Family farmers are among the great guardians of the sovereignty of the United States. By putting American grown and produced food on American tables, they ensure our nation remains independent, secure, and beholden to no one. But right now, the American Dream is slipping away from those very people who helped build it. We are at risk of losing the heart of rural America for good.
Across the heartland, the cost of doing business skyrocketed, leading to anxiety for farming operations coast to coast. In 2025, farm production costs surged by over $12 billion compared to the year before. This includes a crushing 50% increase in labor-related costs, a 37% spike in fertilizer prices, and a massive 73% increase in interest expenses. American farmers are now shelling out over $467 billion annually just to keep the lights on and the tractors running. These trends are unsustainable, forcing tough kitchen-table conversations about selling off operations which have been in families for generations.
Farmers are watching their hard-earned savings and equity evaporate before planting even begins. Lenders projected only 52% of farms would turn a profit in 2025, down from 57% in 2024. Margins in agriculture have been tightening for years, but now many family operations are at risk of collapsing entirely. When the ledger doesn’t balance, Main Street suffers too—the local equipment dealer, small businesses in the community, and the rural schools all feel the pinch.
According to the USDA, family-owned and operated farms still make up 95% of all farms in the United States. But at the rate we’re going, how much longer will that be the case? Between 2017 and 2024, we lost over 140,000 farms nationwide. When these farms fold, it doesn’t just impact the family business, but rather the livelihoods of the family and the economic stability of the surrounding community. And these rural communities are shrinking. According to an analysis of Census data by the USDA, “51% of nonmetro counties saw population declines between July 2020 and June 2024.”
Consider the paradox facing one of America’s cornerstone industries. Thanks to American grit and superior innovation, sugar producers are farming more and more efficiently. Yet, instead of reaping the rewards of that hard work, they are staring down a financial crisis. This is the cruel math of modern farming: input costs have risen while market prices remain suppressed by foreign subsidies, creating a vice grip that squeezes the life out of family operations. Efficiency should be rewarded, but in today’s distorted market, even the best producers are being punished.
The situation is dire, with more farmers leveraging everything they own just to make ends meet. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump last July, was a massive win. It provided critical updates to crop insurance support levels, loan structures, and other farm safety net tools to better reflect the real-world challenges of today’s market. For too long, many in Washington ignored the reality that a tractor in 2025 costs three times what it did a decade ago. This bill acknowledged that the farm safety net was insufficient for the volatility of the 2020s. USDA has also pledged economic aid to American producers to help farmers survive until these new farm policy provisions kick in.
But let’s be clear: a life preserver keeps you afloat, it doesn't get you to dry land. We have to make sure that this legislative progress is the foundation, not the finish line.
Our foreign competitors are certainly not slowing down. Countries like Brazil and India subsidize their industries and cheat the market at the expense of American livelihoods. They pump billions into their agriculture sectors to artificially lower prices, playing the long game and engaging in economic warfare.
When we outsource our food supply, we outsource our sovereignty. We have already seen adversaries like China aggressively hoarding grain and cotton reserves and buying up American farmland. They understand a reality that Washington often takes for granted: a nation which cannot feed itself is a nation which cannot protect itself.
As we enter 2026, the stakes for American agriculture have never been higher. We must ensure the people who feed us can afford to feed their own families. President Trump and the Republican majority must turn temporary relief into long-term certainty. We must strengthen our national farm economy now, or we will one day wake up in a country in trouble.
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