Struggling Arkansas Soybean Farmers Are Asking President Donald Trump for Help

The presidential candidate whom you vote for is widely influential on all things policy, and their views and actions have far-reaching consequences for countless professions. Although the mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were one of the first real cases of these consequences in action, soybean farmers in Arkansas are feeling the squeeze as their operations aren't as profitable as they once were.

Who is to blame: MAGA farmers, or the candidate for whom they voted?

That pivotal question is being asked in social media spaces across the Internet, with countless commenters on Reddit lacking sympathy for one soybean farmer based in Arkansas who has described the terrible plight he and his operations face.

Below, we explore the details of the situation faced by Arkansas' soybean farmers, what kind of help they are asking for from President Donald Trump, and more. Continue reading below to find out why Arkansas' soybean farmers are in dire straits.

According to a video post on the social media website Reddit, Arkansas' soybean farmers are experiencing an unenviable situation. To wit: "Right now, we're in a very dire situation," according to the farmer in the video. "September's upon us. Harvest is starting in the deep south, and we have zero bushels of soybeans on the books to be sold to China for this current crop that's about to come out of the field."

Furthermore, per the farmer, "Historically, over the last five years, about one-third of soybean sales to China would be booked. China amounts to 25% of our total U.S. soybean crop. So, that would be 8% or 9% of the whole U.S. crop would normally be on the books with China right now, and we have zero. That is alarming."

The comments on Reddit have been entirely unkind to this farmer's plight.

"That’s socialism...You voted for this," one comment reads, while another asks: "I wonder how many memes he shared over his outrage at the thought of studen loan forgiveness. I wonder how often he defended the defunding of school lunch programs, medicaid and food stamps because socialism. [Hypocrite].

"The farm economy as a whole is struggling," the farmer suggests. "Inflation has caused our cost of production to rise drastically on every front. Commodity prices — in particular, soybeans — are down about 50% from where they were three years ago, and our numbers are deeply in the red."

No sympathy or empathy was shared from one commenter, who noted: "This is EXACTLY what Trump did to soybeans in 2017. So these bros voted for it twice."

"We send this letter to President Trump," the farmer begins, noting the sting of tariffs and lack of agreements in place to protect these struggling farmers. "Our appeal to President Trump and his administration is: make soybeans a priority in any trade negotiations that are taking place. Soybeans are the number one agriculture export to China. In the last trade war, it was 71% of the losses that we had as American farmers, and they're critical."

"I lived in Iowa last year for work. Senator Chuck Grassley had a town hall in the break room of the factory I was at," one commenter angrily notes. "Literally, all the farmers did was complain about student loan forgiveness while demanding to know what was going to be in the Farm Bill. One farmer even proudly stated his sons didn't want college, so why should he have to pay for other people's kids' education? These people deserve everything coming to them."