Farmers already had it bad. The shutdown made it worse.

Consider This from NPR

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🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

America’s farmers are getting walloped by the federal government shutdown.

The closing of government offices means they’ve lost access to data and loans that help keep them afloat —

Then there’s healthcare. More than a quarter of the nation’s farmers rely on the Affordable Care Act…along with the subsidies at the heart of the shutdown fight.

And add to that — the fact that farmers’ finances are taking a hit from bottom lines are also being slashed due to President Trump’s tariffs.

For generations – the federal government has worked to support American farmers.

But as they lose access to vital loans and information.. as the trade war cuts into their bottom line… And as many face skyrocketing healthcare costs…that support seems to have all but disappeared.

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This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam, with audio engineering by Simon-Laslo Janssen.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want an idea of the role the federal government can play in the lives of everyday Americans look no farther than America's farmers.
0:08.8	The U.S. Department of Agriculture gives farmers and ranchers the data they need to plan their future livelihoods.
0:15.3	But with the department closed because of the shutdown...
0:18.8	You don't get crop reports. You don't know where you're at relative to the harvest.
0:23.1	You're not sure where you go to get, you know, accurate information about your marketing
0:28.7	plans or the size of the crop.
0:31.6	That's John Hanson.
0:33.1	I'm the president of Nebraska Farmers Union.
0:35.9	I have been since 1990.
0:37.1	I'm a sixth generation
0:38.8	homesteader family, so I come from a diversified grain and livestock operation. Another thing Hansen
0:46.6	depends on the USDA for is the Farm Service Administration Loan or FSA loan. These are loans specifically for farmers that generally have a lower
0:56.7	interest rate than a typical bank would provide. But again, since the USDA is shut down, farmers can't
1:04.3	access the loans. And so here's folks wanting to haul their corn and soybeans into town and sell them so they can start generating
1:13.3	cash as quick as possible in order to try to stop some interest. And they're not able to do that
1:20.8	because FSA is not open. On top of that, soybean and corn farmers are already facing a difficult market due in part to President
1:29.9	Trump's trade war with China. Up until recently, China was the largest buyer of American soybeans.
1:36.1	This year, China has stopped purchasing them. We have folks that are good producers. These are
1:42.2	not small folks. These are our big folks. They're big folks. They're saying we're losing $150
1:46.8	an acre on our corn and soybeans. You know, we're upside down this year and we're more
1:52.4	upside down this year than we were last year. And if all that wasn't enough, there's another big
1:57.4	issue facing farmers. Government funded health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
	...

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