Trump already cost farmers a market

In President Donald Trump’s victory speech, he said, “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.” As a farmer and a member of a key bloc of support for Trump; rural America, I ask that he please promptly forget us.

I suppose one motivation of the farmers who voted for Trump (my family did not) was that they felt “forgotten” or unimportant to Washington’s political leadership. I would argue that as far as business interests are concerned, it is far preferable to be off of the radar rather than our current position as the rope being used in Trump’s trade tug of war.

Already, one Mexican lawmaker is introducing legislation which would say “no mas” to American corn in favor of Brazilian and Argentinian corn. To those farmers who say that the price decline that would result from this action would draw new customers to U.S. corn, I warn you. It is your business on the line, and you are playing with fire. Why not instead keep our No. 1 corn buyer intact — one who coincidentally is our closest geographically, which saves shipping costs?

This nonsense of the wall built to satisfy Trump’s ego is going to have enormous consequences for American farmers. In an already tough business environment, the last thing we need is political instability, which these days is one of the only things separating us from our South American competitors. I ask Trump and the congressional Republicans rubber-stamping his childish foreign policy to please forget us so that we may get back to the business of feeding America and the world.

Corey Phillippi Columbus