Aug. 8, 2025
WESTBY, Wis. – State Sen. Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska) and Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) joined Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden on his Vernon County farm Thursday to talk about the impact of tariffs, and Republican trade policy on Wisconsin farmers. Pfaff, Jacobson and Von Ruden all agreed that tariffs in themselves are not always bad but the sudden and unpredictable approach of the Trump administration is causing volatility, driving up costs of production and hurting access to foreign markets.
Pfaff said the rising costs of production and the challenges in finding export markets are due to tariffs, that he called a tax on consumers, but also on producers who see the impact in the cost of equipment and other farm inputs.
“Sadly, what we have seen is it becomes more and more difficult for family farms like this to be able to continue to find markets for their product,” said Pfaff. “We continue to see farm prices barely above the price of production. Our products come from various parts of this world, including fertilizer from Canada. We also recognize the fact that we grow more than we can possibly consume as a nation. So we find export markets, and again, finding these export markets are becoming more and more challenging as a result of these tariffs, job growth is stagnating, prices are rising and the agriculture sector is taking a hit.”
Pfaff also put some of the blame for the impact of tariffs with his Republican colleagues in Madison.
“My Republican colleagues in Madison seem to be turning a blind eye to all of these concerns,” said Pfaff. “In fact, I’ve heard some, including state senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), who represents an agriculture district just south of here said the following quote, ‘farmers aren’t concerned’, end quote, about these rising costs. Well, we can’t brush this off. Farmers are concerned about this.”
Jacobson, who recently announced she is running against Marklein for his 17th Senate District said the federal tariffs are hurting Wisconsin farmers and costing jobs.
“Nearly 10% of all the jobs in Wisconsin are related to agriculture and anything aimed at damaging this industry would be devastating to our state,” said Jacobson. “And that’s why we’re standing here with the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Darin Von Ruden, and speaking out against these tariff taxes that the Trump administration is putting in place. And that legislators like Howard Marklein are turning a blind eye towards.”
Jacobson said despite what Republicans say, tariffs are a tax.
“Regardless of what politicians in DC and in Madison say these tariffs are taxes on our farmers and working families,” said Jacobson. “They will raise costs for families, and they will kill jobs in our state, and harm Wisconsin’s economic and agricultural future.”
Jacobson said she and other Democrats tried to introduce amendments and legislation that would help soften the impact of tariffs to the state, but they were all voted down.
“When the Trump administration killed the Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, a program relied upon by both farmers and families alike, Senator Pfaff and I introduced a bill to create an agricultural purchase program,” said Jacobson. “This program would have made it easier for families and food pantries and schools to purchase Wisconsin grown produce, and it would have supported our farmers bottom lines and made it easier for urban, rural, tribal and low income families to access food, the food they need. But Republican legislators voted no. In the face of the Trump proposed tax tariff taxes, Governor Evers worked to expand the Wisconsin Initiative for Agricultural Exports, making it easier for our farmers to sell their goods overseas. But again, Republican legislators voted no. During the budget negotiations, I wrote an amendment again, trying to make the export and sale of Wisconsin goods easier and more profitable for our farmers. And again, Republican legislators voted no. In just the last few weeks alone, Wisconsin Republicans had three chances to support our farmers, and three times they voted no. Howard Marklein and Republicans in both chambers have failed to support our family farmers, failed to invest in our agricultural industry and made it harder for those in need to buy food. This is completely unacceptable.”
Von Ruden pointed to the impact of tariffs on equipment and other costs of production.
“As we’re standing here looking at the background behind me, there’s a John Deere tractor there,” said Von Ruden. “And just looking at what the tariffs are going to mean for the price of that tractor. You know, certainly today, we can probably still get it at a reasonable price. But what’s going to happen six months to a year from now, after all the parts that have been purchased from foreign countries, that a good two thirds of the equipment on that tractor comes from, what’s going to happen to that price of that tractor? I won’t be able to afford it. My my son, who’s the fourth generation farmer, probably won’t be able to afford it. Other farmers are going to have issues. All that’s doing is raising the cost of our production. So what the prices are today? We’re going to need to see 10 or 15, maybe even a 20% growth on that to actually cover our costs.”
