Colorado farmers give Ag secretary an earful

Worries include labor shortages, low prices, trade and tariff policies

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue received an earful during stops in Broomfield and Brighton Tuesday, and not of Olathe sweet corn.

Members of the Colorado Ag Council voiced their worries over burgeoning trade disputes that have depressed commodity prices and cost them sales, chronic labor shortages and unfilled vacancies at USDA offices in counties around the state.

Perdue, speaking at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, emphasized he was there to listen and carry concerns back to President Donald Trump and his adminis- tration.

“He is a bottom-line kind of guy and he wants straight talk,” Perdue said. “Good, bad or ugly, he wants to know the deal.”

The most pressing issue involved trade talks with China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union, and fears that U.S. farmers would have the most to lose if they go badly.

“What efforts are you doing to help stimulate and encourage the bilateral trade agreements,” asked Joyce Kelly, executive director of the Colorado Pork Producers Council, raising one of several questions on trade policy.

After an initial salvo of new U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum, solar arrays, washing machines and other products, China fired back with retaliatory measures against pork, sorghum and soybeans.

Perdue told his audience that the end game was to get other countries to close their trade deficits by buying more U.S. agricultural products. For example, the administration wants China to double its farm purchases, which could result in $25 billion to $50 billion more sales.

When asked whether the federal government would step in and help farmers hurt in the interim, Perdue said a plan was in place, but didn’t provide details, saying American farmers would “rather have trade than aid.”

China rejected 30 ships loaded with sorghum, a crop grown in southeastern Colorado, some of those shipments were redirected to entirely new markets, he said. USDA staff scrambled to educate the new buyers and open up new markets.

James Ehrlich, executive director of the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee in Monte Vista, asked Perdue for a better deal for the crop he represents as the North American Free Trade Agreement gets renegotiated.

For nearly a century, Mexico has limited the sale of U.S. potatoes to within 26 kilometers of its borders. The crop, an important one in Colorado, was left out of the original NAFTA agreement..

On a visit to Brighton, vegetable farmers expressed their concerns about the difficulty they have in finding laborers, something that the administration’s harder line on immigration hasn’t helped.

Jordan Hungenberg of Hungenberg Produce in Greeley, said he had to switch from cabbage to carrots after failing to find enough workers. With unemployment so low, local help is hard to find. Even jail laborers brought into the fields didn’t last more than three hours before clamoring to go back beWhen hind bars.

Nick Levendofsky, director of external affairs for the Rocky Mountain Farmers Unions, pressed Perdue on when county-level vacancies at USDA offices would be filled.

With export markets tightening, commodity prices depressed and drought conditions worsening in the southern part of the state, farmers need the help those experts provide.

Perdue said the transition to a new administration has caused delays. But now that the top posts have been filled, vacancies down the chain will follow.