Devil's Cut | Just Ask A Farmer

Summary

Truth in the Barrel: Devil's Cut | Just Ask A Farmer
Podcast Episode Summary – November 4, 2025

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode of Truth in the Barrel, hosts Amy McGrath and Denver Riggleman (though Denver is absent for this conversation) sit down with Kentucky soybean farmer Jim Wade. Against the backdrop of ongoing U.S.–China trade tensions and the latest tariffs, the conversation delves into the realities faced by American farmers, the decline of small family farms, and the compounding effects of government policy, weather, and market upheaval. The discussion also touches on healthcare access, the impact of immigration on agriculture, and what lawmakers and citizens should understand about rural life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Crisis in Farming ([00:00])

• Amy opens by highlighting the severity of the trade war between the U.S. and China, noting the devastating impact on American soybean exports.
  • "America's soybean farmers are stuck in the middle of a trade war... China has not purchased a single dollar’s worth [of soybeans], cutting off the country that makes up about half of soybean exports." – Amy [00:16]

2. Jim Wade’s Perspective: Life on a Kentucky Farm

• Jim's farm evolved from tobacco to soybeans, corn, and wheat ([00:59])
  • Managed by Jim and his sister, plus four employees, covering 800 acres.
  • This year highlighted as particularly tough: "I raised more corn because I was going to lose less money on corn this year than I was on soybeans." – Jim [02:06]

3. Impact of Tariffs ([02:32]–[06:32])

• Immediate reaction to tariffs: "That it was bad, because it was bad before." – Jim [02:38]
• Tariffs don't just impact sales; they raise input costs for farm essentials: "All the things that I had to have... got much more expensive. And it's still doing that." – Jim [03:04]
• The 2025 season marks a historic low: zero sales to China ([03:47])
  • "China cut back and we lost a lot of the market, but we still kept some of it... and this year, like you said earlier, it’s zero." – Jim [03:55]
• Fear of market loss: once lost to Brazil or elsewhere, regaining Chinese buyers is difficult ([05:10])
  • "There's national soybean board that put a lot of effort into that in order to build a market up for us, and now it's gone." – Jim [05:30]

4. Farmer Solidarity and Lawmakers ([05:45])

• General consensus among local farmers: tariffs are destabilizing and threaten the survival of family farms.
  • "Basically, that the tariffs are bad and it's... spoiling the market and putting our farms, all our farms in jeopardy." – Jim [05:53]
• Desire for smarter, more stable policy: "Tariffs have to be done sometimes... but they're not being done correctly now." – Jim [06:12]
  • Chaotic policymaking is frustrating and unpredictable ([06:32]–[07:04])

5. Personal Connection to the Land ([07:08])

• The Wade family has farmed the land for over 260 years; Jim’s attachment is deep and generational.
  • "My sister and I are the ones who are still here and participating in the farming... It’s something I wanted to come back to and do." – Jim [07:16]

6. Decline of Small Family Farms ([07:45])

• Increasing operational scale is necessary for survival; 40-acre farms are nearly extinct.
  • "There are not really any more 40 acre farms that I know of... I outgrew fairly quickly the family farm and I'm renting acreage elsewhere." – Jim [08:39]

7. The Question of Bailouts and Survival ([09:07])

• Discussion on government support and bailouts for farmers hurt by tariffs.
  • "Government has been contributing to farmers as long as I’ve been farming... It’s better that farmers don’t go all go out of business." – Jim [09:56]
• Farm Service Agency offices closed due to the government shutdown; farmers lack places for recourse ([10:25])

8. Health Care and Rural Policy ([10:31])

• Ending of ACA subsidies and Kentucky’s 'Connect' jeopardizes employees’ access to healthcare.
  • "They have taken advantage of those... and if the prices go up the way they're talking about, they're all going to lose their insurance." – Jim [11:18]

9. Rising Costs of Equipment Due to Tariffs ([12:25])

• Tariffs affect the cost of raw materials and replacement parts, even for in-house repairs.
  • "A lot of the basic hardware, the nuts, the bolts, the raw steel... comes from overseas." – Jim [12:25]

10. Message for Lawmakers and the President ([13:09])

• Policies have caused near-total loss of the soybean market with doubt about rebuilding.
  • "It's not all going to come back, even if they come to an agreement... And whether or not it can be rebuilt, it won’t come back the way it was." – Jim [13:23]
• Frustration: farmers aren’t seeing any gain and policy goals are unclear ([13:39]–[14:22])
  • "I'm not getting anything out of it." – Jim [13:45]

11. Economic Ripple Effect and Kentucky’s Trade Dependence ([15:43])

• Kentucky is uniquely susceptible to trade disruptions due to agriculture, aerospace, auto, and bourbon industries.
  • "In Kentucky, we have the second highest per capita dependency on international trade in the country." – Amy [15:43]

