Study highlights rising farm imports, shrinking exports in U.S. agriculture
Once a reliable engine of trade surpluses, America’s farm economy is now running a deficit of historic proportions.
Rising input costs, collapsing commodity prices, and shrinking farm numbers have left rural communities squeezed, while U.S. imports of fruits, vegetables, and seafood soar.
In this brief, authors Kip Tom and Tate Bennett argue that this imbalance is more than an economic trend — it’s a national security issue. They outline a comprehensive set of solutions, from reciprocal tariffs and tougher enforcement of trade deals to new market access abroad and stronger domestic purchasing of U.S. farm products.
At stake is not just the health of rural America but the resilience of the nation’s food system itself.
Read the full brief by clicking the link or download it below:
News Release | Farmers First Agenda
AFPI Releases New Agricultural Trade Policy Brief
August 13, 2025
Washington D.C.— Today, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) unveiled its latest agricultural policy brief at the Midwest Agricultural Export Summit in South Dakota. The brief was authored by Kip Tom, Vice Chair of Rural Policy and Tate Bennett, Director of Rural Policy, and reflects much of the conversation surrounding the theme of the summit: “Fixing the Agricultural Trade Deficit.”
Titled “Driving Rural Prosperity by Reducing the U.S. Agricultural Trade Deficit,” the policy brief is the latest research conducted under AFPI’s Farmers First Agenda and outlines how recent trade policies have failed to prioritize farmers and ranchers, contributing to a weakening rural economy, and how to address them. “Ensuring and expanding global market access for our farmers and ranchers and addressing the unfair trade practices and barriers to our best-in-class agricultural products and production practices has never been more important. This brief shows how”, stated Tom, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome and Chairman of Tom Farms, an Indiana-based global seed and production agriculture company.
Farming, one of our nation’s primary professions, is suffering from persistent trade deficits, despite the fact the last 60 years have seen mostly agricultural trade surpluses. Farm income is driven by global market prices, and robust and steady market pricing is essential for our farms and ranches to remain profitable. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) anticipates the U.S. agricultural trade deficit will reach a historic $50 billion in 2025, absent policy changes and not considering potential impacts of the administration’s current reciprocal tariffs.
AFPI recommends five key actions to reverse the farm economy’s downward trend: (1) implement tariff and reciprocal tariff policies to reduce barriers to trade; (2) open new markets through strategic global partnerships; (3) enforce and follow through on trade agreements; (4) monitor unfair global trade practices; and (5) grow domestic consumption of U.S. agricultural products.
The current Administration has achieved historic wins on behalf of our farmers in the form of recent trade deals with, among others: the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, and Vietnam. AFPI’s latest recommendations aim to further that progress for America’s farmers, putting Farmers First when it comes to future trade negotiations and creating opportunities to follow through on the recent agreements.
AFPI’s Farmers First Agenda includes policies to protect and advocate for U.S. farmers and ranchers and support rural communities.
