Farmers face a tougher economic climate during Trump’s second trade war compared to his first.
by Investigate Midwest Reporting Staff July 2, 2025
Last month, Investigate Midwest’s Monica Cordero explored why President Donald Trump’s second trade war could hit U.S. farmers harder than his first.
Her story reported on the various financial challenges farmers face. Here are four charts from that story that highlight those challenges:
Net farm income declined for two consecutive years after peaking in 2022.
“We’ve seen net returns to crop producers fall back to levels we hadn’t seen since before COVID,” said Patrick Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri.
This is in part due to declining grain prices. For example, soybeans — a major U.S. export and a pillar of the Midwest economy — have lost 34% of their value on the international market.
However, while farmers make less from many of their products, their expenses have also increased.
Many of the most commonly used fertilizers have increased in cost by double-digit percentages over the last five years.
Meanwhile, agricultural loan interest rates have soared to historic highs.
At the same time, loan repayment rates have dropped.
“Loan repayment has dropped,” said Chad Hart, a professor of economics at Iowa State University. “A lot of this action is due to just the general decline in crop income over the past couple of years, which started before the trade fight.”
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