12. Immigration and Labor ([16:31])

• Former reliance on immigrant labor for tobacco; current awareness of its importance in other local sectors.
  • "When I was tobacco farmer, we had a very high dependence on labor from immigrants... They did a good job and are being treated poorly now." – Jim [16:35]/[17:39]

13. Barriers for the Next Generation ([18:03])

• Young people struggle to enter farming without family background or inherited land.
  • "That's true. It's hard to start out. I know people who do know people who have." – Jim [18:36]

14. Health Care as a Barrier ([18:43])

• Healthcare access tied to farm viability; losing ACA subsidies means many will go uninsured ([19:05])
  • "If people can't make it this year, they're going to go out of business and then there’ll be a whole lot of farms, a whole lot of equipment that winds up being sold... and land that will either fall idle or be available for somebody else to pick up." – Jim [19:05]

15. The Beef Market and Policy ([19:44])

• On the President’s push to import Argentinian beef:
  • "Bad idea. I used to be in the beef farming business... it ought to be a market issue and not something that our government is trying to push us into." – Jim [19:44]

16. Evaluating the Current Administration ([20:24])

• Amy asks if there’s anything Republicans are doing well; Jim’s response is blunt:
  • "Not that I can see." – Jim [20:35]
  • Promises of aid and compensation unfulfilled: "They’ve promised me some payments, but I haven’t seen them." – Jim [20:45]
• Closing note: Jim supports Amy’s advocacy ([20:53])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "It’s chaotic. And the tariffs coming out of my pocket." – Jim Wade [06:35]
• "I'm not getting anything out of it." – Jim Wade, on the rationale for tariffs [13:45]
• "It’s bad. It’s not going to get better for a long time, and it'll take a significant effort to get us back to where we were." – Jim Wade [14:32]
• "If people can't make it this year, they're going to go out of business and then there’ll be a whole lot of farms, a whole lot of equipment that winds up being sold... and land that will either fall idle or be available for somebody else to pick up." – Jim Wade [19:05]
• "That's why I'm in your court." – Jim Wade, to Amy McGrath [20:53]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [00:00] – Amy sets up the soybean crisis & introduces Jim Wade
• [02:02] – Jim discusses the shift in crop choice due to the financial impact of tariffs
• [03:47] – Discussion of the scale of lost soybean exports
• [05:10] – The challenge of regaining international markets
• [07:16] – Personal and historical ties to the land
• [09:56] – Reflection on bailouts and government support
• [11:18] – Healthcare realities in rural America
• [12:25] – Tariffs and the cost of farm equipment
• [13:09] – Jim’s message for policymakers
• [16:35] – The essential role of immigrant labor
• [18:36] – Challenges facing new farmers
• [19:44] – Presidential policy on beef imports
• [20:35] – Jim's candid take on current administration and promised aid

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Tone & Language

The conversation remains grounded, honest, and direct. Amy displays concern and deep understanding of rural economics, while Jim is candid, practical, and stoic about the challenges, lacing observations with personal and community history. The atmosphere is one of shared frustration, hope for change, and mutual respect. The language is straightforward, rural, and unvarnished, capturing the hardship and pride of family farming.

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For listeners seeking a firsthand, unfiltered account of how national policy decisions impact everyday farmers and rural communities, this episode offers essential insight direct from the barn floor.

Transcript

[A]

The fate of soybeans and the people whose livelihoods depend on selling them is up in the air. Right now, America's soybean farmers are stuck in the middle of a trade war between the United States and China, the biggest purchaser of soybean exports. No other country comes close to purchasing as many American soybeans as China. Last year, it was worth more than $12 billion. This year, China has not purchased a single dollar's worth, cutting off the country that makes up about half of soybean exports. And few people understand this like the farmers here in Kentucky. And today we're taking a deep dive on this topic with Jim Wade, a local soybean farmer and a fabulous Kentuckian. So we're here with Jim Wade. Welcome to Truth in the Barrel. Devil's Cut. Let's get started. Can you tell us where we're sitting?

[B]

We are sitting in the middle of my farm shop, which originally was the built to be the stripping room when I was a tobacco farmer, which I no longer am a tobacco farmer. Another story. But all the repairs and construction that I do on equipment, machinery is done in here.

[A]

And tell us, for people listening, what is life like farming these days?

[B]

This year it's very difficult. It's nerve wracking. Don't know what to do half the.

[A]

Time because what does a normal season look like?

[B]

Normally I would be looking at planting soybeans in the spring, March, April, May. And between the soybeans and the corn and wheat.

[A]

And what's happened this year that makes it a little bit more challenging?

[B]

Challenge this year was it looked like we weren't going to make any money at all, that we'd lose money big time. And in fact, I raised more corn because I was going to lose less money on corn this year than I was on soybeans. So that's the way this year went.

