OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KFOR/CNN) – U.S. farmers hurt by widening trade feuds can now apply for aid from the federal government to offset costs from reduced exports. But, many want more than financial help.
“We want to be selling our product, we don’t want government payments,” said Rodd Moesel, President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau. He also said farmers do appreciate these payments, but he says offsetting losses is only a short-term solution.
Several countries have slapped tariffs on American commodities amid trade feuds, meaning some farmers are exporting less. Moesel explained, “That’s made the price for soybeans and corn and pork and lots of other ag commodities have dropped dramatically because they have less worldwide market, or their cost to ship their product to Japan or their product to China has gone up way up.”
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said, “The President instructed me as Secretary of Agriculture to make sure that our farmers did not bear the brunt of unfair, retaliatory tariffs.”
In Oklahoma, Moesel says a number of products have been impacted but three in particular: soybean, pork, and cotton.
Starting Tuesday, eligible farmers can apply to offset their losses through the U.S.D.A.’s Market Facilitation Program.
Farmer David von Tungeln said, “Trade tariffs have been pretty devastating to agriculture.”
Von Tungeln’s family owns 160 acres of farmland near El Reno. He says typically between 75 and 80 percent of their wheat is exported overseas, though it hasn’t taken as big of a hit from the tariffs, trade overall has gone down. He said, “The thing that’s been holding up the price of wheat a little bit has been the worldwide drought in the major wheat producing areas.”
Moesel said, “We are counting on our negotiators to get things done as they did with Mexico this last week, we want to see those done with Canada and the E.C. and China and Japan and all over the world, so we can return to doing what we do best which is growing crops and selling and feeding the world.”
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