Ballots are due for Oregon's primary election on Tuesday, and one key issue for voters is the rights of workers who grow the state's food. Farmworkers were considered essential during the pandemic, but still are fighting for better conditions.

Aldo Solano, strategic partnerships manager for Oregon Food Bank, said farmworkers already were more likely to experience hunger, and the pandemic made it worse.

"Farmworkers are some of the lowest-paid workers in Oregon, earning less than $20,000 a year on average," Solano observed. "We understand at Oregon Food Bank that, in order to be able to really eliminate hunger at its root causes, we need to be fighting and working to improve the different systems that perpetuate poverty and that create conditions for folks to be food insecure."

Solano pointed out Oregon's food system is anchored by nearly 175,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

Although pay is low for Oregon farmworkers, they achieved a victory in this year's legislative session. Lawmakers passed a bill securing overtime pay for those who work more than 40 hours a week.

Solano noted it was a major focus for Oregon Food Bank during the session.

"When we asked the question of how do we eliminate hunger, the root causes of hunger, this was one of the priority pieces of legislation that some of our partners were working on that we were able to get behind and support in different ways," Solano recalled.

He added organizations like the farmworkers' rights group Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) were instrumental in getting the bill passed.

Oregon Food Bank, a nonpartisan nonprofit, surveyed candidates for governor about food
insecurity. The responses are posted on its website and include a question about conditions for farmworkers.

Solano emphasized it will say a lot about the candidates.

"It's important to take a hard look at how elected officials or the folks who are running for office are speaking about, I think, a community that's so vital to the state and our communities who are at the beginning of our food chain," Solano contended.

The deadline to vote is Tuesday. Drop sites for ballots will be open until 8 p.m.

President Donald Trump is set to impose sweeping global tariffs this week, a move expected to spark retaliation against a range of American products including food.

Tad DeHaven, policy analyst at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, said farmers in Colorado and across the U.S. who endured losses during Trump's first-term tariffs are again facing uncertainty.

"What's frustrating to me is that taxpayers end up footing the bill," DeHaven pointed out. "Last time around, it cost taxpayers $23 billion in farm bailouts, and I think it looks like we're headed down that road again."

Trump said tariffs, which are taxes on imports mostly paid for by U.S. consumers, will compel companies outsourcing labor to places like China to move their operations back to the U.S. Trump has also floated the idea of replacing income taxes with tariffs in what would amount to a national sales tax.

DeHaven believes Trump's tariff strategy will backfire.

"The administration talks about shrinking government and cutting waste," DeHaven observed. "But I'd argue these trade wars create exactly the opposite: more bailouts, more government spending and more taxpayer-funded damage control."

Republicans in Congress have proposed $230 billion in cuts to ag funding, mostly from SNAP, formerly food stamps. But a recent poll found 60% of Trump voters said cutting SNAP is unacceptable. Trump has also canceled $13 million in funding for Colorado food banks and schools to buy food from local producers.

DeHaven added many U.S. farmers still have not recovered from Trump's first-term tariffs.

"You have to feel bad for farmers, they're getting squeezed from both ends," DeHaven emphasized. "Not only are they losing foreign markets but they are also seeing higher costs at home for essentials like equipment and fertilizer, all thanks to tariffs."


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Cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have affected farming communities nationwide but a national group said its Black farmers remain unaffected.

The Memphis-based Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association represents more than 20,000 heirs of Black landowners and ranchers across the country.

Thomas Burrell, president of the association, said because of long-standing discrimination, its members, many of whom are farmers or descendants of farmers, have not been impacted by the USDA freeze.

"What our concern has always been, notwithstanding any administrative efforts or the lack thereof, is the constant, unfortunately, of discrimination that prevents our members from being able to participate," Burrell explained. "Key phrase is 'food production.'"

Burrell noted the association's farmers operate under the USDA and still face challenges from the Pigford v. Glickman settlement. He added Congress has introduced multiple measures this year to compensate Black farmers for past discrimination. Last summer, the Biden administration provided more than $2 billion in direct payments to minority farmers affected by USDA discrimination.

Burrell argued tariffs will have both short- and long-term effects on Tennessee farmers and beyond. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced the USDA will distribute up to $10 billion to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program for 2024 crops, with another $20 billion for disaster-affected farmers.

"Now the administration is going to use this $30 billion to sustain these farmers," Burrell observed. "While that pain is being as a result of the tariffs, and hopefully, in theory, at least once the ship rights itself again, it's full speed ahead, and the economy should benefit in the long term."

Burrell pointed out the Secretary of Agriculture has promised tariffs will not harm them and disaster and commodity payments should help. But Black farmers who are long victims of discrimination still struggle to access the benefits. The core issue remains: Are they receiving equal resources to stay competitive?


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A new study says agriculture co-ops are a strong economic force in states like South Dakota - but their future is murky, because of federal tax cuts set to expire.

Farm cooperatives have been around for more than a century, allowing smaller farmers to pool together resources to buy supplies and market their products.

South Dakota State University Ness School of Management and Economics Associate Professor Matthew Elliott helped lead research into co-op profits in North and South Dakota and Minnesota.

Even though corporations and industrial farms have a growing presence in agriculture, he said co-ops have staying power.

"There is consolidation going on to achieve efficiencies, but generally we see cooperatives still maintaining a good business volume in these industries," said Elliott, "and that's been pretty consistent, steady, for a long time."

He said co-ops benefit from the tax cut law enacted during the first Trump administration by allowing income from member sales to be taxed at lower rates.

The study says in 2022, that newer deduction helped generate $255 million in economic activity in South Dakota farming towns.

Republicans in Congress want to extend the broader tax cuts. But skeptics say that would require drastic spending cuts, which would harm rural communities and eat away at farmers' profits.

When focusing solely on the co-op tax deduction, Elliot said it's likely a more effective tool in this part of the country.

"It can be a struggle to get investment interested in our region," said Elliott. "It's one of those ways the dollars we do generate, we can keep here and keep multiplying and growing our economy."

He said those are extra dollars farmers can use to boost worker pay or buy equipment from local dealers at a time when small towns struggle with population loss.

If the deduction expires, observers say these farmers will have higher tax bills.

Overall, the planned extension of the Trump tax cuts has renewed debate about whether they mostly benefit wealthier Americans, and leave middle- and low-income workers behind.




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