Dear Editor: While Jerry Raski’s letter presents the recent Trump administration’s actions in glowing terms of moving us toward a “stronger and self-reliant America,” the reality is far from that.
Consider Trump’s tariffs on Canada. One of the states that will be most impacted is Vermont, which imports 70% of its goods from Canada. Vermont’s rural economy is heavily bolstered by maple syrup production, which contributes $144 million in wages and profits annually. Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel will halt America’s domestic syrup production, which will make American maple businesses even more dependent on importing Canadian syrup. Perhaps these tariffs will ignite aluminum and steel production, but for now all these tariffs are doing is directly sacrificing the interests of rural communities in northern states like Vermont.
As Jerry touts Trump’s supposedly “expected” subsidies to American farmers, Trump has paused the payments promised to farmers in the Inflation Reduction Act, which has jeopardized numerous farms who’ve invested in clean energy projects. Another blow to farmers has come from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who has endorsed cutting $1 billion in funding that went toward paying local farmers to supply food banks and schools; in Colorado this will cost local producers $13.1 million. The aforementioned tariffs further jeopardize farmers as livestock feed manufacturers like Poulin Grain have announced they will see significant increases in costs due to the tariffs which will be passed onto farmers.
Rural America has been declining for decades. Our communities suffer from brain drain as young people resettle in cities. Globalization has destroyed our traditional manufacturing industries. Corporate agribusiness has monopolized America’s farming system. Rural Americans suffer disproportionately from earlier deaths, youth suicide, maternal deaths and drug overdoses. Our country, which was founded by farmers to be an agrarian republic, has rotted into an unrecognizable suburban nightmare dominated by corporations and oligarchs. And in the midst of our continued decline, what is President Trump doing? He’s selling citizenship to wealthy foreigners. He's trying to annex Greenland. He’s canning USDA and Forest Service employees. None of this is going to help ordinary Americans, least of all those of us who live in rural communities.
Rory Bosanko,
Salida
