America's farmers are facing an economic crisis, their fields full but their prospects fading. With an average age of 58 and debts surpassing $1 million, they're caught in a storm triggered by escalating tariffs. Hundreds recently petitioned Washington to ease tensions with China, their largest buyer now gone. As soybean prices plummet and storage costs rise, farmers watch helplessly while Brazil captures markets once dominated by U.S. agriculture, offering China stability and lower costs. The BRICS nations are rapidly reshaping global agriculture, trading in their own currencies and sidestepping American influence. Even if tariffs vanish overnight, American farmers wouldn't easily recover—their structural disadvantages run deep, and their international buyers have secured new, reliable partnerships elsewhere. Once central to global food security, U.S. agriculture now faces an unsettling reality: the world is building a future where America's farms—and their farmers—are no longer essential.
