Duckworth Discusses Impact of Trump’s Tariffs on Agriculture with Southern Illinois Farmers

Duckworth Discusses Impact of Trump's Tariffs on Agriculture with Southern Illinois Farmers

[DU QUOIN, IL] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today met with Southern Illinois farmers and agriculture leaders to discuss how Trump's erratic trade wars have affected their livelihood and the agriculture industry across the region as well as her efforts to push back on Trump's lawlessness at the federal level while supporting our state's agriculture industry and our farmers. Photos from the roundtable can be found on the Senator's website.

"America has always depended on our nation's farmers to grow the food and fuel we need, and I'm proud to advocate for them on both the national and international stage," Duckworth said. "The work of Illinois's farmers and agriculture industry is so important to the strength of our state and our nation, yet these farmers are taking hit after hit under this administration. I will continue to do everything I can to support our farmers and agricultural producers across the state at the federal level."

Illinois' agriculture industry exports $13.7 billion in goods annually and is already feeling the damaging effects of the Trump Administration's tariffs-from falling commodity prices to import plans that put the future of Illinois farms at risk. As the nation's top soybean producer, Illinois is seeing farmers face losses of $100-$200 per acre as prices fall below break-even levels. Additionally, the Trump Administration's proposal to import tariff-free beef from Argentina threatens 10,713 beef farms across our state and approximately 333,000 head of cattle by lowering prices and jeopardizing the stability of Illinois beef producers.

Duckworth met with Josh Maschhoff, President of IL Pork Association; Josh St. Peters, President of IL Beef Association; Gerald Kuberski, President of Washington County Farm Bureau; Patrick Scates, President of the Scates Group Intermodal River Terminal, LLC; Joe Heard, Location Manager of Southern FS in Macedonia; Donnie Sneed of Sneed Farms; Ed Wielbacher and Brent Donovan of Kaskaskia Regional Port District; Dr. Karla Gage, Professor of College of Agricultural, Life and Physical Sciences at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Dale Haudrich of the Illinois Corn Association.

In the Senate, Duckworth has been a leader in supporting biofuels. As a founding co-chair of the Senate Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Caucus, she has been a strong advocate for expansion of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by utilizing the biofuels and agricultural sectors. To help increase the availability of E15 biofuels, Duckworth helped introduce the bipartisan Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2025 and the bipartisan Next Generations Fuel Act to allow the year-round, nationwide sale of ethanol blends higher than 10 percent. Duckworth additionally helped introduce the bipartisan Home Front Energy Independence Act to ban Russian oil and expand use and production of biofuel that's grown in the American heartland, while providing American families with a less expensive option to fuel their vehicles. Earlier this year she helped introduced the Farm to Fly Act to help accelerate the production and development of SAF.

As a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Duckworth has been an advocate for Illinois pork, biofuels and agriculture industries across the globe and helped secure significant wins for Illinois and American agriculture. After Duckworth's visit in 2023, Japan announced a regulatory change that will lead to an increase in imports from U.S. biofuel producers, supporting our farmers and growing Illinois's economy, and following a prior trip to Taiwan in 2022, she helped secure a commitment from Taiwan to purchase an estimated $2.6 billion of our Illinois's corn and soybeans.

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