It's prime harvest season in southern Illinois, but for soybean farmers like Scott Gaffner, what's usually a time of reward is now a season of worry.

Greenville

Soybean farmers in Greenville, Illinois, are facing significant challenges due to the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. Traditionally, China has purchased more than half of America's soybeans, but this year, exports have stopped, leaving farmers like Scott Gaffner storing their crops and waiting for market conditions to improve.

While the U.S. administration has proposed financial aid to offset losses, farmers express that such relief is not a sustainable solution. There is concern that if China establishes new trade relationships elsewhere, American farmers may permanently lose a key market. The situation is affecting not only individual farmers but also the broader rural economy that depends on agriculture.

Soybean farmers feels strain of China trade war

In tonight's Eye on America, farmers caught in the middle of a trade war. Janet Chamlean reports from Greenville, Illinois. It's harvest season in America's heartland. Is this the prime harvest time in southern Illinois? Yes, it is right now. But for soybean farmers like Scott Gaffner, what's usually a time of reward is now a season of worry. The great majority of it coming from this area would go to China. Not this year? Not this year, right? China normally buys more than half of America's soybeans, but has bought none this year amid the ongoing trade war. Gaffner says farmers like himself, who overwhelmingly voted for the president, are caught in the crossfire. We can't help but feel very anxious of wondering why it's taking so long to get this resolved. Are you angry? Well, whenever you see the administration meet in Spain and they talk about TikTok, instead of farming, whenever we're getting ready to harvest, our clock is already TikTok-ing away. The farther we go into this season, the more we're going to lose. And China should have been buying our beans already, and they're not. It's like crickets. So soybeans from his 600 acres are going into silos, waiting for the market to turn. And while the Trump administration is planning to bail out farmers with billions collected from tariffs, similar to what happened during Trump's first trade war… We don't want the aid. We want the trade. Gaffner says one-time relief is not a long-term solution. If China starts buying elsewhere, which they are doing now, once they establish those trade routes, it becomes more difficult for them to come back to the U.S. to buy their commodities. Once we lose that, we may never get it back again. And that's huge for next generations. Including for his son Cody, who would be the fourth generation to farm the land. If I do come back, I do have to have a second job. You're willing to come out and do this full-time, even though it would mean taking on a second job? Absolutely, yeah. That's how much the farm means to me. Scott Gaffner took us along as he worked the fields. So it's kind of like an orchestrated dance. His fixed costs running tractors and combines keep coming, as fertilizer and seeds are at record highs. But it's more than his bottom line at stake. We're just not stimulating our own sales, we're stimulating the economy in our area. In our rural area here, that economy relies upon us as farmers to keep that economy going. And so it impacts everybody. What's usually a time of bounty in rural America, a mean season amid a climate of uncertainty. For Eye on America, I'm Janet Chamleon in Greenville, Illinois.

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