\n<\/p>\n
At the Purfeerst farm in southern Minnesota, the soybean harvest just wrapped up for the season. The silver grain bins are full of about 100,000 bushels of soybeans, which grab about $10 a piece.<\/p>\n
This year, though, the fate of the soybeans, and the people whose livelihoods depend on selling them, is up in the air: America\u2019s soybean farmers are stuck in the middle of a trade war between the US and China, the biggest purchaser of soybean exports, used to feed China\u2019s pigs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are gonna have to find a home for them soybeans some time soon,\u201d said Matt Purfeerst, a fifth-generation farmer on the family\u2019s land. \u201cThey won\u2019t stay in our bins for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
No other country comes close to purchasing as many American soybeans as China \u2013 last year, it was more than $12bn worth. This year, the country has not purchased a single dollar, cutting off the country that makes up about half of US soybean exports.<\/p>\n
While Trump has said he intends some sort of payment to go to soybean farmers hurt by tariffs, an announcement of a specific plan is on hold while the government is shut down. He said in a Truth Social post last week that he\u2019d be meeting with the Chinese president soon and \u201csoybeans will be a major topic of discussion\u201d.<\/p>\n
The White House cast blame on Democrats for the government shutdown for the delay in a response to the Guardian on Wednesday, erroneously claiming they were prioritizing healthcare for migrants over farmers.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Soybeans are planted near Waverly, Minnesota. <\/span> Photograph: Mark Vancleave\/AP<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump, Secretary Bessent, and Secretary Rollins are always in touch about the needs of our farmers, who played a crucial role in the president\u2019s November victory,\u201d spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. \u201cUnfortunately, Democrats in Congress have stalled progress on this issue with their prolonged shutdown to serve illegal immigrants instead of America\u2019s farmers. No decisions have been made, but we look forward to sharing good news soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Purfeerst\u2019s family farm grows soybeans and corn, and has some beef cattle. The job is a round-the-clock combination of engineering, business, manual labor, environmental science. And it\u2019s increasingly hard for family farms to make it. Costs for propane, fertilizer and seed have gone up, he said, and the prices for the goods they\u2019re selling don\u2019t make up for the increased costs.<\/p>\n Soybean farmers have become the \u201cposter child out there right now of how this one particular segment\u2019s getting hurt\u201d, he said. The farm recently welcomed Democratic US senator Amy Klobuchar for a visit to talk about how the tariffs were playing out, but Purfeerst said political affiliations don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly 1% of the population is even involved in [agriculture] any more,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd what gets really challenging is this perception of ag out there, whether it\u2019s on tariffs and prices or environmental issues, farmers kind of seem to be the crosshairs of a lot of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Farming areas voted for Trump in 2024, as did much of rural America. One analysis, by Investigate Midwest, showed Trump growing his support among farming-dependent counties in 2024 despite a trade war during his first term that negatively affected farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna get into who I voted for particularly, but I would just have to say, at the time, you got to make decisions who you think is going to be the best leader of the country, and go on with life,\u201d Purfeerst said. \u201cAnd in four years, you get to vote again. That\u2019s the beauty of our society. It\u2019s not an 80-year regime. It\u2019s a four-year cycle. It\u2019s hard to say what\u2019s gonna come about. I mean, everyone\u2019s got their pros and cons.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>A soybean harvest at a farm outside St Peter, Minnesota, last month.<\/span> Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Purfeerst has options for his soybeans: because of his farm\u2019s location, he can sell domestically to local to soybean crush facilities in nearby towns, sell on the rail market, or sell in Minneapolis and put product on barges down the Mississippi River. Other soybean farmers, especially those in more remote parts of the midwest where soybeans are mostly produced, aren\u2019t as lucky.<\/p>\n Stories from all parts of the country where soybeans are grown have surfaced in recent weeks \u2013 in Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, the Dakotas. Farmers face higher costs for inputs like fertilizer and equipment. They rely on China as a purchaser. Soybeans sitting in bins too long is subject to weather and pests. The prices fluctuate, so it\u2019s a gamble to hold on to it that sometimes can pay off, or sometimes lose money.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say tomorrow we get a trade deal with China, and it\u2019s favorable to soybeans. All of a sudden you might see this market jump from $10 to $12 in three, four days,\u201d Purfeerst said. \u201cSo it makes it extremely challenging from a risk management standpoint of: when do you market your crop, and how many eggs do you put in that basket? The potential is $12, but if we don\u2019t get a trade deal, it could go to $9 \u2026 There\u2019s a huge volatility in soybeans.\u201d<\/p>\n The soybean industry has been warning for months that China\u2019s exit from the market would be devastating, calling on the Trump administration to come up with a trade deal that spares farmers. The American Soybean Association wrote a letter to Trump in August, saying the country\u2019s soybean farmers were \u201cstanding at a trade and financial precipice\u201d and \u201ccannot survive a prolonged trade dispute with our largest customer\u201d.<\/p>\n Tim Walz, Minnesota\u2019s Democratic governor, declared the first week of October as soybean week, saying in the announcement that \u201cour soybean farmers are confronting a crisis they haven\u2019t seen since the 1980s\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve produced a bumper crop this year, just to find out they have nowhere to sell their harvest thanks to Trump\u2019s trade policies,\u201d Walz said. \u201cMinnesota\u2019s got the best beans in the world \u2013 I encourage Minnesotans to stand with our farmers and continue to advocate for federal trade reform.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time a Trump trade plan has hurt soybean farmers: in 2018, a trade war led to significant reductions in soybean exports to China. Since then, the market has rebounded, though China has ramped up soybean purchases from Brazil and Argentina, stockpiling exports earlier this year.<\/p>\n Republican lawmakers have said they\u2019re sympathetic to the farmers and want to find a way to help them. James Comer, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, said this week that soybean farmers aren\u2019t to blame for the problem they\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey planted that crop assuming that those foreign markets were going to be there,\u201d Comer said in a recent TV appearance. \u201cI think we need to do something to help the soybean farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n A bailout is \u201creally just a Band-Aid\u201d, though it\u2019s one that many farmers would welcome as they\u2019re getting squeezed right now, Purfeerst said. Most farmers would prefer an open market, without tariffs, for their products, letting the market dictate prices. They don\u2019t want the trade war now to affect a long-term relationship that makes up a significant chunk of market share. There also should be more emphasis put on increasing domestic uses of soybeans, though a long-range plan like that won\u2019t help the farmers who are stuck right now, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s farms that are struggling to make money on soybean acres, and you\u2019ve got to remember: whatever payment we\u2019re getting, whatever that dollar amount might be, if we get anything, it\u2019s not just going in our back pocket,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a fertilizer bill. We\u2019ve got to pay the seed bill. There\u2019s a lot of payments. So really, that money might be in the farmer\u2019s hands for a month, until it gets spent on inputs for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the Purfeerst farm in southern Minnesota, the soybean harvest just wrapped up for the season. The silver grain bins are full of about 100,000 bushels of soybeans, which grab about $10 a piece. 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