NonilexAug 17, 2025

In #Michigan’s cherry country, the #federal safety net is fraying

In the hills near Grand Traverse Bay, #weather woes & #Trump #cutbacks are battering #cherry growers

The frost came in late April, sliding across the hills before dawn. Juliette King McAvoy stepped into the orchard, hoping the cold had spared the cherry buds. But they glittered in the morning sun like glass, just as dead.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #immigration #trade #tariffs #business #climate
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/michigans-cherry-country-federal-safety-net-is-fraying-2025-08-16/

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

#Weather damaged much of the family orchard’s crop for the 3rd time in 5 years. The blow landed on a #farm & an industry already squeezed by the #Trump admin’s changes to #government #services, #immigration & #trade policies.

King Orchards’ harvest crew from Guatemala arrived in mid-July, short-handed & weeks late after delays in securing the H2A seasonal #farmworker #visas…. They paid more to ship fresh cherries by private carrier after #USPS reorganization left fresh fruit sitting too long.

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

A #USDA #grant request for #funding a cold-storage unit remained in limbo, as #Trump cut spending on #farm programs & #agricultural #research. And Jack King, Juliette’s brother & the farm’s agronomist, kept searching for #fertilizer cheap enough to haul & untouched by Trump’s #trade wars.

“It all slows us down,” King McAvoy, the farm’s business manager, said during a brief pause in July’s harried harvest.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

#Farmers in the hills near Grand Traverse Bay, where the fruit of their labor has filled pies & fed generations, said they are caught in the crosshairs of #Trump’s reshaping of #government, with sharp cuts & increasing delays hitting the $227 million US tart #cherry industry hard.

#economy #agriculture #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

From #weather, plant disease & pest woes, #USDA forecast #Michigan will lose 41% of its tart cherry crop this year,compared to 2024. NW MI, where the King farm is located, faces the steepest drop – about 70%, acc/to the #Cherry Industry Administrative Board.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilex

…#Trump’s sweeping tax-&-spending #law expanded safety nets for large commodity crop operations [#FactoryFarms], such as corn & soybeans, for feed & biofuels.

But #nutrition & #LocalFood programs #fruit & #vegetable growers depend on were slashed, & his #trade policies chilled demand from top export partners, according to government data & academic researchers.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Aug 17, 2025 at 2:53pmWeb
Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

The Kings & nearly a dozen other #farmers across party lines told Reuters they expected #tariffs to return if #Trump won, but they hoped for a more surgical approach.

About one-third of the Kings’ concentrate goes overseas, mostly to Taiwan & New Zealand. But #Michigan’s #weather related crop loss will play a bigger role in diminished tart #cherry exports than tariffs this year, the Kings & other growers said.

#economy #agriculture #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

…In 2024, the #US exported nearly $506 million in fresh cherries worldwide – up 10% in value & 3% in volume from the year before, US Census Bureau #trade data shows.

In the first half of this year, as #Trump’s #trade wars reignited, US fresh #fruit #exports fell 17% in volume & 15% in value. US shipments to #China never fully recovered after Trump’s 2018 trade war. Sales to #Canada also fell 18% by volume in the first 6 months.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

…Emily Miezio, whose #farm spans about 2,500 acres in Sutton Bay, #Michigan, leads the #Cherry Marketing Institute, the tart cherry industry trade group. For years, they’d tried to claw back into #China.

“That door’s pretty much slammed shut,” she said, since #Trump’s 2018 #trade wars. Now they’re courting #Mexico & #SouthKorea.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

On Traverse City’s northern edge, the Northwest #Michigan #Horticulture #Research Center is a 137-acre test #farm. Run by #MSU & funded by #USDA #grants & grower money, it’s where Dr. Nikki Rothwell has spent more than two decades helping orchards survive.

…#Farmers lean on her, especially now.

On a sticky summer morning, she walked the rows with interns & researchers, testing hardier trees & better fruit.

#economy #agriculture #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

When they fired up the tree shaker…a rust-colored cloud of brown rot spores rose in the heat & settled on their sleeves. Tree by tree, they logged bruised fruit & powdery mold.

“This kind of research doesn’t have #corporate backers,” Rothwell said. “It’s always been the #government & the growers.”

#economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

This month, Rothwell is submitting the last paperwork for a $100,000 #USDA #grant awarded under the #Biden admin for a disease study – money that’s part of a federal review of #climate-related #research. She’s not sure if the money will come through. Colleagues at other land-grant schools haven’t been paid, she said.

#Trump #economy #agriculture #farmers #FamilyFarms #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

Money isn’t the only thing held up. So are the people needed to bring in the crop.

…In #Oregon, grower Ian Chandler watched half a million pounds of #cherries rot on trees. He began harvesting w/ 47 workers on June 10. He needed 120. Fear that #ICE raids in #California would spread north kept people away, he said.

“We are bleeding from a thousand cuts. It’s an untenable position,”said Chandler, 47, an #Army vet w/ 2 sons in uniform.

#Trump #economy #agriculture #farmers #immigration #business

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

In #Michigan, the King Orchards crew was short 2 people, whose H2A #visa paperwork in Guatemala cleared too late, said Schiller, who runs the farm’s hand-pick harvest crew.

…Inside the barn, one of the farm’s long-time workers named Maria Pascual stood at the sorting line, head wrapped against the heat, hands moving with quiet precision.

She came to the US from Guatemala at 17 with her father.

#Trump #economy #agriculture #farmers #immigration #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

They picked peppers & cucumbers in Florida, then followed the harvest north. Pascual met her husband on the road. For a while, they lived the migrant rhythm – cherries in #Michigan, oranges in #Florida – until 1990, when they stayed for good.

“When you have kids…”she said & let the sentence hang.

She & her husband earned legal permanent residency under Reagan’s 1986 #immigration #law, which helped millions secure legal status.

#Trump #economy #agriculture #farmers #business

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

2 years ago, Maria became a US citizen.

“I just wanted to be a citizen,” she said. “I feel like… just normal.”

Now, #Trump's #immigration policies hang over her family like a brewing storm. One brother was picked up by #ICE this summer in Florida & deported. Others back home hope to come on H-2A #visas.

#economy #agriculture #farmers #business #climate

Show threadNonilexAug 17, 2025

There have been no major #ICE raids on #Michigan farms this year. But the fear lingers, sharpened this summer by the opening of the Midwest’s largest ICE #detention center – up to 1,810 beds set deep in the forest in Baldwin, Michigan, where birdsong drifts over the Concertina wire.

#Trump #economy #agriculture #farmers #immigration #business #climate

[note - there are beautiful photographs accompanying this article, click on link in first post of thread]

Show threadOregon Wine WomanAug 17, 2025
@Nonilex
Effing tRump tariffs will impoverish America.