A Fifth-Generation Farmer on Trump’s $12B Bailout

From rising costs to shifting markets, American farmers are struggling to make ends meet. Now, the White House is stepping in.

On today’s Big Take podcast, David Gura sits down with Bloomberg agriculture Reporter Erin Ailworth and a fifth-generation farmer to discuss President Trump’s $12 billion farm aid plan. What prompted the move, which sectors will be eligible and how ongoing tensions between the US and China have upended the market for certain crops and shifted how the US exerts its influence overseas.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-08/us-farmers-say-12-billion-bailout-won-t-end-industry-slump 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Marty Richardson has been a farmer in northwest Missouri for years,
so many years in fact, that when we asked Marty
how long it's been, he had to think about it.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Oh, let's see, I'm seventy three, So if I started
when I was in high school, whatever, that has up
to be sixty years fifty five. I lived in the
house I was born in, and so living on a farm,
my generational farm here, so I've been kind of farming
my whole life.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is a family business. Marty's sons are also farmers,
sixth generation, so they've had a front row seat as
agriculture has evolved in recent decades.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Used to be in the hog business, but we got
out of that twenty years ago. And used to be
in the tobacco business, and we got out of that.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
These days, Marty's focus is on cattle and row crops,
mostly corn and soybeans.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, I think the twenty five years we had excellent yields.
We had really good corn, really good beans. Of course,
the cattle markets an all time high.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
But there's a problem, and it's a big one, a
threat to his bottom line and thousands of other farmers.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
We're just losing our markets, and then we've lost that
China market, and combined with high input costs for seed, chemical, fertilizer,
and fuel, and a farmer can usually stand one or
the other, but when you get squeezed from both ends,
it's almost impossible to make any money.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
This week, the White House stepped in to help farmers
facing that two sided squeeze. On Monday, President Trump announced
a highly anticipated multi billion dollar relief package.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
We're going to be giving and providing it to the
farmers in economic assistance.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
And we love our farmers, and.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
As you know, the farmers like me. That relief package
includes twelve billion dollars in payments money. The US Agriculture
Secretary of Brooke Rollins called a bridge aid meant to
help farmers during a difficult time.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Trump has been saying for quite a while that you know,
he's going to help farmers. He's not going to leave
them hurting.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Aaron Aylworth covers agriculture for Bloomberg. She specializes in the
grain markets, and Aaron says, this relief package comes at
the end of what's been a painful year for many
US farmers, like Marty.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
It's happening now in large part because farmers have been
struggling for a while, right, and that pressure has just
been mounting. And farmers are this key voting block for
the president. They overwhelmingly supported him in the election and
for the Republican Party, and so with midterms looming, it's like,

(02:53):
do we want to leave one of our biggest voting bases,
you know, in pain? And the answer to that, of
course versus no.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
I'm David Garrett and this is the big take from
Bloomberg News today on the show, US Agriculture at an
inflection point, the role farmers are playing in the US
China trade war, and how much of a difference that
twelve billion dollar farm bailout is likely to make. I
have a very basic question that is, at this moment,

(03:24):
at the end of twenty twenty five, how is the
American farmer doing?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Broadly speaking, they are hurting. I talked to a farmer yesterday,
a Rice farmer, and she was telling me that she's
been on the phone with a lot of other farmers
and those conversations, quite frankly, are tearful. People are worried
about their business, about their family farm, essentially about their
generation's old legacy. In a lot of cases, right, they

(03:50):
don't want to be the person to have to close
the door. And that has created a huge mental tool.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
And I imagine the into bankruptcy as well. It's low
large for load of these.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Farmers, that's right. Courtant data shows that Chapter twelve bankruptcies,
which are for farms, are on the rise, and they
have been for the last two quarters.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Aaron says, there are a number of reasons why many
US farmers are going to bind this year. The big
one is costs are going up.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
It seeds, it's fertilizer, its equipment, it's everything that you
need to put something in the ground, watch it grow
and then harvest it. So those prices are up, Commodity
prices are down, and then you tack on inflation, right,
and everything is just topsy turvy.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Farmer's income is also falling. According to the US Agriculture Department,
income from selling key crops, including wheat, corn, and soybeans,
has declined since twenty twenty two. And of course, the
United States is ongoing trade war with China, which has
put a wedge between row crop farmers like Marty and
his biggest customer and put sky high tariffs on critical

(05:01):
inputs like machinery, fertilizer, and seeds. Could you describe the
challenges of this trade environment when it comes to farmers
with what the export environment looks like, and we hear
a lot about China not fulfilling its obligations when it
comes to purchasing soybeans. Can you describe the way that
this administration's trade policies have sort of reshaped the environment

