Farmers feel pinch, hope for fair trade agreement as China halts US agriculture purchases

LARGEST CUSTOMER.41 ACTION NEWSREPORTER MCKENZIENELSON SPOKE WITH ALOCAL FARMER ABOUT THEIMPACT THE MOVE WILLHAVE ON AN ALREADYTOUGH YEAR FOR CROPS.MCKENZIE NELSONYOU COULD CALL THIS SOYBEAN FIELD THEFRONTLINES TO A NEWWAR ON TRADE AFTERCHINA ANNOUNCED THEY'DNO LONGER BE BUYING AGPRODUCTS FROM THE U.S.MIKE MORELAND - FARMER"It's like working your 40 hoursand getting less money for noother reason than that's theprice."MIKE MORELAND IS A 3RDGENERATION FARMER --JUST OUTSIDE OFHARRISONVILLE.HE GROWS, SOY BEANS,CORN AND RAISES CATTLE.MORELAND"That's our total income, that'swhat we do."THIS WEEK - CHINA SAID ITWOULD STOP BUYING U.S.AGRICULTURALPRODUCTS.THE LOSS PILES ONTO ANALREADY TOUGH YEARMORELAND"Weather's the main thing, youknow, with so much rain earlyin the season, it was verytough to get all of our cornplanted and we did get all ofour corn planted but it wasabout a month late."CHINA MADE UP ALMOSTSIX BILLION DOLLARS INU.S. FARM PRODUCTEXPORTS LAST YEAR --IT'S THE WORLD'S TOPBUYER OF SOYBEANS ANDBOUGHT ROUGHLY 60PERCENT OF U.S.SOYBEAN EXPORTS LASTYEAR.SINCE THE TRADE WARSTARTED LAST YEAR --PRICES HAVE DROPPEDAND MORELAND IS SEEINGIT FIRST HAND.MORELAND"You can never guaranteewhat you're going to get fromyour crop because it's acommoditity, it's price goes upand down, it's traded everyday, but as a whole, yes, wegot less for our soy beans lastyear than we did the yearbefore."MORELAND SAYS HE'SFEELING THE PINCH -- BUTNOT AS MUCH AS OTHERFAMERS.MORELAND"We're pretty secure in ourfarm business, but there's alot of farmers out there thathad more debt and this hitthem hard."WITH 700 ACRES OF CORN-- AND 700 ACRES OF SOYBEANS --MORELAND SAYS HE'SSTAYING AFLOAT BYBUDGETING HIS SPENDING-- AND--HE'S HOPING THE U.S. ANDCHINA COME TO ANAGREEMENT.MORELAND"I really appreciate theobjective of getting fair trade,we want trade, we want totrade with other countries, weneed trade, and I think oncewe get this worked through,we'll get back to goodrelationships and we'll beselling a lot of products toChina and other countrieseven."IN HARRISONVILLE, I'MMCKENZIE NELSON, 41ACTION NEWS.WE ALSO SPOKE TO AFARMER ON THE KANSASSIDE WHO SAID HE'SFEELING THE IMPACT --BUT WOULD LIKE TO SEETHE TRUMPADMINISTRATIONCONTINUE TO PRESSCHINA TO GET A FAIRAGREEMENT IN PLACE.FOOD IS NOT THE ONLYPR