An “acceleration of geopolitical risks” will impact agriculture, but those impacts can be overcome, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for Food and Agriculture in the Trump administration, says.

“…I believe it’s something we can manage through — that’s the good news,” Kip Tom told the Washington Grain Commission Sept. 24. “I think the U.S. is well positioned to make sure we continue to be a global supplier.”

Tom said the U.S. went from a $32 billion agricultural trade surplus to a nearly $42 billion deficit in the past three years. 

“I don’t want this to be a political statement, but in the past four years we’ve installed about $1.67 billion in new regulations,” he said. 

That’s pushing manufacturing and chemical and fertilizer production offshore and increasing U.S. reliance on China and Russia for those products, he said.

“Those are some underlying issues that are making our own country potentially food-insecure,” he said.

He hopes to see production of fertilizer and equipment rebuild in the U.S.

National ag strategy

Tom called for a national agricultural strategy to address various risks such as the potential for trade retaliation as a result of higher tariffs.

“There’s times we come together and we’re one, but sometimes when we start talking specific commodities, we split up and we go our different direction,” he said.

Part of the strategy should be to attract young people and capital investment to agricultural businesses, he said. 

“We need to push harder today than we’ve ever pushed, because we’ve disconnected so many people from agriculture around the country,” he said.

Consumers are paying 32% more at the grocery store, and farm income is down about 45% since 2022, Tom said.

“The reality is, agriculture is suffering,” he said. “I know what it’s like to take a check to the bank that’s $2 a bushel less than what I got nearly two years ago. I know what it’s like pay $500 a ton for fertilizer that I used to buy for $250 a ton, I know what it’s like to buy $4 diesel fuel when I used to pay $1.80, $1.90. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Tom said the USDA and Commodity Credit Corporation have over-focused on a “green agenda” and Climate Smart grants.

“I’m not much of a believer in believing an answer can come from Washington, D.C., inside of a cubicle, someone telling me how to be sustainable,” he said. “The reality is there’s no one better at sustaining the planet Earth that we operate on, the soils we live on … (than) the farmer. We’re the ones that live in it every day and make those decisions how we hand this farm on to the next generation.”