grain. The Administration has disrupted that market as well. It’s really sad to see that,” said O’Brien County farmer Bruce Rohwer. “We need a Secretary of Agriculture here in Iowa who can advocate for farmers and who can help improve the markets. We are at a situation where it is critical that we have an administration at the state level that really understands what’s happening here at home.”