NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tariffs officially took effect Tuesday and they could pack a punch for Tennessee farmers.
Not only did one farmer tell News 2 it would be more expensive for farmers to plant their crops this year, but they could also expect to see less return on what they grow.
Alan Meadows is a fifth-generation family farmer from West Tennessee. He grows just some of the soybeans the state produces each year. According to the USDA, Tennessee has planted more than 1.8 million acres of soybeans as of March 2025.
Meadows, who also serves on the American Soybean Association’s Board of Directors, said this year’s growing season will come with more challenges than most.
“It’s going to be a storm on both ends,” Meadows said. “The fertilizer coming in — it’s going to be 25% higher and the product going out is going to cost them more, so it’s a demand-destruction type deal.”
This season, farmers face a 25% tariff on fertilizer imported from Canada, taking their cost from roughly $400 to $500 per ton. When it comes to selling their crops, they also face retaliatory tariffs from China.
“That is our fear: losing market share,” Meadows said. “There’s other places that produce. A lot of soybeans come out of South America and we know that once you lose — you’ve got to realize that we’ve spent years developing this market, and once you lose that market share, it’s hard to regain that.”
Meadows said the need to negotiate world trade is long overdue for U.S. farmers.
“The number one goal is that we have a fair-trade market. We’ve been operating at quite a deficit over the years, and basically, it’s just trying to level the playing field in that trade market, and we understand that,” Meadows said.
Although farmers saw tariffs during Trump’s last term, Meadows fears weathering the storm through this round of trade wars will be even tougher.
“We dealt with this the other time. The difference was the farm economy was in a much better position then, and this time, the farm economy is already struggling,” Meadows said. “It’s already some very tight margins, and I believe the impacts this time could be much greater.”
In addition, the fate of a new Farm Bill from the federal government still hangs in the balance. Farmers look to that legislation for aid during unforeseen circumstances.
