The bottom line: America’s farmers and ranchers were better off when Trump was president
Importance of American-owned farms highlighted at the RNC
Former ambassador of U.N. Food & Agriculture Kip Tom on the need to help promote the success of American farms and how regulations hurt American farms.
For eight generations, my family has been farming on the same land in northern Indiana. We have taken care of the soil and produced grain that has been used to feed and fuel others all across the globe.
But our ability to do so – and to pass the farm to future generations – will be put at risk if Kamala Harris is elected president. Her policy priorities – from taxes to trade – would be disastrous for American agriculture, and raise food prices for American consumers even more.
For the last four years, under the Biden-Harris administration, agriculture in the United States has been put on the back burner.
Vice President Kamala Harris walks out into a packed rally in Glendale, Arizona on Friday Aug. 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
We have seen dwindling profits, increased input costs caused by rampant inflation, and billions pumped into a misguided green agenda. Farm income has declined – by some estimates as much as 43% – between 2022 and 2024. The financial risks and regulatory burdens have grown so much that I often wonder how my grandkids will be able to successfully farm.
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These outcomes are to be expected. For four years, farmers and ranchers have been ignored. And we are suffering as a result.
American agriculture depends on access to foreign markets to succeed. But, under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States has become dependent on foreign agriculture. Next year, America is predicted to import $42 billion more in food than we export.
Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration signed no comprehensive trade deals, doing nothing to support U.S. farmers and ranchers in exporting their products. In an economic climate where prosperity and growth depend on our ability to reach new markets, the Biden-Harris administration has fallen abysmally short.
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This is in stark comparison to former President Trump, whose administration negotiated more than 50 agreements that would boost exports of American agriculture products. Just this week, Trump said calling China’s President Xi Jinping to enforce the China Trade Deal would be a top priority when he is in office. This deal alone would enable $50 billion more in U.S. agriculture products to be sold to China.
It's not just trade policies that show Kamala’s lack of support for American agriculture. The Biden-Harris administration has increased the cost of regulation by $1.67 trillion every year. As a farmer, I experience the impacts of these regulations every day.
Our farms require new seed varieties and other tools to stay productive, but burdensome regulations have significantly slowed down innovation to get these tools to the market and on our farm. American consumers feel these impacts too, at the gas pump and in the grocery aisle.
Even Kamala’s plan to address those high grocery prices (if you consider three sentences posted on X a plan), would fail. Her proposal to stop price gouging would lead to shortages on the shelf, and lost profits for American agriculture. The plan, which she claims would help prevent food insecurity, would just make it worse. At every turn, it is a disaster.
In stark contrast, Trump’s Department of Agriculture removed more than $262 million in costs every year. This reduced regulatory burden got the government out of the way, allowing farmers and ranchers to create innovative new systems and products to increase efficiencies.
Instead of supporting America’s farmers and ranchers, Kamala would throw trillions into a misguided climate agenda. As a senator, Kamala co-sponsored the Green New Deal, a resolution that cost nearly $100 trillion. These climate initiatives would fundamentally change the way we produce food, impacting yields and further raising the price of food for Americans.
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It wasn’t just through reduced regulations that Trump saved farmers and ranchers money. He also implemented historic tax cuts through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Not only is this legislation at risk during a Kamala presidency, she would take it a step further. A Harris administration could eliminate stepped-up basis, strapping each farm family with a crippling $725,000 tax bill.
The bottom line is: America’s farmers and ranchers were better off when Trump was president. From trade to tax, Trump implemented policies to support American agriculture, making it easier for us to make a living raising products that feed the world.
From her homes in California and Washington, D.C., it is easy for Kamala to think she knows what’s best for farmers and ranchers. But she’s never been one.
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She does not know what it is like to work long days only for your livelihood to be disrupted by nonsensical economic policies and out-of-control inflation. She does not know what it is to build a legacy for your family, only for a high tax bill and burdensome regulations to make it impossible for your children to make a career in agriculture.
We need a president that will make it easier – not harder – for America’s farmers and ranchers. We need a president who values family business and will put policies in place to ensure our farms will be successful for years to come. That president is not Kamala Harris.
Kip Tom is a farmer from Leesburg, Indiana, and was ambassador to the United Nations for Food and Agriculture during the Trump administration.
