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

0:00If 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. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gives farmers and ranchers the data they need to plan their future livelihoods. But with the department closed because of the shutdown... You don't get crop reports. You don't know where you're at relative to the harvest. You're not sure where you go to get, you know, accurate information about your marketing plans or the size of the crop. That's John Hansen. I'm the president of Nebraska Farmers Union and have been since 1990.

0:37I'm a sixth generation homesteader family, so I come from a diversified grain and livestock operation. Another thing Hanson 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 interest rate than a typical bank would provide. But again, since the USDA is shut down, farmers can't 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 cash as quick as possible in order to try to stop some interest. And they're not able to do that because FSA is not open.

1:22On top of that, soybean and corn farmers are already facing a difficult market due in part to President Trump's trade war with China. Up until recently, China was the largest buyer of American soybeans. This year, China has stopped purchasing them. We have folks that are good producers. These are not small folks. These are big folks. They're saying, we're losing$150 an acre on our corn and soybeans. You know, we're upside down this year, and we're more upside down this year than we were last year. And if all that wasn't enough, there's another big issue facing farmers. government-funded health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.

2:02If you look at the percentage of folks in agriculture that depend on those insurance policies that are going to be going up in cost, ag leads the pack. Cynthia Cox can confirm this. She focuses on ACA markets for KFF. That's the Independent Nonprofit Healthcare Research Foundation. 27 percent of farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers get their health insurance through the ACA or Obamacare markets. And so what this means is that there are actually a fair number of farmers and ranchers who would see their premiums increase substantially if the enhanced premium tax credits expire. Those ACA tax credits are at the center of the shutdown fight.

2:46Democrats are demanding Republicans renew the tax breaks before they expire at the end of the year. And if they're not preserved, farmers who rely on the ACA for health care could see their premiums double. Consider this. 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 health care costs, that support seems to have all but disappeared. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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4:09It's Consider This from NPR. Joe Maxwell is a fourth-generation Missouri farmer. He spent years in Missouri state democratic politics, and he advocates for America's farmers through his nonpartisan organization, Farm Action. When I spoke to him, I started by asking what tools the federal government provides to support farmers. Farmers rely on the federal government because of the financial situations that they're in. So farmers rely on government programs that provide subsidies, checks. Most of our smaller and mid-sized farmers rely on government loans, usually at a lower interest rate or just access to the capital that the big banks don't want to fool with the smaller farmer.

4:54And we also rely on conservation dollars, programs that help soil health that help the environment. And so it's an array of programs and it's a partnership between a farmer and the government. So just paint me a picture. Typical American family farmer who is used to relying on some of these services and government help you're talking about and who's not getting it now. Just what does the day look like? The day has sweat on your brow and a cold weather, it's because of stress. We have been under financial stress. The government in December last year put together a financial package of bailout for farmers for their 2024 crop year.

5:36So this shutdown and trade wars and tariffs, while they hit, we recognize as farmers, it's hitting all of us as people. And we're not trying to say we're the only ones, but we went into this in a very stressful financial situation. For people who may be listening to this and thinking, hey, there's uncertainty in my business too, and hey, my business doesn't get support from the federal government, would you make the argument why the government plays such a big role in American agriculture? American agriculture is a large economic engine for this country, but it's made up as opposed to one or two big companies.

6:19The folks producing the food are nearly a million individuals. And it's important not only for the farmer to have that data, but it's important for the government to have that data to understand their economic bottom line with trade, to understand the stability of their food supply for all of us. So I think it's important for everyone to understand that it's really a mutual benefit, this data. So this shutdown fight, as you know, is centered around government-funded subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. And I understand we've got data from KFF that found more than a quarter of American farmers and ranchers primarily rely on the Affordable Care Act, the ACA for health care.

7:04Just how important is that in your industry? You know, the plight of the middle-sized and family farmer, because of the financial stress that they've been under for a number of years, many have begun to rely on the subsidies that support health care under the ACA. And that's how they receive their health care. I think it's also important to know the average age of a farmer is about 58 years old. So they're several years away from Medicare. They're getting into where health is an issue and are strongly reliant upon those subsidies. And just help me understand what that will mean for American farmers.

7:43KFF, this is the independent nonprofit Healthcare Research Foundation. They also found that if the subsidies expire, ACA premiums would go up by a lot, like more than 100%. What does that mean for your average farmer? It means the same thing it does for that person working down there washing dishes at the local restaurant or serving food. It's just not manageable. It's just not manageable. And to be without insurance, you're literally one farm accident. It's a very dangerous profession. One illness, and you could lose the farm. So you just struggle to try to justify how you can go without insurance, but then you look at your bank account and you don't know how you're going to afford it.

8:36Just adding another stress to that sleepless night. So we've been talking about several aspects of what's happening with the shutdown, which is, of course, unfolding at the same time as President Trump's trade war with China and the tariffs. which has had a massive impact, I know, on corn farmers, soybean farmers. You're one of them. You farm corn and soybeans, right? What has been the impact on your operations? I think every American can understand that if your largest customer one day is buying and the next day lets you know we don't need any of yours and goes to your next largest competitor, you have a problem.

9:18The president has started a trade war with America's number one customer. If we don't have a buyer, then we have somewhere around, compared to last year, China was represented about 25 to 30 percent of total purchase of soybeans in the United States. That would be for about half of all our soybeans are exported. China represented a little over half of that export. In a different year, perhaps a farmer could hang in there, but with all this other financial stress going into it and a year before having to ask for bailouts from government, then the trade war is just almost the last straw. As fourth generation farmer, Joe Maxwell of Farm Action.

10:08Mr. Maxwell, thank you. Thank you so much.

10:14This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlom with audio engineering by Simon Laszlo Jansen. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.