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There\u2019s a long road ahead for farmers in the Palmetto state as the tariffs set by President Donald Trump in 2018 show no signs of easing up. <\/span><\/p>\n For the second year in a row Chinese tariffs on a variety of U.S. agricultural products, including soybeans, corn and pork have driven the price of those products down for U.S. farmers. A tariff is a tax or duty on imports or exports and seen as a way to regulate trade among countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And to counteract the drop in prices due to the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, those who farm soybeans, cotton, corn, sorghum, dairy, hogs, and wheat have been given federal aid relief in the form of the Market Facilitation Program, known to farmers as MFP payments. According to data obtained by the Associated Press, South Carolina received\u00a0$24 million\u00a0between September 2018 to May 2019, split among 1,500 farmers. However, some farmers say those payments are only doing so much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFifty dollars an acre and they gave you half of it, so $25 an acre versus $200 an acre. The tariffs are costing us about that much, but it is what it is and I mean I\u2019m not worried about it,\u201d John Rivers, a Sumter County farmer, said as he looks over one of his workers driving a combine down rows of cotton that’s about to be harvested. The payments are helping him scrape by, but he says he\u2019s not getting ahead. “No one goes into farming to get rich.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Even so, Rivers insists he\u2019s hopeful. And as far as farmers in the state go, he said he\u2019s doing okay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n His farm is large and has been built up over multiple generations. He employs other workers and has acres of diversified land growing five major crops: cotton, soybeans, wheat, peanuts, and corn. His sprawling farm helps him yield more crops, and yielding more crops, is what brings in the money, he said.\u00a0 And while he said he doesn\u2019t know where all of his crops go when they leave the farm to be sold, trying to sell his crops domestically doesn\u2019t solve the issue. He said he does not have control over that as the price for crops are determined by the Chicago Board of Trade and tariffs on American crops lower the overall price for American agriculture products.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He admits his crops have less value now than they did before the tariffs were enacted. \u201cI think things will change and I think things will turn around and I\u2019m not worried about the tariffs at all,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But in the short term, he said \u201cit\u2019s hard when you\u2019re losing about $200 an acre for your cotton and your soybeans.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some farmers are faring much worse, however.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On a small 800-acre farm in Eastover, Jason Carter, has decided to stop growing soybeans and plant a crop he hasn\u2019t harvested on his farm in over a decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHaven’t planted any wheat in maybe over 15 years, but we\u2019re going to try wheat this year, can\u2019t make any money with the soybeans,\u201d Carter said, as he drove a beat-up dusty pick up truck around his farm, looking out at the acres of currently empty land set aside for the winter wheat to grow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Carter said that ultimately the risk of continuously getting lower MFP payments is what led him to decide not to grow soybeans in the upcoming year. And while the amount of money each farmer received varied from farm to farm, Carter says it wasn\u2019t explained to farmers why some received more money than others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou hear Trump saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to look out for the farmers,’ but you get this unfair payment, we got 33, but there\u2019s some counties who only got 15, 16 dollars an acre,\u201d Carter said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Clemson extension agribusiness professor Adam Kantrovich, who works out of Clemson’s Sandhills Research and Education Center in Richland County, said he understands why many farmers are mystified by the payment system. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “T<\/span>he impact value was determined by the USDA. Every farmer that has been deemed eligible through an application in a particular county will receive the same county rate per acre for each acre of planting an eligible crop,” he explained in an email.<\/p>\n “To give you an example, Richland County, the acre rate is $33, while Florence County, the rate is $51 and York County is $94. Again, none of these is a guarantee but payments will be based on market conditions, so a farmer may or not may receive the total maximum amount of the per acre payment.”<\/p>\n In an interview, Kantrovich said the MFP payments will probably sustain many farmers for now. But without an actual change in trade policy, the trade war could have a longterm detrimental effect on farmers. <\/span><\/p>\n Kantrovich believes that the longer the trade war continues, the more likely other countries will see the United States as an unreliable trading partner. On top of that, the demand for American crops will continue to go down, keeping the prices low as China has already found a new market for products like soybeans in South America. Kantrovich says that China would most likely not have an incentive to switch back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo one thought it was going to last this long. But when you\u2019re dealing with a big country like China they can hold out. We can\u2019t. It\u2019s a gamble, but that\u2019s how farming\u2019s always been,\u201d Carter said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the White House earlier this month, President Trump told reporters that he hasn’t \u201cagreed to anything, but we\u2019re getting along very well with China. They want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make a deal a lot more than I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Farmers in the Palmetto state have been impacted by the Trump Administration’s trade war with China. To counteract the financial losses due to these tariffs, farmers who grew qualifying crops received federal aid money. However, some farmers say that the money wasn’t enough. