{"id":14442,"date":"2025-03-06T18:15:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14442"},"modified":"2025-03-06T18:15:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:15:37","slug":"california-farmers-backed-trump-now-his-tariffs-could-hurt-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14442","title":{"rendered":"California farmers backed Trump. Now, his tariffs could hurt them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jessica Garrison<\/a> and\u00a0Rachel Uranga<\/a>, LA Times<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A day after President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on three of the country\u2019s biggest trading partners, many California farmers, who produce the largest share of the nation\u2019s food, were worried the move could hurt their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s rich fertile ground is a major global supplier of produce and its farmers could be hit hard as Canada, Mexico, and China retaliate by slapping levies on U.S. exports. Farmers also rely heavily on fertilizer from Canada, which could cost more as the tariff\u2019s take hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very worried that it could affect the entire tomato industry,\u201d said Bruce Rominger, who grows tomatoes along with other produce on a farm in Yolo County in the Sacramento Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico and Canada are two of the biggest customers for the Roma tomatoes that burst out by the millions up and down the Central Valley at the end of every summer and are then canned. Farmers worry that processors who export the canned tomatoes will face steep retaliatory tariffs that will drive down demand in those countries or pressure the growers to lower their prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration has imposed a tariff of 25 percent on products from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 percent tariff on China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada swiftly announced a series of tariffs on U.S. imports in retaliation. China also responded by announcing tariffs of 15%<\/u><\/a> on many U.S. farm products, including cotton, which grows across thousands of acres in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Mexico said it would detail its tariffs on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, he can do damage to the Canadian economy,\u201d said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a speech Tuesday,<\/u><\/a> \u201cbut he is going to rapidly find out, as American families are going to rapidly find out, it\u2019s going to hurt people on both sides of the border.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tariffs come as California farmers are already rattled by worries that a massive deportation effort \u2014 which Trump promised during his campaign \u2014 could decimate the ranks of low-wage farmworkers who plant and harvest crops. As many of half of California\u2019s farmworkers are undocumented, according to studies. The Trump administration also perplexed farmers earlier this year when the Army Corps of Engineers suddenly released irrigation<\/u><\/a> water from two dams just before a rainy winter weekend \u2014 not a time when farmers needed or wanted water. Concerns were further stoked <\/a>in the Central Valley with firings and cuts planned at the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates water infrastructure key to the agricultural heartland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, many farmers, who backed Trump by large margins in the 2024 election, were reluctant to speak openly about their concerns, for fear of being seen as criticizing him or because they hope the administration will protect farmers as it has in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not an easy time for [farmers],\u201d said Daniel Payares-Montoya, a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California. \u201cThey are facing more pressure than before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From an economic perspective, he said, trade is supposed to increase the pie for everyone, but politics have created a lot of uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long, flat fields of the Central Valley, tucked between California\u2019s Coastal Range and the Sierra Nevada, can feel remote from world affairs. But from orchards of almonds to fields of zucchinis, farmers up and down the state have been watching closely \u2014 and with trepidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon Douglass, president of California\u2019s Farm Bureau, noted in a statement that the state\u2019s agriculture has been hurt by past trade wars. During the last Trump administration, retaliatory tariffs from China hit almond growers particularly hard, reducing the price per pound from $2.50 to $1.40, according to one study.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California farmers exported more than $22 billion worth of food in 2021, with almonds topping the list, followed by dairy products, wine and pistachios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalifornia farmers are among the most productive in the world, but the blanket imposition of broad tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China risks inviting retaliation that could harm the very farmers they aim to protect,\u201d Douglass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that perishable crops, including strawberries, lettuce, and dairy, face immediate peril because \u201ctrade disruptions can mean spoilage, financial losses and long-term lost market share that was earned over decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almond exports, Douglass said, dropped by a quarter the last time the U.S. imposed tariffs in 2018 on China \u201cdue to retaliatory duties.\u201d California\u2019s almond industry is estimated at about<\/u><\/a> $4.7 billion, with more than 70% of the nuts exported \u2014 making it particularly vulnerable to tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe California almond industry has been closely monitoring the U.S. announcement of tariffs and potential responses from Canada, Mexico and China,\u201d said Rick Kushman, spokesman for the Almond Board of California in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One study found that between April 2018 and April 2022, retaliatory tariffs cost almond farmers about $875 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur industry continues to support reducing barriers to trade, and smooth market access for California almonds,\u201d said Kushman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many farmers noted that during Trump\u2019s first term, when China retaliated to tariffs with its own levies, the federal government tried to make farmers whole by providing subsidies. But it\u2019s unknown whether the administration will do that again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Sumner, a distinguished professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis, said farmers could take multiple hits. They could face higher costs for things like fertilizer and fence posts, some of which come from Canada, and also from retaliatory tariffs on their exports. Canada, he noted, buys 41% of bottled wine exported from California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, he said, some producers may see profits rise. Beef producers that compete with Canadian cattle ranchers, for example, could see profits rise. But consumers, he said, will likely see higher prices at the grocery store for many products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Garrison and Rachel Uranga, LA Times A day after President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on three of the country’s biggest trading partners, many California farmers, who produce the largest share of the nation’s food, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14446,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14442\/revisions\/14446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}