Secretary Brooke Rollins knows what it’s like to bale hay, shell corn, and walk beans.
Our Secretary of Agriculture also understands farming’s big picture, as I recently learned firsthand. After hearing her speak, I’m freshly optimistic about the vision of the Trump administration in general and Rollins in particular.
Rollins grew up in Texas and spent summers in Minnesota, where she worked on farms, learning about stamina and achievement.
She was an FFA and 4-H kid. I’m a big advocate of these programs, which seek to develop the next generation of farm leaders. I have an implicit trust of those who participate: They’re so right, they have to prove themselves wrong.
What I didn’t realize until now is that Secretary Rollins is also an inspirational speaker. I was in the room when she addressed a large group of farmers and others at the annual Iowa Ag Leaders Dinner on March 31.
Even better, she’s a smart critic of farm policy—and during her talk, she made a striking observation.
“For generations, America had an agricultural trade surplus, and under the previous administration, we now have a trade deficit of nearly $50 billion,” she said. “For the past four years, the United States sat on the sidelines in trade negotiations, putting our producers at a disadvantage while other countries gained preferential access or reneged on past commitments.”
I had not realized this, and the details may be found in an April 1 report from the USDA’s Economic Research Service. After 60 years of agricultural trade surpluses, the shift came in 2019. Even then, it was tiny, with the value of imports exceeding the value of exports by only a negligible amount.
Since 2019, however, the trade gap grew. It now approaches $50 billion.
I don’t get too stressed about food imports. There’s no other way for us to eat bananas or drink coffee whenever we like. The challenge is that the value of our agricultural exports peaked at nearly $200 billion in 2022. Over the next two years, it declined to about $176 billion in 2024. Meanwhile, the value of imports grew to $213 billion.
The strong dollar had something to do with this, but even more important was the complete indifference to expanding reciprocal trade opportunities. When President Biden left office in January, he became the first modern president not to negotiate a single free-trade agreement.
“President Trump will not forget our farmers when he’s negotiating with foreign leaders,” said Rollins in her speech. “He is the ultimate dealmaker, and he is going to ensure that our farmers are being treated fairly by our trading partners.”
SA government continues to defend odious trade in tigers, perpetuating their suffering in captivity
Then she introduced a term that I had not heard before: balanced trade.
“President Trump’s plan focuses on balanced trade deals, increased market access to U.S. exports, addressing unfair trade barriers, holding bad actors accountable, and increasing the strength of America,” she said.
She also made a promise: “I will travel to six countries in the next six months to expand markets and boost exports.”
If that’s what “balanced trade” means, then I’m all for it. We need to bring our agricultural exports and imports back into the pre-Biden balance.
President Trump, of course, has made a lot of news lately on trade and tariffs. The markets have been volatile, down one day and up the next. It’s hard to keep track of exactly what’s going on.
My advice is that we slow down and practice a little patience.
I’m now entering my 52nd year as a full-time farmer, and I’ve seen it all: droughts, embargoes, financial crises, and more. It’s not all bad news, either: I’ve also benefitted from incredible new technologies that are helping us grow the best crops in history, and they’re only getting better.
As a farmer, I invest personal time and resources in traveling to Washington, DC to meet with elected officials and share my perspective and experience on how policies and decisions made in capitols impact my ability to grow sustainably. I’ll be traveling to DC again in early May and plan on talking about what ‘balanced trade’ looks like to an Iowa farmer. Farmers in the US and globally are part of the solution to many of the world’s greatest challenges, including feeding a global growing population while protecting natural resources and adapting to a changing climate. Our voices must be heard.
Together we can make the case and push for balanced trade that the world needs. Balance can benefit all.