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":28129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" There\u2019s a long road ahead for farmers in the Palmetto State as the tariffs set by President Trump in 2018 show no signs of easing up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> To counteract the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, those who farm soybeans, cotton, corn, sorghum, dairy, hogs, and wheat have been given federal aid relief in the form of the Market Facilitation Program, known to farmers as MFP payments. And according to data obtained by the Associated Press, South Carolina received a total of $24 million dollars between September of 2018 to May of 2019 split between 1,500 farmers. However, some farmers say those payments are only doing so much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u201c50 dollars an acre and they gave you half of it, so 25 an acre versus 200 dollars an acre. The tariffs are costing us about that much but it is what it is and I mean I\u2019m not worried about it,\u201d farmer John Rivers said to me as the combine harvests the rows upon rows of cotton on his 2,800 acre farm in Sumter County, South Carolina. The MFP payments are helping him scrape by but he says he\u2019s not getting ahead by any means, saying, \u201cno one goes into farming to get rich.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Still Rivers insists he\u2019s hopeful. And as far as farmers in the state go, he says he\u2019s doing okay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> His farm is large and has been built up over multiple generations. He employs other workers and has acres upon acres of diversified land growing five major crops; cotton, soybeans, wheat, peanuts, and corn. His sprawling farm helps him yield more crops, and Rivers says to farmers, yielding more crops, is what brings in the money.\u00a0 And while he says he doesn\u2019t know where all of his crops go when they leave the farm to be sold, trying to sell his crops domestically doesn\u2019t solve the issue. He says not only does he not have control over that, the price for crops are determined by the Chicago Board of Trade, and tariffs on American crops, lower the overall price for American agriculture products.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Though he admits his crops have less value now than they did before the tariffs were enacted, saying \u201cI think things will change and I think things will turn around and I\u2019m not worried about the tariffs at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p> But in the shorterm, he says \u201cit\u2019s hard when you\u2019re losing about $200 an acre for your cotton and your soybeans.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Though, some farmers are faring much worse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> On a small 800 acre farm in Eastover, South Carolina, Jason Carter, has made the choice to stop growing soybeans and plant a crop he hasn\u2019t harvested on his farm in over a decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u201cHaven't planted in wheat in maybe over 15 years, but we\u2019re going to try wheat this year, can\u2019t make any money with the soybeans,\u201d Carter says as he drives a beat up dusty pick up truck around his farm, looking out at the acres of currently empty land set aside for the winter wheat to grow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Carter tells me that ultimately the risk of continuously getting lower MFP payments, is what lead him to decide not to grow soybeans in the upcoming year. And while the amount of money each farmer received varied from farm to farm, Carter says it wasn\u2019t explained to farmers why some received more money than others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u201cYou hear Trump saying \u2018I\u2019m going to look out for the farmers but you get this unfair payment, we got 33, but there\u2019s some counties who only got 15, 16 dollars an acre,\u201d Carter says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Associate professor Adam Kantrovich at the Richland county Clemson extension agribusiness office says that while the MFP payments have probably sustained many farmers for now, he doesn\u2019t believe that without an actual change in trade policy, long term effects of the trade war could continue to impact farmers the long into the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Kantrovich believes that the longer the trade war continues, the more likely other countries will see the United States as an unreliable trading partner. On top of that the demand for American crops will continue to go down, keeping the prices low as China has already found a new market for products like soybeans in South America, and Kantrovich says that China would most likely not have an incentive to switch back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u201cNo one thought it was going to last this long. But when you\u2019re dealing with a big country like China they can hold out. We can\u2019t. It\u2019s a gamble but, that\u2019s how farming\u2019s always been,\u201d Carter says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> At the White House on Friday, President Trump told reporters that he hasn't \u201cagreed to anything, but we\u2019re getting along very well with China. They want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make a deal a lot more than I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p> So for now, the trade war continues, and it\u2019s not clear, even to the man who started the trade war, on when it will end. But it is clear that despite attempts to counteract the tariffs impacts, farmers are still paying the price.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[259,1350,1349,1352,1351],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27143"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28634,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27143\/revisions\/28634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}