Conservative farmers in Mississippi getting ruined by Trump tariffs. Trump laughs and his supporters cry
https://msindy.org/p/in-mississippi-delta-even-conservative
Lately, it’s almost always bad news, largely due to President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade wars. Crawford grows soybeans, and as of Sept. 1, 2025, not a single U.S. soybean from the upcoming harvest has been sold to China, which was previously the largest buyer of the U.S.-grown product.
As a result, Crawford, like most soybean farmers nationwide, finds himself on the edge of financial survival. Independent farmers are accustomed to enduring the occasional bad year, but the latest trade war with China feels different, Crawford said.
Crawford is among legions of Mississippi farmers feeling the dramatic impacts of what many see as an unnecessary undermining of their global markets. Though soybeans are front and center, other growers are also under threat, U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson told The Mississippi Independent.
“They are all terrified of losing their livelihoods,” Thompson, whose district includes the Delta, said of farmers caught up in the ongoing tariff crisis. “I hear from the corn growers. I hear from the beet people. I hear from the rice people. If they can’t sell to China, Canada or Mexico, they are in real trouble. These countries have other options, and we’re chasing them away.”