Farmers hope Trump hears them out on immigration

NASHVILLE – Brandon Whitt is an eighth-generation farmer and wants to make sure he is not the last one in his family.

A hog and strawberry farmer on 2,600 acres of rolling hills in Middle Tennessee, he has worked hard to diversify the crops the farm produces and the clients it serves.

The family has even opened a farm store with the goal of giving the community “a front porch to local agriculture.”

“Profitability is always my main concern,” he said. “It’s what keeps me up at night.”

But changes in trade and immigration policy could threaten farmers across the nation like Whitt.

More than pestilence, dying livestock or rotting crops, trade and immigration reform are front of mind for many American farmers, who have seen profit margins dwindle in recent decades.

As President Trump comes to Nashville on Monday to speak before the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual conference, that’s the message the nation’s farmers want him to hear.

“People have to understand that for us to do this, we have to make a profit, and the price of corn is the same as what it was in 1976,” said Whitt, whose farm is about 30 miles southeast of Nashville. “Trade is huge. It gives us a place to go with our products.”

Many say the problem is finding workers to harvest crops and a market to buy them.

Lake Elliott, manager of the Robert Elliott and Sons Angus cattle farm, said his family has at times been concerned about the president’s comments on immigration reform and building a wall on the border with Mexico but is hopeful Trump will be sympathetic to farmers’ needs.