Ground Zero of a Broader Farm Emergency
Ben Cable (Originally Published on Substack Sep 06, 2025)
Arkansas Farms Facing a Crisis: A Citizen Ben Dispatch
When you hear the phrase “heartland hero,” what comes to mind? A rugged backbone of America, a multi-generational farmer tilling soil passed down through generations. That’s Arkansas — a place where farms aren’t just livelihoods, they’re legacies. But as of September 2025, that legacy might be slipping through the cracks.
“One of every three farmers could be bankrupt by next year”
At a recent gathering in Brookland, Arkansas, a meeting so urgent that farmers packed into Woods Chapel Baptist Church to voice their fear, one statistic echoed in stark relief: “One in three farmers will file for bankruptcy if there’s no emergency funding this year,” said Woodruff County farmer Chris King.
That’s a 33 percent collapse, a neighborhood-level disaster, not abstract, rural isolation, but real lives and family histories vanishing.
From “Big, Beautiful Bill” to “no check until 2026”
Yes, subsidies are on the way under President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” But here’s the catch: those funds don’t arrive until the 2026 harvest season. For many, that arrival is too late.
As Arkansas Ag Council President Joe Mencer warned, “One in three or more farms could be shuttered by next spring if the federal government doesn’t step in now.”
The culprits:
- Falling crop prices, corn, soybeans, wheat, at their lowest since 2020, while inputs like fertilizer, fuel, seeds, and machinery continue to climb.
- Terrible weather has only worsened the scenario; floods in April devastated more than 260,000 acres and inflicted $78 million in crop damage.
- Most aid under Trump’s “farm bill” won’t reach farmers until 2026, too late, warns Independence farmer Derek Haigwood.
Arkansas has become a focal point in the agricultural emergency, but it’s not an isolated case.
Across the Plains: Midwest and Northern States Under Pressure
National Bankruptcy Spike
- 2025 is seeing a surge in farm bankruptcies. Chapter 12 filings have risen nearly 70% compared to the same period in 2024, a stark warning sign for rural America.
- In just the first three months of 2025, 82 family farm bankruptcy cases were filed—almost double the level from the same period in 2024.
- From April 2024 to March 2025, the U.S. recorded 259 farm bankruptcy filings, already outpacing last year’s numbers.
- Across the country, the crop economy is unraveling: low commodity prices, soaring input costs, weakened loan conditions, and rising delinquencies are straining every corner.
Midwestern States: Iowa, Nebraska, and Beyond
- Nebraska and Iowa tied for the worst GDP decline among states in Q1 2025, both down 6.1%, mainly due to agricultural contractions.
- A Nebraska Farm Bureau economist noted that “crop prices and commodity prices are significantly lower, and fertilizer and equipment prices are higher,” underlining the economic squeeze.
- In Nebraska, tariffs have hit hard. In 2019 alone, the Nebraska Farm Bureau estimated tariffs cost the state’s farmers $1 billion.
Wider Ripples: Tariffs, Trade Wars, and Bailouts
- Midwest heartlands have borne the brunt of Trump-era tariff trade wars, farm bankruptcies rose 24% during 2018–2019, with small-sized farms (1–9 acres) dropping 14% from 2017 to 2022. The losses, concentrated in the Corn Belt, totaled around $27 billion.
- And this time around? A renewed wave of Trump tariffs and program cuts is exacerbating the crisis. Farmers say they’re at a breaking point and need another bailout, fast.
- China’s steep retaliatory tariffs are devastating U.S. exports, with 25% to 34% hikes slashing demand for soy, sorghum, pork, and other staples. One shock: China pulled nearly 97% of soybean orders in one week, and 12,000 tons of pork shipments were canceled, leaving Missouri’s Wes Shoemyer worried about losing export buyers.
- States like Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are all sounding alarms. With their economies tied to corn, soy, wheat, pork, and dairy exports, retaliatory tariffs are threatening farmers’ viability across the board.
- Texas farmers, also strong Trump supporters, are uneasy, too. Hit by drought, low commodity prices, and collapsing export markets, they’re calling for more than emergency funds, warning that the damage from escalating tariffs may be too deep to offset.
Human Toll: Beyond Numbers
This isn’t just economic data, it’s a human crisis. Farmers, especially small and family-run operations, are watching as years of hard work slip away.
- Farmer suicides, historically linked to financial collapse, mounting debts, shrinking commodity prices, and isolation, continue to shadow this crisis. Between April 2024 and March 2025, over 250 farms went bankrupt, and behind every number, there’s a family’s broken dream.
Why now? The perfect storm is brewing
Several simultaneous crises have converged:
- Commodity prices are plunging; corn, soybeans, and wheat are at their lowest since 2020, with rice prices down about 40% from last year.
- Input costs (fertilizer, fuel, seeds, machinery) are soaring, squeezed by inflation and post-pandemic supply-chain nightmares.
- Tariffs, once pitched as protection, are now seen by farmers like Scott Brown as “the ice cream on the cake of a perfect storm,” making Arkansas-grown soybeans more expensive than Brazilian beans, and entire crops uncompetitive.
Combine this with flooding and weather extremes, and many report losing more than they’d ever earned.
A plea heard by lawmakers and a lingering question: why now?
In Brookland, messages were passed. Representatives from Congressman Rick Crawford’s office, plus Senators Cotton and Boozman, listened.
Farmers pleaded: “Mr. Trump, I need to see the fruit of your love.”
That’s a heartbreaking cry from someone who believed, trusted, and now feels abandoned.
However, as of now, the emergency check has not been written, and for farmers already digging into their legacy, every day without aid risks turning their legacy into a liability.
Citizen Ben’s Take
This isn’t political theater, it’s a rural emergency. Farmers, many of whom are Trump supporters who trusted trade policies to protect them, find themselves backed into a corner. Without emergency funding, we’ll see not just empty fields, but empty communities.
If this matters to you, raise your voice, share this article. Call your representatives. Enough waiting. These farmers need aid and dignity now. Farmers’ successes or failures affect us all.
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