Farmers weigh candidates’ positions

Four years ago, Berks County farmers were a key voting bloc in Donald Trump’s successful campaign for president. Now they are once again faced with an unusually tumultuous presidential election.

During the Trump administration, farmers have seen increased tariffs as a result of a trade war with China but have also received emergency aid as a result. They’ve seen environmental protections eliminated, budgets for environmental agencies reduced and changes to waterway protections.

The major issues driving farmers’ voting choices in the 2016 election included agricultural trade, the farm bill and regulations. Amid a global pandemic, the 2020 election issues range

from trade to the environment to economic policies in place for farmers. Trade Glen Seidel, a member of the county conservation district and a Heidelberg Township zoning hearing board member, raises cows and grows corn and hay. In 2016, he said the most important political issue for people in agriculture was trade. Four years later, he hasn’t changed his mind.

“It’s still all about trade,” Seidel said, adding that farming should be about the economy rather than political whims.

In 2018, experts from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau were concerned farmers were being harmed by the Trump administration’s imposed tariffs — a direct result of trade wars started by the administration.

Seidel emphasized that farming is a lifestyle that already includes extreme variability due to weather, the free market, labor, insects and more. He said the only element keeping farmers from losing everything during a bad season is having a reliable trading partner.

“Trade is not a political issue,” Seidel said. “It’s about economic and humanitarian values.”

Doug Sattazahn, a thirdgeneration member of the

Zahncroft Farm family in Marion Township, abstained from voting for president in 2016 and declined to say how he plans to vote 2020. One issue of importance for him is trade, specifically how the Trump administration made payments to farmers in response to the trade wars involving the U.S. and China and Europe.

“They’ve thrown a lot of money at farmers, and I guess I should be appreciative of that, but it’s just propping up farmers with taxpayer money,” Sattazahn said. “Part of it just makes me feel like Trump is trying to buy votes.” Environment For Erica Lavdanski, the owner of B&H Organic Produce near Morgantown, the most important issues include the environment and racial equality. When she goes to the polls on Nov. 3, she will cast her ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

“Trump has rolled back protections,” Lavdanski said. “For him to stand in the way of what regulations we’re allowed to have is a problem for me.”

Near the start of Trump’s term, he proposed an approximately 30% budget cut

to the Environmental Protection Agency, also cutting Pennsylvania’s environmental protection resources.

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, tracked 74 instances that the Trump administration has taken to reduce environmental protection. The New York Times found 100 environmental protection rollbacks (or rollbacks in progress) by the current administration.

As an organic farmer, Lavdanski is especially supportive of governmental regulations on pollution and waterways. She also disagrees with Trump’s support of coal mining and other environmentally detrimental professions and would prefer the government help create new, environmentally safe jobs instead.

“I want a better world for kids,” Lavdanski said, emphasizing that while she doesn’t have any children, she wants the next generation to inherit a clean world.

Paul Hartman, vice president of the Berks County Farm Bureau and familyowned dairy farmer, is also worried about environmental regulations, specifically the Waters of the United

States rule, or WOTUS, under the Clean Water Act.

Hartman supports reducing environmental protections.

“That’s another thing with the Trump administration, they’ve worked hard to reduce regulations and we support that,” Hartman said. Health care Health care is another issue for Hartman. He said the Trump administration hasn’t made any progress in improving the Affordable Care Act but worries Biden would increase costs.

“We’re a small business; we’ve stopped providing health care because we just can’t afford it,” Hartman said, adding that he uses health care coverage through his wife’s job. Taxes and subsidies Mark Hoch, an Oley Township supervisor, voted for Trump in 2016 but declined to say for whom he plans to vote in 2020. He will be going to the polls on Election Day and will vote based on an issue that matters greatly to him: taxes.

“Farmers are businessmen,” Hoch said. “The only profit margin they have sometimes is the tax benefits. They have to take what they can get, and other than

that they have to struggle.”

While Biden has said he won’t raise taxes on families making less than $400,000 annually, Koch was skeptical.

“It’s just a simple fact: When you start playing around with taxes, you’ll have a very unstable economy,” Hoch said. “If Biden wants to play around with taxes, I don’t think it’s going to be for the better.”

As a dairy farmer, Hartman said he’s worried Biden will increase capital gains taxes on cows.

“Farmers worry about taxes a lot,” Hartman said. “I’m concerned if Joe Biden would win the election, his policy sounds like he would raise taxes. I think Trump is working hard to reduce taxes, so that’s important.”

Sattazahn said the Trump administration has given substantial direct payments to farmers this year but that most farmers he knows would prefer to get fair prices for their products without the complications.

“I don’t think the administration has a major effect on what we do day to day,” Sattazahn said. “I think most farmers are just trying to show profit at the end of the day.”