'A slap in the face': Trump's ethanol waivers are sparking rebellion in farm country

MSgt Steve Sweeney It is IMO. He is an avowed isolationist and sees no value in maintaining relationships despite the realities of a global economy. Read Mattis's comments in his new book about Trump and allies.

That he is!

MSgt Steve Sweeney - General Mattis nailed it when he wrote an essay. This is how he describes Trump:

Mattis' most damning critique is calling Trump a "polemicist" — a person who attacks someone else with written or spoken words — rather than a serious leader. He says that Trump's lack of "strategic acumen" has left the U.S. in a dangerous position on the world's stage

Was watching a show recently that talked about the same thing and not just in relation to farming. Many areas affected by the policies of this administration may never recover to pre Trump levels was the consensus.

Maj John Bell I give you high marks for how you conduct your post military career. However a dairy/truck farm in Michigan can't realistically be compared to the corn/wheat farm in the Midwest. Amongst other things farm issues tend to be pretty regional except for the financial relationships with banks that you do a good job describing. The corn producers you describe are doing well with the existing market, but take away a good chunk of that market and their profitability will whither away, just ask soybean producers.

MSgt Steve Sweeney - The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a fraternal organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the farming community and agriculture. They are not social clubs. We're there to discuss the business and politics of farming. The farms represented by the grange halls I am active in, represent the collective farming experience of hundreds of farmers and hundreds of thousands of acres. As a livestock farmer, I have to be aware of corn prices and what will drive them up or down so I can budget and plan.

At least in Northern Michigan, the majority of family farm operators have more than one source of income, and by the time they reach my age, most of them have a retirement income from some non-agriculture related occupation.

The current estimated production of corn in the US is 14.2 Billion bushels, so we are talking about roughly 10% of the corn production. That corn will not rot in the fields. It will have a lower price. That will result in it being purchased and used in other areas like food production or feed lot uses, granted at a lower price to the corn farmer. I don't stand to lose a dime, I'm not a corn farmer. I probably will see slightly better margins (around 0.2%) because it will bring down the costs of my supplemental feed for about two seasons. But I will also increase the amount of corn I purchase, and so will most of the feed lots, dairy operations, and the producers of most of the food people buy in the center aisles of the grocery store.

Those farmers that take food subsidies aren't socialists and I didn't imply that they were.
It would probably be best if you don't ascribe political beliefs to me, you aren't good at it. Those are strategic decisions made by the US government to ensure America's food independence. The same type of decisions should have been made to ensure America's manufacturing independence, but they weren't. Unfortunately, like most public programs where the government passes out cash, the spirit of the law has become partially lost in the application.

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Granted, Michigan (particularly Northern Michigan) is not a big corn producing area, and most of the corn produced is sold locally and not for conversion to ethanol. But it is important to remember that commodities don't have a fixed demand. The 1.4 billion bushels that aren't converted to ethanol aren't going to rot in the fields. They will be sold to someone else for some other purpose for a somewhat lower price. Farmers face that or similar dilemmas almost every season . As for the soybean producers there is a classic example of how everything is inter-related, soybeans and corn compete against each other for much of the same market. I'm not saying that farmers aren't bearing the brunt of the tariff wars and certainly this EPA decision isn't helping the corn producers.

But here's a fact, almost every political decision has some undesirable baggage that comes with it. When its an economic decision SOMEBODY is going to draw the short straw. We should not view it from one perspective before we form our opinion and take our position, then ask ourselves what is best for the country. I find President Trump personally repugnant and I wish the Democrats had a centrist candidate. But they don't (Biden was... be he sure doesn't talk like it now). But I like the fact that he's standing up to the Chinese and I think ethanol blends were forced on the market before they were market ready. Government tends to do that.

MSgt Steve Sweeney - As far as the timing... I don't know, it is unfortunate. But as I've said, I'm not a fan of ethanol blends. The decision was to grant waivers, not to overturn the regulation. I can only assume that bean counters and prognosticators have told the President their opinions. Then he probably went with his gut.