Fear of 'disastrous situation' in farm economy as China targets huge US soybean business

And you can prove this how?

 

What makes you think other countries have the right environment and technology to replace certain staples that China depends on? You know the old adage, if it were easy someone else would not only be doing it but doing it cheaper.

 

Of course they have already bought their seed.
You're not a farmer are you.

 

Thanks, and yes I knew at one time we were an important producer of food. And exporter. We used to send grain to russia quite a bit of it. And yet we import food from mexico. Of course, I assume this is due to some of our corporate farms moving down there, due to perhaps cheaper labor and low environmental rules and regs. And with ethanol using so many acres of ethanol corn we might need the food from mexico.

 

LOL, no, the Chinese people will not stop eating due to tariffs on US soybeans. You are assuming food will be an issue for them, it won't be - thanks for the laugh though. And no, they are not cutting off their nose to spite their face, they have acted very, very shrewdly in responding to the sleazebag's tariff threats.......

 

What China failed to realize is that people who support Trump will not back down because China directed tariffs at red states.

 

You can't be serious!!!!! That's one for my wingnut wisdom file!!!!!

Are you so parochial that you assume that the Chinese can't buy soybeans from somewhere else. Or better yet, invest heavily in agricultural production in some country and buy their exports (they already are doing a lot of that, but they didn't tell you that on Watters World).

Corn and soy make up three quarters of US agricultural output.

Erase the largest single export market for both of those products, and there will be serious repurcussions for producers.

At best, soy and corn prices in the US will decline to offset the cost of the tarriffs.

And who pays for that. Farmers! big and small.

 

Will China still threaten a trade war if the US demands equal trade?
(i.e. the value sold from one side has to approximately equal the value sold by the other side)

 

True, but the US could easily just readjust the crop mix. One season of surplus of soybeans won't kill the farmers either. The .gov will just subsidize them temporarily just like they did with tobacco and cotton.

 

Why in the world would I have to prove that? You think Brazil has fallow farm land and hasn't been slashing and burning their forest to open up new farmland? Maybe you think they can plant soybeans in the jungle?

 

Anyway, it's interesting to notice that most of China's imports from the US benefit large agricultural corporations.

Doesn't even create US jobs so much, since it is mostly undocumented migrant farm workers being employed.

 

Trumpsters are all giddy when Trump deploys his trade war tactics.

But when someone like China pushes back, their media ignores it, and they all go silent.

I really don't undersand why Trumpsters and far right wingers seem to go around thinking that they can do this stupid nonsense without any consequences.

Of course, Trumpsters will be the last to admit it too.

 

What? I didn't go silent.

Ironically it was the Left who were supporting all these policies 20-25 years ago. But suddenly now that Trump's the one implementing them they've switched their tune?

 

We export and imort food simultaneously for the same reason we do with oil. It's a somewhat complex economic strategy of selling what you can to the highest bidder and buying what you can on the cheap.

 

BFD. The corporate farms will just switch their crops to something else, like corn or wheat. Bread hasn't gotten any cheaper, and the fact we use corn for fuel (while stupid) will just make ethanol that much less inexpensive.

 

I'm far from sure.

Many farmers will lose 25-30% of their profits because of tariffs imposed by China.

 

Soybean oil can also be used as a biofuel, so all the greens should be celebrating.

 

The tarrifs are on soybeans and other food products including pork which Chinese import from us in huge quantities and it looks like we agre on the fact that they won't stop eating so are farmers won't be hurt. The Chinese people are not going to be too happy about this though.

 

That isn't true at all. Protectionism and isolationism have not been US policy since before WWII.

 

"Food is not an issue"? If food isn't what is!

 

Corn is one of the targeted products.

And since you're now advocating for driving crop prices in the US down, I guess you and the Chinese have something in common.

 

It's quite ironic how the left is absolutely convinced that American export can be easily replaced overnight, while hysterically whining that the cheap Chinese garbage they flood our markets with is irreplaceable and the US will quickly wither and die without it.

 

Dumbo has just created a lot of uncertainty for US farmers during planting season. A real stable genius that guy is.

 

It's way up there on the pecking order. Not sure China needs soybeans though. I do know the USSR used to buy tons of phosphate from the US to make super fertilizer because their soils are so poor. I don't know if that has changed.......whether Russia figured out how to grow food or environmental regulations here stopped strip mining.

 

You seem to think there's unlimited farm produce in the world and China can just instantly buy elsewhere. That just isn't so and they will continue to buy from us with the tarrifs that will hurt nobody but the Chinese people. Putting tarrifs on a necessity like food is really not to smart but in reality that's about all China can do because they have already curtailed other us imports to a point where tarrifs would be irrelevant.