(05:22):
for soybean farmers in specific.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
So this actually goes back to Trump's first administration, right,
and a trade war in twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen,
and that trade war exacerbated a shift that China was
already trying to make where they're trying to diversify so
they're not as dependent on the US as a supplier, right,

(05:46):
And so they started buying more from Brazil, and US
farmers haven't really gotten that market share back. And so
now with this administration and the tariff policies again pushing
China to other suppliers, American farmers are losing out. They're

(06:09):
losing that market share again. And you saw in May
China stopped buying soybeans from the US, and that's a
huge deal because sowebeans are basically the US's biggest agricultural export, right,
and they go to China. You know, China uses soybeans

(06:33):
for it gets crushed into soybean meal for animal feed,
mostly for pigs, and it gets used in soy oil,
that kind of thing. So it's a big product, and
so to not be moving US supply to them, it's
a big gap. It's a big loss of a customer.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
USDA data showed it between twenty twenty and twenty twenty four,
China has committed to buying between thirteen and twenty eight
million metric tons of US soybeans each year. In twenty
twenty five, that number dropped to under half a million.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
And so they stopped buying in May, and that was
to essentially try and and gain leverage in these trade
talks with the Trump administration, and I think it largely worked, right.
They didn't buy in September when the new marketing year started,

(07:29):
and so September everybody's like waiting for these purchases and
they're like, oh no. Like the USDA data that comes out,
you just keep seeing zero zero zero.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
For Marty richardson the politics behind that business shift were clear.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
I hate to say it like this, but he's just
kind of This country doesn't have a whole lot to
trade to other countries except food or agricultural products. So
sometimes in a trade deal we get held hostage the
American farmer because that's the only thing we got to
barter with.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Once Trump and she talked in late October, and you know,
the Trump administration said, okay, China has pledged to buy
these twelve million soybeans.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
That's twelve million tons of soybeans.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
The market went nuts, and you saw a huge jump
in soybean prices, which has started to fade now because
China hasn't been buying at a fast paced They have
been buying, but they're still buying from Brazil, and so
Brazil and South America have become just a you know,
an increasingly bigger and bigger competitor. And the economists that

(08:41):
I talked to don't think that that's going to swing
back to the US, especially not immediately.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Neither does Marty Richardson.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
I mean, what's odd to China coming back and buying
beings like they was three or four years ago, slimmed
to none because They've got that Brazil down there. They're
raising huge cross and I can't see fuel going down much,
fertilizer going down much, or seed going down much, or
john deer going down. I mean, that's called inflation. When

(09:11):
everything goes up, very few things go back down. And
corn and beans and wheat and rice and cotton have
not had that inflationary jump, but the rest of everything
else has had. You're just not going to see those
main four or five things that we buy to raise

(09:32):
a crop. You're not going to see those retreat much.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
The relief package Trump announced on Monday is designed to
offset some of that lost business in the form of
one time payments, which will be parceled out to growers
of certain row crops, including soybeans, wheat, and sorghum, and
to growers of specialty crops like sugar. In a press release,
the administration said those payments are intended to help farmers
whether temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs, which

(10:03):
it says stem from Biden administration policies. It's aimed to
help them stay afloat until investments from the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act going to effect in late twenty twenty six.
Aaron says the administration has yet to release key details
of how the aid is going to be distributed. For instance,
what kind of relief is each crop going to qualify for.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
That's the biggie. That's really what's going to tell you
who's getting the most help and who's not. So until
we have that number, we're a little bit in the dark.
We know it's coming. The administration has said that they
expect to deliver all of the aid by the end
of February or before, so we will see, but we

(10:43):
are still waiting for a lot of those key details.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
There will be folks listening to this who are wondering
why farmers are getting this relief package. Of all the
constituents across this country who have been changing behavior, the
way they work, the way their business is oper rate
because of these trade policies, why are farmers being singled down?
What's your answer to that question.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
I mean, one, they're such a huge, huge voter blood.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's a political reason.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Ye, yes, it is a political reason. They are huge
supporters of this administration and a key voting base for Republicans.
So I think that's a big piece of it. Another
piece of it is. You know, the egg industry is huge,
and soybeans are the biggest US agricultural export, right, I mean,

(11:36):
it's it's big business. So I think those two things,
politics and business, power and.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Money coming up after the break the politics of US
agriculture now and historically, and what's at stake for the
industry if current trends aren't reversed. The trade war between

