Trump in trouble with farmers over corn and oil?

[longknife]

Terry Branstad, the former Iowa governor and now U.S. ambassador to China, told Trump that while farmers may have remained loyal to him despite the economic pain caused by the more than year-long trade war with China, they would not stomach policies favoring the oil industry at their expense, according to four people familiar with the substance of the meeting.

It all comes down to his “trade war” with China, something he’s talked about even before starting to campaign for the presidency.

Now it has to do with allowing refineries to use less ethanol in their fuel blends.

“This was the first time that the president was made fully aware of how angry these farmers are over this issue and that he could have a serious problem in Iowa and potentially other states where this topic is an issue,” said one of the sources.

Caught between a rock and a hard place.

Based on previous administrations, farmers changed their crops from feed corn to varieties designed for ethanol production. Something they can’t change over night.

Before the meeting ended, Trump had already dispatched his Cabinet members to come up with solutions to stem the farm anger, the sources said, setting off a chain reaction that the U.S. corn industry now hopes will mean fresh concessions to help farmers reeling from plunging crop prices and the loss of their biggest export market, China

It’s going to be interesting to see what, if anything, he can do about it.

A lot more @ Trump in high-stakes balancing act between oil and corn ahead of 2020 bid - Reuters

 

[RodISHI]

Terry Branstad, the former Iowa governor and now U.S. ambassador to China, told Trump that while farmers may have remained loyal to him despite the economic pain caused by the more than year-long trade war with China, they would not stomach policies favoring the oil industry at their expense, according to four people familiar with the substance of the meeting.

It all comes down to his “trade war” with China, something he’s talked about even before starting to campaign for the presidency.

Now it has to do with allowing refineries to use less ethanol in their fuel blends.

“This was the first time that the president was made fully aware of how angry these farmers are over this issue and that he could have a serious problem in Iowa and potentially other states where this topic is an issue,” said one of the sources.

Caught between a rock and a hard place.

Based on previous administrations, farmers changed their crops from feed corn to varieties designed for ethanol production. Something they can’t change over night.

Before the meeting ended, Trump had already dispatched his Cabinet members to come up with solutions to stem the farm anger, the sources said, setting off a chain reaction that the U.S. corn industry now hopes will mean fresh concessions to help farmers reeling from plunging crop prices and the loss of their biggest export market, China

It’s going to be interesting to see what, if anything, he can do about it.

A lot more @ Trump in high-stakes balancing act between oil and corn ahead of 2020 bid - Reuters

Yet those farmers don't give a crap about how their ethanol has been damaging the engines of other peoples cars, equipment and the excessive cost others have had to incur for all these years. They don't care the massive amount of chemicals they pollute the ground water and air with. The majority of those mega farmers who grow for the mandated ethanol scam are true assholes from what we have seen and experience. Their bankers who they sold their souls to for a few bucks and big agra are the ones throwing the biggest fit.

Branstad is an ass and a sellout. He should stay in China they deserve him and his very corrupt insurance companies.

 

[Shrimpbox]

Environmentalists have said for years that ethanol does not help the environment.

 

[Shrimpbox]

This is really the hypocrisy of the left and the failure of republicans to get the message out. Dems have said repeatedly that ethanol produces as much pollution as it saves plus it skews food prices as more corn is diverted to ethanol. Ethanol increases the price of gas. Trump does not have to do a contested primary in Iowa so he is boldly trying to reduce the imbalances caused by ethanol. Ethanol is a govt. mandated program, not a market based program so conservatives should be cheering this move and advertising it as such.

trump has done what Dems have been clamoring for for years but it is no good. All of a sudden farmers, who they never even knew existed, are suffering because they have planted ethanol corn. Like they can’t plant other corn next year? The consumers will pay less for gas and less for food, is that not a good thing?

 

[longknife]

Many U.S. farmers fume at Washington, not Trump, over biofuel, trade policies

The USDA is a natural scapegoat and a topic of conspiracy theories among farmers suspicious of its sprawling bureaucracy, career employees and its research who sometimes conflicts with what they see on their own farms.

Yet, a good number of them strongly support the president’s job efforts, often explaining that they think unnamed bureaucrats are thwarting his efforts.

Trump voter Byron Heppler, a soybean and corn farmer from Calhoun, Kentucky, said he is open to considering other Republican candidates if any emerge. He said he believes USDA’s research methods are flawed and he feels its employees want to unseat Trump, although he offered no evidence to back up those views.

It doesn’t say, but I wonder what the authors found when they asked for opinions on Trump’s efforts to move USDA offices out of the Beltway.

More @ Many U.S. farmers fume at Washington, not Trump, over biofuel, trade policies - Reuters