Von Ruden also pointed out the dairy farms in the state continues to drop with permits issued by the state down to about 5,000 farms.
“Looking at how tariffs are going to affect this farm, we’re going to see the trickle down effect from that the commodity markets, which is where most of the overseas product goes,” said Von Ruden. “That’s going to start to build up in this country, which is going to cause prices to the farmer to drop, which we can’t afford right now. And that ultimately will come down to this level. The milk from this farm actually stays within the upper Midwest. A little bit that goes out, but most of it stays here. But that trickle down effect is what’s really of a big concern for small farmers and medium sized farmers across the country. And so, the President has said that he’s going to make sure that farmers are taken care of. Tariffs aren’t going to do that. So let’s stop all the rhetoric and actually do what he means.”
Jacobson said she is not opposed to tariffs as a tool to open markets but the sudden shifts and blunt approach that is causing so much uncertainty is a problem.
“These tariffs, are causing a lot of uncertainty for farmers,” said Jacobson. “Especially with the fact that one day it’ll be this tariff starting on this day, and then, and then later it changes. So that already leads to uncertainties that our farmers don’t need, because there’s plenty of uncertainty that they have to deal with on an everyday basis, right, like the weather. But I think the bigger thing is that these tariffs are making it harder to calculate the costs, whether it’s the inputs to your to what you’re growing, whether it’s repairing your equipment or buying different supplements for your animals. These tariffs have the potential to impact all of those things. And that’s just the business side of farming”
Jacobson said that if tariffs are necessary, they need to be part of a larger strategy over time and more targeted.
“Tariffs aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but we have to be strategic about them and targeted,” said Jacobson. “And look at what is our end goal? What are we trying to get at? If we’re trying to bring more manufacturing to the United States, is the tariff really going to do that, or are we taking a sledgehammer to something that we need more of a schedule, right? And so I think having a more defined end goal and thinking about what we can do within the United States, within the state of Wisconsin, to build up the industries we want to see. How can we incentivize people we have a ton of small businesses that have to ship their manufacturing overseas, because we just don’t have the infrastructure here. What can we be doing to build that infrastructure here? Asking some of those questions, and then moving forward to, what is the best way to accomplish that? It does take time for these markets to build. It takes time for manufacturing facilities to get built up and be able to handle the capacity that we would need to bring all these these functions back to the United States. And so we kind of have to work in the world that we live in as well as develop the one we want to see, right? So just completely trying to do a 90 degree turn in, in this type of environment, when you have farmers relying on the markets as they are, making plans for how things work, and then suddenly forcing things to change without having the infrastructure built in, it makes it more challenging for everybody, right? It’s the farmers, it’s the shipping. I know the state had done some work around doing a crush plant in Evansville, Wisconsin, which is going to be awesome for the the area once it’s done, but it’s going to take a while for that to get built and be ready. And so we have to be able to work in that world that we live in, as well as prepare for changes, we want to see it just can’t happen overnight.’
Von Ruden pointed to the long-term nature of building markets, often through marketing paid for by farmers that often get shut off by trade wars and are difficult to get back, or may never come back at all.
“Looking at what what is taken to build up those markets, farmers in every sector of agriculture have been paying what’s really another tax,” said Von Ruden. “They call it advertising, advertisement and promotion. Five cents of every hundredweight (100 pounds of milk) goes to national and 10 cents of every hundredweight goes to the Wisconsin dairy farmers to advertise and promote our products. Well, in 2018 we lost a big chunk of those because of the tariff war at that time, and we still don’t have those markets back. So seven years later, we have not gotten those markets back. Probably won’t see a bunch of them ever come back because China and some of the other countries have put their foot in and found another market that’s supplying them with the product that’s dependable. They’re not going to have to worry about somebody coming in and saying, well, tomorrow we’re going to raise your tax or your tariff up to 100%. Hey, you have to deal with it. So how do we get those markets back? It’s big question mark. You look at some of the markets that are still available for a product probably aren’t as good of a market as what we’ve lost.”
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