American farmers, including cotton growers, are imploring President Donald Trump to take action to strengthen the country’s agricultural economy amid pervasive headwinds caused by mounting cost pressures and trade tensions.
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) penned an open letter to the Commander in Chief detailing the existential challenges currently threatening farmers in the U.S., which its members say “threaten the longterm viability of the U.S. agriculture sector.”
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While the group praised the administration for including updates to farm risk management programs to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress in July, AFBF said “insufficient action over the last several years” has led farmers to face persistent economic hurdles related to labor, regulatory compliance, energy and fertilizer, which have eaten away at margins.
Meanwhile, the farmers wrote that “weak commodity prices and uneven global competition have strained farm finances,” and that crop receipts have dropped precipitously in the past three years. This has eroded the cash flow and equity farmers need to withstand changes in the market.
“These challenges have been compounded by inconsistent enforcement of trade obligations, including unfulfilled trade commitments from China, and the persistence of non-tariff barriers which have added to the volatility and left farmers with little clarity about future revenue potential or market access,” the letter stated.
On Tuesday, president Trump took to Truth Social to lambast China for what he characterized as a willful refusal to purchase American soybeans. The crop traditionally represents the biggest U.S. export to China, and farmers exported about 985 million bushels—over half their yield—to the country last year. This year, though, that number dropped precipitously, amounting to just 218 million bushels during the first eight months of 2025.
Trump this week called China’s pullback an economically hostile act that is “causing difficulty” for farmers, and said that the U.S. is weighing retribution.
Meanwhile, cotton farmers have also seen their exports diminish greatly in the wake of the protracted trade war with China. Prior to the tit-for-tat tariff standoff, 85 percent of the country’s cotton supply was exported, with Vietnam and China representing the primary destination for U.S. cotton, where it’s chiefly used to create apparel.
AFBF indicated that generational farms are being forced to close across the country as “[r]ow crop growers producing everything from corn, soybeans, wheat, and sorghum to cotton are being squeezed out, not because of poor yields, but because market prices have fallen well below the cost of production.” More than half of the farms in the U.S. are now losing money annually.
The group urged the Trump administration and Congress to take action to stabilize and strengthen the agricultural sector by, in the short term, bridging payments for farmers before the end of the year in order to address gaps in revenue. “These payments must be robust enough to address sector-wide gaps and provide meaningful support as the federal government works to recalibrate trade strategies, stabilize prices, and strengthen key market relationships,” AFBF wrote.
Further, the farm organization called for “fair and enforceable” trade deals that open markets and ensure that farmers have reciprocal access for their crops, among other objectives.
“American agriculture has always been a strategic national asset—vital not only to our economy but to our food security and independence,” the letter said.
