LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Agricultural leaders and organizations in the United States have issued a series of urgent warnings, highlighting a deepening crisis that can possibly lead to a "widespread collapse of American agriculture" if current administration policies continue.
A bipartisan coalition of 27 former leaders from leading U.S. agricultural associations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently issued a formal letter to the U.S. Congress, saying that policies adopted by the administration of President Donald Trump have caused "tremendous harm" to the sector.
They cited doubled farm bankruptcies, with barely half of all farms expected to achieve profitability this year, echoing data from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which found that American farmers are entering the 2026 growing season with accumulated losses exceeding 50 billion U.S. dollars over the past three years.
"By placing tariffs on farm inputs -- from fertilizer, to farm chemicals, to machinery parts -- the Administration's tariffs have increased prices for farm inputs and have pushed the cost of production well above commodity prices," the letter wrote, noting that it has made no sense to drive up farm input costs, taking money out of the pockets of American farmers.
"This Administration's trade policies and lack of Congressional action have also hurt American farmers by reducing our global competitiveness, disrupting export markets, and reducing commodity prices," the letter added.
This followed two earlier warnings: a letter in October 2025 from more than 215 state and national agricultural organizations, and a letter from 56 agricultural groups led by the AFBF on Jan. 15, 2026.
All three groups cited trade protectionism, labor shortages and federal staffing cuts as primary drivers of the deteriorating farm economy in the country.
The January letter to congressional leadership warned that "an alarming number of farmers are financially underwater, farm bankruptcies continue to climb, and many farmers may have difficulty securing financing to grow their next crop." It noted that farmers were experiencing "negative margins and losses approaching one hundred billion dollars nationwide" over the past three to four years.
U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman said during a conference call that farmers were "losing money, lots of it."
Agricultural lenders surveyed by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and Farmer Mac reported that only 52 percent of farm borrowers were profitable in 2025, and they projected this figure would drop below 50 percent in 2026.
Industry leaders emphasized that the existing crisis represents a dramatic reversal from the record export surpluses and farm incomes recorded only a few years ago.
A primary factor is the loss of international market share. In 2018, the United States accounted for 47 percent of the global soybean market, but this has fallen to 24.4 percent today.
During the same period, Brazil has gained more than 20 percent of the global market share to become the world's dominant agricultural exporter.
Jon Doggett, the former chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association, said in an interview with The New York Times that although domestic producers are efficient, they "can't compete with the world with a chaotic set of policy circumstances."
The AFBF said that costs for seeds, fuel, and maintenance remain at all-time highs. Tariffs on fertilizer and machinery parts that come from other countries have made these expenses higher than the prices of the goods themselves.
The January letter noted that while the administration's Farmer Bridge Assistance program and other support measures "could provide a meaningful first step," they "do not cover the extensive and cumulative losses that farmers have absorbed over the last several years." The 56 organizations urged Congress to "provide immediate economic support to fill in the gap of remaining losses for both field and specialty crop farmers."
The 215 organizations noted in their October 2025 letter that the H-2A visa program, which permits foreign citizens to work temporarily in U.S. agriculture, is suffering from mass deportations and a lack of reform.
Undocumented workers make up 42 percent of the total farm workforce. Experts warned that the removal of these workers is causing food to go to waste and driving up costs. In the dairy and meat processing sectors alone, labor shortages are creating significant disruptions to production.
In their concluding statement, the 27 agricultural leaders called for an immediate exemption of farm inputs from tariffs and the reversal of policies that harmed U.S. farmers.
"There are few tragedies greater than the loss of a family farm, representing not just a loss of livelihood but a loss of a way of life for rural families," the signatories wrote. "And when American farmers suffer, the entire rural economy is impacted, from schools to churches to Main Street businesses."
The January letter from the 56 organizations emphasized the urgency: "These trends aren't just statistics; they represent an economic crisis in rural America." ■