Bill Dalton: The Farmer's Strait

EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not of Ottawa News Network.

It’s almost impossible to find anything good that came of Donald Trump’s foolish war with Iran.

Except we’ve relearned two important lessons: 1) Economic chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz work; and 2) War is very profitable for certain industries and people, not taxpayers.

American farmers should carefully consider lesson No. 1. They control a very powerful chokepoint — food production — that they’ve never taken advantage of; perhaps the biggest reason being that food is a perishable commodity. Unlike oil, crops are difficult and expensive to store for long periods of time.

But oh, what a powerful weapon they could be if farmers closed down that economic “strait” — even if only temporarily, like Iran did in the Persian Gulf. Why would farmers do such a terrible thing? For the same reason Iran did it — survival.

The small American farm is vanishing.

While you were yawning as Trump imposed tariffs, started foolish wars and wasted your money on reflecting pools, the farmers who produce our food supply are struggling to survive.

After peaking at 6.8 million farms in 1935, the number of farms and ranches fell sharply through the 1970s. Now there are only about 1.8 million left.

Last year, the United States lost 15,000 farms, most of them smaller ones, with bankruptcies this spring reaching their highest level in six years. No state, not one, reported a net increase in farm operations.

Fortunately, farmers have become more productive, growing more on less land. Small family farms still make up a majority of what is left, yet only 21 percent receive government payments, compared to 44 percent of the midsize and larger farms.

The reasons farms are disappearing are lower prices for their crops and rising costs — especially for fuel and fertilizer — thanks to Trump’s foolish war. Commodity prices are down as much as 40 percent from recent highs, thanks to Trump’s foolish tariff battles with China, Mexico and Canada.

Meanwhile, farm bankruptcies and foreclosures are increasing, along with land prices and interest rates, resulting in fewer people going into farming. And Trump’s over-the-top immigration crackdown is shrinking the pool of farm laborers, since immigrants are just about the only people willing to do farm work.

As larger farms get bigger and smaller ones disappear, food production will be concentrated in fewer hands in fewer regions of the country. Our food supply will be at the mercy of extreme weather (such as the climate change Trump doesn’t believe in) and disease outbreaks (such as Avian flu, screwworm and Cyclospora pathogen) that our government can’t seem to control.

Ultimately, all of this could mean higher food prices and the extinction of small, rural communities such as the one where I grew up.

What’s worse, Congress can’t seem to pass the Farm Bill that authorizes federal programs. It’s been hung up for months. Without it, farmers have no clear vision of what their future holds — like most Americans as we recently celebrated our 250th anniversary.

As for that war with Iran, the consensus among political observers is that the United States is losing, with Trump committing one of the biggest blunders in American history. Before his war, Iran never took full advantage of its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait’s geography is almost as important to Iran as the United States being bookended by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, presenting formidable obstacles to invasion by foreign adversaries.

Thanks to Trump, Iran will now hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage for as long as oil lubricates the world economy. It doesn’t really need nuclear weapons anymore to survive.

The only other thing that changed because of his war is the $80 billion in taxpayer money that flowed into the bank accounts of defense contractors and Trump’s friends and family, not to mention Big Oil from higher gasoline prices.

Lots of that money will circle back into the campaign coffers of Republican candidates. Those contributions — padded with war profits — will be difficult to trace in the upcoming elections.

Impossible to track — without a criminal investigation — will be the millions likely made by Trump’s cronies, possibly Trump himself, from insider trading in the oil and stock markets. According to his latest financial disclosure, he only made $2.2 billion last year.

It’s now clear the real reason for Trump’s war with Iran was money.

Shocker.

— Bill Dalton is a former reporter and editor for The Kansas City Star and worked for several Michigan newspapers. He spends summers on the family farm near Fennville. His novel “The Bank Game” — a crime thriller — is available from Amazon along with “Dalton’s Bend.”

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