American Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall is warning there may be “collateral damage” in rural America if President-elect Trump follows through on mass deportations and increases tariffs.
“We really need this new administration focused on trade,” Duvall said during a news conference in Des Moines. “I know that the new administration’s talking about tariffs. We don’t support tariffs. We know that when tariffs are put on that other countries take it out on agriculture and we’re real fearful of what might happen in that area.”
The first Trump Administration paid American farmers $28 billion in so-called “trade disruption” payments to compensate for China’s retaliation to Trump’s tariffs. Duvall, who is the keynote speaker at this week’s Iowa Farm Bureau convention, said expanding ag exports would help farmers get past the financial strain of inflation. Duvall told reporters the Farm Bureau also is “very interested” in learning the details of Trump’s plan to deport people who entered the country illegally.
“A lot of workers across this country are undocumented that’s working on farms, because there’s no other people who want to do that work,” Duvall said, “and so we’ll be working with the administration to try to make sure that we don’t harm the food system in our country and harm our rural communities and our farmers and ranchers as we move forward.”
A recent U.S. Labor Department survey found about 44% of American farm workers are undocumented immigrants. Duvall said no one wants criminals from other countries here, harming U.S. citizens, but he indicated the Farm Bureau will argue against deporting migrants who are critical to the ag economy. “What we’re planning on doing is making sure that we take that seat with the president and making sure he understands how valuable this workforce is to our farmers and ranchers,” Duvall said, “and make sure that we try to minimize the collateral damage that might go on in that area.”
Duvall suggested there may be an opportunity reduce regulations on farmers once Trump takes office and the Farm Bureau is lobbying for the total elimination of the federal inheritance tax.
Duvall, who spoke with reporters for nearly half an hour, said he’s “extremely disappointed” a new Farm Bill has stalled, again, in congress.
“We right now are focused on not just pushing for a modernized Farm Bill, but pushing for disaster and economic payments,” Duvall said, “to try to bind our farmers over until we can get a new Farm Bill passed.”
Duvall is a farmer from northern Georgia. On Monday, he drove through areas of his state that were hit by Hurricane Helene in late September.
“It looks like a bomb went off for 100 miles,” Duvall said. “I mean it’s really, really bad and the crops that were destroyed, the barns that were destroyed, homes and lives that were lost — it really was difficult to look at when you ride up through there.”
Duvall said “just about every part of the country” has seen some form of natural disaster this year and congress needs to provide disaster assistance to farmers ASAP. Duvall has been the American Farm Bureau’s president since 2016. He’s the keynote speaker at this week’s Iowa Farm Bureau convention.