Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced it would be giving a $12 billion aid package to farmers who have been hurt by President Trump’s tariffs, along with other challenges such as heavy rain and drought.
Ohio farmers are having mixed reactions to that news.
Shelby County farmer Chris Gibbs, who also heads the Shelby County Democratic Party and the Ohio Democratic Party's Rural Caucus, said that money, from taxpayers, is meant to keep farmers quiet about tariffs.
“These hush money payments won’t benefit farmers at all. They’ll be immediately assimilated by the monopolies that control our fertilizer, seeds, and crop protection supplies, magically resulting in increased costs that match the payments," Gibbs said in an interview. "These payments will go through farmers like poop through a goose.”
Rep. Bob Peterson (R-Sabina), who farms 3,000 acres in Fayette County, said the subsidies are a way to help Ohio farmers weather the changes. He credited Trump’s tax policies for helping reduce prices for farmers and holding China and other countries accountable when it comes to trade.
“What the Trump administration has done with the 'Big Beautiful Bill' on tax cuts, on allowing small businesses and farms to be able to transfer from generation to generation, provide certainty there, has been more helpful than probably anything that’s happened in the past 20 years," Peterson said in an interview.
Peterson said the positive changes don't stop with tax reforms.
“They’ve worked to lower fuel prices. We are at the lowest fuel prices in several years. Trump has been an advocate for driving down interest rates," Peterson said.
But Gibbs said those subsidies, which might help farmers in the short term, come with a cost that might hurt them later.
“Where we are, because I’m struggling too, is by design. It’s by design that you are now dependent on this very administration for your survival," Gibbs said. "You are now dependent on your neighbor’s tax dollars to survive, that same neighbor who is struggling to buy the very groceries that you provide.”
Tariffs on soybeans have hit Ohio farmers hard, since it's the state's largest crop. The Ohio Farm Bureau said a few months ago that China hadn't bought any soybeans from Ohio farmers this year, when in previous years a third of the soybean crop went to China.
