On a sun-drenched afternoon in Central Florida, the hum of tractors and the bustle of farmworkers are noticeably absent from the strawberry fields. Where rows of berries should be thriving, the land lies fallow, a stark testament to the upheaval gripping American agriculture. Across the country, from the rolling wheat fields of Washington state to the berry farms of Florida, farmers are grappling with the twin pressures of shifting trade policies and a deepening labor crisis—both driven by recent decisions from the Trump administration.
Just days ago, a trade delegation from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines toured the Pacific Northwest’s wheat country, a region that exports nearly 90% of its crop through West Coast ports. These visits are usually routine, a chance for Southeast Asian buyers to see the harvest that will fill their bakeries and noodle shops. But this year, as reported by NPR, anxiety was palpable. President Trump’s imposition of a 20% tariff on imports from these very countries has wheat growers worried about retaliatory measures that could squeeze their already tight margins.
“The commission was founded in 1958 and obviously we’ve been through many different political administrations and we always come back to the relationships we have with our customers,” said Casey Chumrau, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, who helped sponsor the recent tour. Chumrau projected confidence that demand for U.S. wheat would remain strong, but behind the scenes, farmers and trade groups were scrambling to reassure foreign buyers that America remains a reliable partner, despite the political turbulence.
For Jim Moyer, whose family has farmed wheat in eastern Washington since 1891, the uncertainty is more than just diplomatic. “It isn’t that they will levy retaliatory tariffs necessarily, they might, but that they might just go someplace else,” he told NPR. Moyer, also a retired university agronomist, left the trade delegation visit feeling reassured about the quality of local wheat, but with little clarity about the future. “We’re in a period of two or three years of being in an agricultural recession,” he said, reflecting a sentiment echoed by many farmers across the nation.
This agricultural recession, as NPR details, is compounded by low wheat prices—around $5 per bushel, well below the $6.50 break-even mark. Even a better-than-expected harvest in 2025 can’t offset the pain of global oversupply and rising input costs. Fertilizer, much of it imported from Canada, has become more expensive due to tariffs and lingering supply chain disruptions from the pandemic. Equipment prices have soared, with combines now fetching up to $1 million. “It’s going to be tough, bottom line,” said Tom Kammerzell, another Palouse farmer. “Thank God for crop insurance.”
While the Trump administration has pledged relief aid for farmers, mirroring actions taken during the 2018 trade war, patience is wearing thin. Farmers like Moyer say it’s nearly impossible to plan for the future amid constant policy shifts and the threat of new tariffs announced on social media, often before any formal agreements are signed.
Meanwhile, in the heart of Florida’s strawberry belt, a different but equally urgent crisis is unfolding. President Trump’s immigration crackdown—marked by mass detentions and deportations—has left fields unpicked and farm operations in disarray. According to NPR’s Jasmine Garsd, about 2.6 million people work on U.S. farms, with over 40% lacking legal status. The rest often rely on the H-2A visa program, which brings in temporary agricultural workers from abroad. But as one Florida farmer, identified only as F. due to fear of retaliation, explained, “The government is killing farming. This is going to end us.”
F. has farmed his land since the 1980s but now faces a workforce reduced by half. “A lot of the migrants have left. The rest are hiding,” he said. Reluctant to hire undocumented workers amid stepped-up enforcement by Governor Ron DeSantis and local police, F. is cutting his production to just 35% of normal levels for the coming year. The cost of hiring legal H-2A workers, which has risen steadily, is simply too high for him to bear.
The numbers are stark: agricultural employment has dropped by 155,000 workers in the past four months alone, the largest decline in nearly a decade. Economists warn that this labor shortage could ripple through the broader economy, especially as food security becomes a growing concern. Jeb Smith, president of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, told NPR, “Anytime that there is a threat to not getting a safe, affordable and abundant food supply, it should be concerning to the American public. We do not want to be dependent on foreign countries for our food. That could be a very devastating reality.”
Even President Trump, at a mid-June news conference, acknowledged the dilemma: “Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers, they’ve worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great. We can’t take farmers and take all their people.” Yet, as of late August, no policy shift has materialized. Instead, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins doubled down, insisting, “The president has been unequivocal that there will be no amnesty,” and suggesting automation or tapping Medicaid recipients as alternatives. Farmers, however, dismiss these ideas as detached from reality, noting the chronic lack of American-born applicants for farm jobs, even when wages rise above minimum wage.
John Walt Boatright, director of government affairs at the American Farm Bureau, explained the challenge: “The interest and the willingness to work on farms has not been there, and it hasn’t been there for a long time.” The Farm Bureau is pushing for urgent reforms to the H-2A visa system and a pathway to legalization—not citizenship—for undocumented farmworkers, a position echoed by many growers in Florida.
In the rural heart of Florida, where Trump flags and MAGA stickers are common sights, even some of the president’s supporters are uneasy. One farmer, identified as W., supports Trump but worries about the future. “They need to come up with, like, letting these ones that’s been here 15, 20 years going in there and do their paper right. I mean, long as they don’t have a background of, you know, trouble or something. I know there’s some bad seeds out there, but there’s bad seeds everywhere.”
From the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast, America’s farmers find themselves at a crossroads. Trade wars and immigration crackdowns—once viewed as distant political battles—are now reshaping the landscape of rural America. Whether the answer lies in policy reform, technological innovation, or a return to the negotiating table, one thing is clear: the stakes for the nation’s food supply and the livelihoods of those who grow it have rarely been higher.
