How the Trump administration’s policies are affecting farmers

From tariffs to funding cuts and inflation to climate change, Minnesota farmers are dealing with a lot.

Recent directives from the Trump administration have paused federal funding on some programs that support farmers.

Meanwhile, tariffs could lower prices farmers get for their crops while increasing prices they pay to produce them.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about how recent changes from the White House could affect Minnesota farmers.

Friendly Vang-Johnson (left), director of government affairs for the Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association and owner and operator of Friendly Hmong Farms, and Thom Petersen (right), commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, pose for a portrait in the Kling Public Media Center in St. Paul on Thursday.

Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News

Guests:

• Thom Petersen is the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Before being appointed commissioner, he was the director of government relations for the Minnesota Farmers Union. He has spent most of his life working for a horse and farm business.  

• Friendly Vang-Johnson is the director of government affairs for the Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association. She is the owner and operator of Friendly Hmong Farms, which offers consulting and technical assistance to small-scale farmers of color. Her family has been farming in Minnesota for almost 45 years.

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