Holding China Accountable

Dear Friend,

I’m the 6th generation in my family to farm. My son is the 7th generation. I hope one day my grandchildren will be the 8th, but, with each passing day, the dream of passing this way of life on to the next generation seems to get more and more difficult.

Farming has never been easy, but these days it seems like we can’t catch a break. Yes, commodity prices are up, but the cost of absolutely everything else has gone through the roof. Fertilizer prices have shot up more than 300 percent in some cases. And, the going rate for a decent used tractor these days is an arm and a leg—a good one will just about cost you your first-born child.

To make matters worse, we’ve got a man in the White House now who isn’t willing to stand up for us. In 2020, President Trump signed a Phase One trade deal with China to try and level the playing field for farmers. Since then, China hasn’t lived up to its end of the bargain—not even close. China has fallen more than $16 billion short of the agricultural purchases they promised to make. President Biden has done nothing to hold them accountable for cheating American farmers.

Instead, he’s thrown a wrench in natural gas production. That’s part of why nitrogen fertilizer prices have gone up. On top of that, his massive spending spree has fueled inflation, sending the price of diesel fuel and everything else skyrocketing. That’s put virtually every farmer I know between a rock and a hard place. This can’t continue.

I wrote President Biden this week demanding he finally stand up for farmers and make sure China lives up to their end of the Phase One trade deal. If he truly is concerned about farmers, he owes them an explanation for why he’s been letting China get away with this and then fix it. Until that happens and he stops his spending spree that’s driving inflation, it’s going to keep getting harder and harder for family farmers to get by.

Sincerely,

Sam Graves