Frankly, It's the Beans

It might be kind of romantic, all of us huddled along the railroad tracks cooking our beans right in the can over a campfire—a real Steinbeck scene. Maybe someone will have marshmallows. The soybean farmers among us can tell stories of the days before Scott Bessent and a bunch of billionaire tech bros owned all of the farmland, a time when farmers knew that China would be there to buy what they harvested, back before Argentina and Brazil owned that market. Ranchers gone bust can regale us with tales of how, just when they started selling their cattle at a profit due to low supply, the government shipped in a bunch of beef from Argentina in order to prop up Javier Milei’s chain-saw-austerity experiment. We can all laugh about how we at least don’t have it as bad as those Argentinians.

Speaking of romance, my wife will be visiting her mother in Kentucky and brothers in Indianapolis next month.

Maybe I didn’t say that right. I should have been clearer that the “romantic” part is about our relationship, and has nothing to do with her brothers. You mention Kentucky, and some people get the wrong idea. They think of that Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs repeatedly outsmarts the hillbilly brothers Curt and Punkinhead Martin after they mistake him for one of the Coy Clan. That is a ridiculous caricature. And just for the record, that cartoon is set in Arkansas, not Kentucky. I deployed to Iraq with some Arkansas farm boys, and, despite that experience, I remain convinced that the vast majority of Arkansans don’t fit the Curt and Punkinhead Martin stereotype. Neither do my brothers-in-law, even if one of them has a beard the Punkinhead brothers would envy.

Anyway, my wife will be travelling from a state that produced $2.4 billion worth of soybeans last year to one (Kentucky) that produced about $1 billion worth of soybeans and is home to the president of the American Soybean Association, Caleb Ragland. Yesterday, Ragland testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled “Pressure Cooker: Competition Issues in the Seed and Fertilizer Industries.” I’m sure it was an exciting time, but I think 2027’s “Help! This Trade War Is Killing Us” hearing will be way more interesting.

Kentucky’s bourbon industry has been hit by an 85% reduction in Canada’s bourbon imports, and that could last well beyond all of this horrible trade policy because Canada is perfectly capable of producing its own whiskey—a fact that Americans were quite aware of during Prohibition. This winter, a bunch of rabid hockey fans in red and white beanies might discover that they actually like the homegrown stuff.

Of course, it’s not just farmers, ranchers, and whiskey distillers who are feeling the effects of an unpredictable and ill-advised trade policy. As with every economic bump in the road, it is the working class that is hurt the most. More Americans are falling behind on their car payments, and repossessions are up. Foreclosure rates are up nearly 20% from the same time last year. Three Florida real estate markets are in the top five for foreclosures as retirees on fixed incomes face increased insurance premiums and cost of living while real estate demand has dropped.

Of farmers hurt by his trade policies, Donald Trump has said, “We’ll give them some money because it’s not their fault. They’ve been doing very well. They did very well under me.” Three billion dollars in Farm Service Agency aid won’t quite offset $13 billion in lost exports, though, and what kind of certainty can producers have for next year’s crop? Farmers are very aware that it’s not their fault, and they also know that government bailouts are not a very good look, even if all the money is actually going to the banks to pay off operating loans.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not make things any better when he said to Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week, “Well, Martha, in case you don’t know it, I’m actually a soybean farmer. So, I have—I have felt this pain, too.” Hearing that from a guy worth over half a billion dollars who rents out tens of millions of dollars worth of North Dakota farmland must have been a real kick in the beans for actual farmers.

Bessent’s statement came on the heels of a bailout that boosted Argentinian soybean exports and a promise to buy more Argentinian beef. When American beef producers complained that Argentinian beef imports would undercut their market, Donald Trump said, “If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!” Another kick in the beans.

Fortunately for North Dakota, we have congresswoman Julie Fedorchak, who says she is having her pay withheld during the current shutdown. What a trooper! Is her husband doing the same with his lobbying job?

Buy Trygve a can of beans!

The thing is, most Americans can’t afford to have their pay withheld. They start missing car payments and rent or mortgage payments. For someone who just had their car repossessed and now can’t get to the job that doesn’t pay enough for both groceries and a car payment, the congresswoman’s sacrifice doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

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