SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. – The escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada are affecting local farmers in the Inland Northwest. Walter Schweitzer, President of the Montana Farmers Union, expressed his concerns about the potential end of family farms.
“This could easily be the end of the family farm,” Schweitzer said.
Generations of farmers are caught between falling prices and rising costs. Schweitzer explained how farmers and ranchers are being squeezed from both ends.
“We’re losing customers, we have to take less money for our commodities, and yet we have to pay more money for our fertilizer, our chemicals, our seeds, our parts, our equipment,” he said.
Schweitzer pointed out that tariffs and trade wars have shifted global buyers away from American growers.
“During the last trade war, China invested billions of dollars in infrastructure in our competitors — Brazil, Mexico, South America, Africa,” Schweitzer said. “They haven’t bought one bushel of new crop soybeans. It’s a whole lot easier to keep a customer than to get one back.”
In Spokane County, however, the situation is slightly different. At Wildland Cooperative on Green Bluff, worker-owner Caitlin Mahoney explained that tariffs haven’t directly affected them, but the ripple effects have.
Mahoney noted that most of Wildland’s challenges stem from customers spending less and cuts to programs like EBT and WIC, which help families afford local produce. Their “hyper-local” model, sourcing hops, grain and vegetables from inside Washington, has kept them largely insulated from global trade shocks. Yet, this model relies heavily on community support and a steady local economy.
While Wildland’s model may be weathering global turbulence, Schweitzer warned that most family farms might not be as fortunate.
“If we can’t produce enough food to feed ourselves, we got a problem,” Schweitzer said. “If we lose the family farm and ranch, what are you going to eat?”
Schweitzer emphasized that saving American agriculture will require policy change. Without support, the American family farm may not survive another round of trade tensions.
