'It's been rough': Head of Black farmer group laments Trump causing 'suicides'
A prominent farmer lamented that President Donald Trump's policies were wrecking the agriculture industry and driving many to despair.
The president's trade war has raised prices on fertilizers and other necessary supplies, while also cutting off some foreign markets, and John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, told "CNN News Central" that the hardships were almost impossible for some farmers to bear.
"Well, it's been rough this year, and we're hearing from farmers all around the country," Boyd said. "Bankruptcies are on the rise and farmers are asking, 'What, am I going to be able to stay in my home or keep my home,' if they file bankruptcy. Farm suicides are up and the president's tariffs have put this country in complete turmoil for America's farmers, and really, it's a state of emergency for America's farmers because right now we're still selling corn, wheat and soybeans at dramatically low prices because the markets have plummeted, because every other day the president makes another announcement about tariffs."
"The only thing we still do in this country better than anybody around the world, and people can debate me on this, is produce corn, wheat and soybeans," Boyd added. "When it comes out of our field, it's ready to be shipped to China or corn to Mexico, and the president is negotiating on this because he knows this is the only thing that America produces, and he's gambling with America's farmers' lives."
Trump's immigration policies were also introducing chaos into agriculture, because many farmers rely on migrant workers to harvest their crops.
"You don't know what the president is going to do because just a week or so ago, he was herding up migrant workers from farmers, you know, riding through their fields and chasing these persons and cheating them, treating them, almost as if they're livestock," Boyd said, "and, I mean, if anybody's old enough to remember Jim Crow, and my grandparents were sharecroppers in this country. They didn't want to pay them, and now they're using this particular population to do the same, and I believe that this is inhumane treatment to, you know, say one week they they have to leave the country and now, because farmers need the labor or they have to to come back, these persons have been doing this type of work for a very, very long time on these farms, harvesting tobacco and other commodities around the country with no problem."
"These weren't criminals and all the things that the president says they are," Boyd added. "These are hardworking people that are doing the work that many of us in our own country don't want to do."
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