Farmers hit hard despite billions of dollars in taxpayer aid to mitigate the harm from the president’s trade policies.
As President Donald Trump cast himself as a friend of the farmer at an Iowa campaign rally Thursday, newly released data revealed the number of farms declaring bankruptcies surged by 20% in 2019 — the highest in eight years.
The American Farm Bureau attributed the figures, based on court bankruptcy data, to record farm debt and “headwinds on the trade front” triggered by Trump’s trade war.
Nearly 46% of the farm Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings last year were in the 13-state Midwest region, followed by 22% in the Southeast, according to the data. Among the hardest-hit states were Wisconsin and Georgia, as well as Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina and South Dakota. Continue reading.