On Jan. 7, the day after Congress certified Donald J. Trump’s election as the next president of the United States, the U.S. “Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield, (California) … descending on businesses where day labourers and field workers gather.” The impact of the raids was immediate. “We’re in the middle of our citrus […] Read more
Tag Archives U.S. politics
U.S. rural economy to be ‘squeezed, hobbled, slowed’
By far the biggest lender to U.S. farmers, ranchers and rural businesses is the Farm Credit System, whose four banks and 56 associations hold nearly 50 per cent of all debt in rural America. What’s more, the largest lender within the massive FCS is CoBank. In mid-2024, CoBank reported an “average loan volume” of US$149.9 […] Read more
Potential pesticide struggle in the U.S. worth watching
A power struggle is potentially looming in the United States within president-elect Donald Trump’s administration that could have implications for Canadian farmers. In one corner of the ring is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health secretary. Kennedy is best known in many circles for his less-than-orthodox views on issues such as vaccines, fluoridation […] Read more
We’ll get sick if the elephant sneezes
Former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau once noted that living next to the United States is “like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” On Nov. 5, the elephant did more than twitch; it sneezed, and Canada is likely to catch […] Read more
Just how expensive is U.S. food compared to other categories?
Nearly every autopsy of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s stinging White House defeat begins with some variation of the phrase, “voters pointed to the rising price of food as their chief concern…” True or not — and more on that later — the Trump campaign tied that tin can so tightly to Harris that everywhere she went […] Read more
Deportation, tariffs expected as Trump’s second act
Every pre-election poll for the U.S. presidential race saw it as a too-close-to-call nail biter. Not one predicted the sweeping victory posted by former, now President-Elect Donald J. Trump. How did all miss the coming rout? And rout it was. Trump swept all seven of the swing states, a feat no candidate had pulled off […] Read more
U.S. policy shifts join weather, economics as market movers
Crop market forecasting for the coming months has become more complicated as questions about American policy direction are added to the usual issues about weather and economic developments. Donald Trump is busy selecting loyalists for his cabinet. With both houses of Congress also in Republican hands and likely to be in tune with Trump’s agenda, […] Read more
U.S. ag policy: buy more deck chairs or chart different course
Calls for US$20 billion in “emergency” farm program payments won’t go away now that the proposal’s principal audience, voters, have done their duty. The idea’s chief promoters, congressional Republicans, have built a wobbly case for the aid, and lame ducks or loud winners, their quacking will continue. Should they succeed, federal agriculture subsidies tied to the […] Read more
‘New U.S.-China trade war could cost farmers billions’
Let’s pause to consider the-above headline. First, it’s a quote; I didn’t write it. That’s important because the third rail of today’s ag journalism — the deadly, high voltage topic that can burn your career — is Donald J. Trump. Question a Trump-related topic such as tax cuts, tariffs or immigration and you’re quickly tagged […] Read more
Big Mac bites Big Meat over alleged ‘artificially higher prices’
If you buy nearly two billion pounds of beef a year — an on-the-hoof equivalent of seven million cattle — you’d think you’d get the best deal ever from your suppliers. You are, after all, the world’s largest red meat buyer. Think again, says McDonald’s. On Oct. 4, it sued the big four meat packers […] Read more
