President Donald Trump has long relied on the support of farmers — and yet one of his new policies has quietly sabotaged their economic well-being.
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing the secretary of agriculture and secretary of health and human services to begin exploring options for adding warning labels to food that contain ‘significant amounts’ of alpha-galactose, a sugar molecule found in most mammals,” The New Republic’s Edith Olmsted wrote on Thursday. “You may have heard of that substance before because of alpha-gal syndrome, an increasingly common and potentially life-threatening food allergy to red meat that can develop from a tick bite.”
Olmsted added, “The Trump administration’s new rule was framed as one way of cracking down on tick-borne illnesses—but it may end up hurting the meat industry in the process. The new rule could potentially result in meat processors being forced to slap an allergy alert on every package of mammal products, including ground beef, steaks, pork loins, lamb chops, and even dairy. Just imagine a warning: This burger could kill you!”
The New Republic’s journalist added that farmers are taking this economic hit at a time when they can least afford it, figuratively and literally.
“All of this comes as the shrinking American herd struggles to keep up with high demand, and Trump’s tariffs and military campaign in the Middle East have kept prices elevated,” Olmsted wrote. “Farmers in the Midwest—who were once some of the president’s most steadfast supporters—say they are facing the toughest economic crisis in decades.”
In April, The Economist reported that a majority of American farmers know that Trump’s policies have hurt them, including interviews with impacted individuals.
“If somebody took $100 out of my pocket and then turned around and gave me $20 back, patted me on the back and said they were my friend, I’m not really sure I would agree,” Mississippi Delta corn grower Sledge Taylor told NPR, adding that China has in general ended its purchases of American soybeans, corn, cotton and rice.
“Everybody picks on the thing that’s one of our bigger exports,” Taylor explained. “They quit buying all of our crops. We have lost customers forever. They will never come back. Because we’re deemed an unreliable supplier.”
Despite these issues with Trump’s economic policies, farmers still overwhelmingly support him, and as The Economist reported, tend to wish for a Trump bailout rather than wanting to abandon him altogether. Speaking with AlterNet in August, University of Bristol cognitive scientist Dr. Stephan Lewandowsky explained how Trump’s farmer supporters often expect him to help them while applauding when he withholds aid from others.
“I used to live in Oklahoma for five years, so you can imagine — I’m familiar with farmers and that mindset, though that was a long time ago,” Lewandowsky explained. “Look, human beings do all sorts of things, and sometimes you just look at it and think, ‘What on earth?’ Being hypocritical — feeling pain for yourself but not making the connection that maybe this other person is also in pain, and maybe we should support each other rather than throwing welfare recipients under the bus so I can have my subsidy — different people come to different conclusions about that.”
He continued, “There’s so much tied up in this. There’s latent racism. There’s religion. There’s the general conservative idea that poor people are — it’s their fault, they’re just lazy, everybody is responsible for what happens to them… except me, because I’m a farmer, and therefore I’m not lazy, and I’ve tried everything, and I deserve a subsidy.”