US farmers lose $47 billion soybean market overnight. Maybe tariffs aren’t the answer to everything?

Let’s get caught up to speed, for the benefit of everyone still obsessing over Epstein and Charlie Kirk:

Trump (to planet): “You’re all going to pay huge tariffs on everything. I will change the amounts daily. Bwaaaah!!!”

China (to US): “Please cancel our US soybean purchases for 2025. We’ll let you know later about 2026”

Farmers (to Trump): “We need a $47 billion bailout because now China is buying all its soybeans from Argentina”

Trump: “I’m going to bail out Argentina’s economy. Make Argentina Great Again. And here’s a new tariff on kitchen cabinets, in case anyone was thinking of remodeling.”

The silver lining: at least no talking heads will appear on CNN and PBS wringing their hands over soybean inflation in America’s supermarkets. Stop laughing - all of this is true. See link at bottom.

If you had asked me to guess the value of the annual US soybean crop, I’d have said anywhere from $1 billion to $1 trillion. If you asked me how much of America’s farmland is devoted to soybeans, I’d have been equally helpless. Turns out it’s 85 million acres, equal to the combined land mass of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Delaware. See second link at bottom.

That is a LOT of farmland devoted just to grow soybeans. What does China do with all of these beans? If you said “tofu” (curdled soy milk, congealed to impersonate cheese) you’d be wrong. China mostly feeds our soybeans to their pigs. Which in turn become pork egg rolls, sweet and sour spareribs, and possibly bacon.

I’m okay with this, if it keeps China from harvesting wild bats and selling them alive in “wet markets”, which THEN ends up infecting half the world with the Covid 19 virus. If that’s the way it actually happened, and the pandemic WASN’T a leak from their Wuhan military experimental virus lab . . .

Let’s cut to the chase. I wish no misfortune on America’s farmers. But those 85 million acres are probably put to better use feeding America, rather than fattening pigs to feed a global adversary which is constantly hacking America’s airports and banks, threatening to invade Taiwan, and torturing it’s Nobel peace prize winners in prison.

Can we have a conversation about putting America first (not China or Argentina) and keeping our own people fed and housed?

I’m just sayin’ . . .

‘The frustration is overwhelming’: Soybean farmers feel betrayed as Argentina blows a hole in rural America’s $47 billion soybean bonanza

Why Soybeans Have Become The Second Largest Crop In The U.S.

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FoxyQueen · 51-55, F

I known they thought that China would "make a deal" and they would see the benefit, and so they planted soy based off that belief.

But at some point, I would think they would have had a back up plan to plant other crops on other acreage as a "just in case it goes sideways".

I also understand that farmers get subsidies for growing crops like corn and soy to be sold overseas that they depend on. There's significant money tied up in those crops, so it makes sense to grow them.

However, when the government shows they aren't there for you, it's time to do what is best for you.

America doesn't have a food problem in the means of growing. We have a money issue. We grow plenty of food for everyone two times over. We just don't distribute food in a way where all can eat and there lies the problem.

Farmers are our first line of survival. When you undermine them, you undermine every person in America. When the farmers think they are going to get government assistance and don't, the chain breaks.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@FoxyQueen i think farmers get subsidies for NOT planting acres, for crops which are constantly in surplus. I don't see why we would pay subsidies to ship crops overseas.

FoxyQueen · 51-55, F

@SusanInFlorida They are paid subsidies to let feilds lay fallow to prevent overpropagation and repeat of the dust bowl. However, they also get subsidies for crops, like corn and soybean for issues such as low productivity, and risk management, but it is a US commodity that we use for trade, which is why they receive subsidies.

Unfortunately, because we are no longer trading with China, these subsidies don't apply, regardless of how well or bad the crips did because they are no longer a commodity to the US government, leaving, at minimun, 34% of the US farmers holding tons and tons of produce and all the expenses of growing, harvesting and storing them. They have produce that will receive no monetary worth for them, reducing 20% of their annual income, a huge loss and waste.

Charity · 61-69

@SusanInFlorida

Actually you're both are right farmers are paid to grow crops and farmers are paid not to grow crops, just depends

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-the-govt-pay-farmers

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-the-govt-pay-farmers