(12:10):
the US and China has posed a significant challenge for
US soybean farmers, but American agriculture has also been impacted
by changes the Trump administration has made to the federal
government itself and what it prioritizes. Bloomberg Agriculture reporter Aaron
Aylworth says the country's farming industry and its politics have
long been intertwined.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Agriculture for the US is it's a huge source of
power and leverage. We had, you know, we've historically had
this thing called bread basket diplomacy, where we have been
able to send our surpluses to other countries either as

(12:50):
aid or we have withheld it as punishment, depending on
whether you're an ally or an enemy, right, And that
has been hugely politically helpful for a long time. That
has been fading away. And that's what I think we
are watching a piece of right now. Is is that

(13:11):
kind of shift where you know, we may have been
the top exporter of corn, soybean, and wheat for decades,
but are we today not so much? You know, we've
fallen down in those ranks a little bit. And that's
what we're watching in real time now. I mean every
day I start my morning going, is there a flash

(13:34):
sale of soybeans to China? Or did they buy from
Brazil and Argentina again? And that's exactly what the traders
that I'm talking to are watching too. Who's buying what
and where are they buying from, especially if it's not
the US.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
I want to stick with this because you're kind of
indicating that US agriculture played this role in buffeting or
enhancing the us is ability to project soft power around
the world. We tend to focus on the business side
of this, the commercial relationship, But how big a deal
was that when you look at the agriculture industry broadly,
the way that it kind of dovetailed with or complemented

(14:10):
kind of larger diplomatic or geo of political ambitions the
US had.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, I mean you look at what we did with
our European allies in fighting Germany, right, and at one
point getting them food supplies, agricultural supplies was just as
important as getting them weapons. I think that's a big
example these days. You know, the US has been known
for sending so much food aid around the world through

(14:35):
the UN and other programs. You know, is that changing
with this new administration of these policies. Yes, right, So
I think that's that's in part how China was able
to weaponize soweebeans, if you will, because they know that
it's a big business and a big part of our

(14:57):
i think global identity to be this food supplier, and
so by taking that business away and shifting it elsewhere,
they had the ability to say, we're not just going
to swallow this terraf for this policy that you're trying
to force on us. US.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
I think there's the old line that farmers have to
be optimist by nature all of the difficulties they face,
which makes me wonder when you look at the agriculture
environment today, what is giving them reasons to be hopeful
about the industry.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yeah, they are hopeful for new markets, right, I mean
I talk to farmers almost every day at this point,
and they're saying, like, listen, the tariffs are hurting us,
but at least somebody is negotiating. They have felt like
they haven't had the best deal in the past, that
they weren't necessarily getting the fair prices that their crops

(15:53):
should and so now they see somebody at least trying
to open conversation and get it new markets. Now is
that working? You know, depends on who you ask. The
administration has touted a number of deals that have come through,
but some market watchers will point out how many of
those actually have like a written, signed deal behind it.

(16:17):
That's one of the key things that we're waiting for
with China is like everyone's like, okay, we have a pledge,
a commitment. Where's the signed piece of paper that lays
out exactly what the commitment is and what the rules
are basically. And until we have that, do we actually
have a deal? Big question.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
What's at stake for the US if the agriculture industry
succeeds or fails. So it's under all of these constraints,
it's a very difficult period. How should we think about
its importance broadly to the health of this country?

Speaker 3 (16:53):
To the US. You know, before I started this speed,
I didn't realize just how many things agricultural products are in. Right,
It's not just the.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Food we eat.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
It's some of the stuff that's in near gasoline at
the gas station. It could eventually be used to fly
your airplanes. Right, it's going into your dog food, it's
feeding the cattle. It's this massive business ecosystem. And if
that fails, if that big of an industry fails in

(17:29):
the US, I think we've got a real problem.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Marty Richardson in Missouri isn't optimistic that farmers like him
will ever see Chinese soybean purchases return to where they
were before the trade war, or that the Trump administration's
farm bailout will make much of a difference for farmers.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
This bridge that are given us, or this hand out
some people call it, or welfare, some people call it.
It's really not even a band aid. Let me use
this analogy. Your short two hundred dollars in your banking camp,
and I give you thirty bucks. Yeah, that's going to help,

(18:06):
but not really so. And I'm not saying he should
have give everything we lost, Don't get me wrong there,
but I can't see it's going to do anything.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
He told our producer David Fox that finding new markets,
both foreign and domestic, is critical for the next generation
of US farmers. But for the moment, he says, it
looks like there's a long road to ho.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I got a grandson, and the way the world is now,
I'd love to see him farm. But he's only ten,
so in ten years it's no different. I might tell
him maybe he needs to do something different. He's going
to be in the NBA, he told me so.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
I doubt it, but well, at least he's got a
backup plan.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
There you go, There you go.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gerry.
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