California

You can hardly blame California’s farmers, growers and vintners for feeling like pawns in President Donald Trump’s reckless and self-destructive trade war.

His tit-for-tat tariffs with China are already hurting agriculture in the Central Valley and across the state, and the pain is only going to get worse.

Adding insult to injury, in Trump’s tariff relief for farmers, California is getting the short end of the stick. Starting in September, the $12 billion package will give cash to the producers of commodities such as corn, cotton, pork, soybeans and wheat – all grown in red states. But big-money crops from deep-blue California? Fruits, nuts, vegetables and wine will apparently only be eligible for federal government purchases of surplus produce.

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They voted for Donald Trump after he promised to protect American agriculture and reduce regulations. But many U.S. dairy farmers are now stinging from the trade war he’s launched, particularly those in California’s Central Valley, who have built their livelihoods on exports to Mexico, China and other markets.

President Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China have prompted retaliatory actions, making it harder for U.S. farmers to export their products, depressing prices and adding to a glut of products such as cheese. The United States has nearly 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in cold storage, the highest amount since record-keeping began in 1917.

Even before the tariffs, some dairies were hurting, with their numbers in California dropping from 1,563 to 1,392 between 2012 and 2016, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

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