A new federal aid package announced last week is being met with skepticism from farm leaders in Missouri and nationwide, who say the $12 billion in one-time “bridge payments” will not make up for losses driven by trade disruptions and rising input costs.
Missouri is home to roughly 95,000 farms and about 28 million acres of farmland. Agriculture contributes more than $90 billion a year to the state’s economy.
Joe Maxwell, president of the watchdog group Farm Action Fund and a Missouri farmer, said the aid falls far short of what farmers have lost.
"This bailout is just a drop in the bucket to the financial losses that farmers have had due to President Trump's tariffs and trade wars," Maxwell contended.
Federal officials said the $12 billion package is intended as short-term relief, with payments expected to be released by late February. They noted longer-term Farm Bill provisions and related trade policy changes are set to take effect later.
National farm policy experts said the aid may help with short-term cash flow, but does not address deeper problems in the agricultural economy.
Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said for farmers, there is a huge amount of uncertainty heading into 2026.
"They don’t know how real these trade agreements actually are," Lilliston pointed out. "They don’t know what the market’s going to look like. They have to make planting decisions soon. I think that is the real concern. It’s causing an enormous amount of stress."
Maxwell argued that farmers and ranchers have been under financial stress for a number of years.
"This bailout is just another in a series of bailouts trying to prop up a failed system of agriculture in the United States," Maxwell emphasized.
The Missouri News Service, a partner with KRCU Public Radio, originally published this story.