[A]

And how big is your operation? How many people do you employ here?

[B]

I have four employees and currently I'm raising about 800 acres of crops, corn, soybeans and wheat.

[A]

When you first heard about the tariffs, Jim, what was your first reaction?

[B]

That it was bad because it was bad before.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Tariffs were bad. And 20, 16, 17, 18 and 19 and doubly bad because it, it affected what our prices were when we sell. And at the same time, when I go buy parts, when I go buy nuts and bolts and that kind of thing, a lot of that comes from China.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that got much more expensive. And it's still doing that. It's still getting more expensive to Buy all the things that I had to have the stuff you see sitting around here. And again, it's tough to sell the soybeans. It's particularly bad this year because locally we've had bad weather conditions and our crop yields were low.

[A]

So you have to deal with, as a farmer, you have to deal with changes in the weather and the climate and the sort of uncertainty there. And then you add in these tariffs. I just feel like compared to what happened during the first Trump administration, this is actually worse.

[B]

Would you agree with that? Why it is worse? During the first time through, China cut back and we lost a lot of the market, but we still kept some of it and were able to continue. And this year, like you said earlier, it's zero. They're not buying anything.

[A]

Even if some deal is made at this point, can you recover anything? I mean, where are we now?

[B]

I could possibly do it if it's done quickly, because I'm holding mine. I typically hold my beans. I have storage bins, and that lets me get the beans harvested and put away when they're ready, and then I can sell them when I'm ready. And I usually do that January, February and March. And if they get something done quickly, then I can see a better price. The people who don't have grain bins and who are harvesting right now, out of the field, because that's what we have to do to get it out of the field or it'll spoil. They're having to sell it today at a lower price and they can't recover. And once that's gone, it's gone.

[A]

Right. And I worry also about the foreign market, because once that market is gone, it's very hard to get back. At least that's what I hear from people. And once China starts buying from Brazil or some South American country, it's hard for the them to come back. Do you agree with that?

[B]

That's the way it's been.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We worked hard to develop that market. There's national soybean board that put a lot of effort into that in order to build a market up for us, and now it's gone.

[A]

What do your fellow farmers, who you talk to here, think about all of this?

[B]

Basically, that the tariffs are bad and it's. It's spoiling the market and putting our farms, all our farms in jeopardy.

[A]

What would you want lawmakers to know is, you know, would you want them to do something about this?

[B]

I would. Would like to see. We. I know tariffs have to be done sometimes. It's been that way for long as we've probably recorded that type of thing and there's place for them, but they're not being done correctly now.

[A]

Yeah, it appears to be very chaotic.

[B]

It's chaotic. And the tariffs coming out of my pocket.

[A]

Yeah. Out of your pocket? Out of my pocket also. They seems to be based on the whim of one guy. So one guy, the President sees a video that he doesn't like out of Canada and he jacks up the tariffs on Canada and the next day he doesn't like, I don't know, Mexico. So he does something there and then, you know, it just seems very chaotic with there's no plan behind it.

[B]

That's good observation.

[A]

Yeah. Outside of policy though, what. What do you love most about farming?

[B]

It's something I've been. I'm born and raised here. This farm has been in the family for 260 some years and so I keep farming it. My sister and I are the ones who are still here and participating in the farming and others are off other places doing their own thing. But it's something I wanted to come back to and do.

[A]

You know, I've read a lot in the past few years about the small family farm and there's a lot of. Seems to be a lot of concern here in the United States and in Kentucky that we're losing a lot of small family farms. Can you talk about that?

[B]

We are. Back when I was a kid and before it was possible for a family to do a 40 acre farm and make a living, and that's back when tobacco was primary crop in this area and a family of four could raise five acres of tobacco and make a living at it and as well as grow some other crops and raise vegetables and pigs or cows or whatever.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

There are not really any more 40 acre farms that I know of and I outgrew fairly quickly the family farm and I'm renting acreage elsewhere. Have been renting acreage elsewhere for quite a few years in order to have an operation that was profitable.

[A]

Right. And you talked about some of the challenges with everything that you do. I want to go back a little bit to the tariffs because to me it seems like we're shooting ourselves in the foot here with some of these policies. And there's been talk, and I know this was talk during the last administration. It was actually action during the last administration to bail out farmers that had been hurt by the tariffs and there's talk of that happening again. And I want to get your take as a farmer, what do you think about that, you know, us Taxpayers having to bail out farmers because of these tariffs that were unilaterally instituted.

[B]

Government has been contributing to farmers as long as I've been farming, some years more than others. There's always an effort to help us through bad weather conditions, which we routinely have. And it's better that farmers don't go all go out of business and then. Then you wouldn't have any at all.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But at the moment, we don't even have anybody to go talk to.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The office is closed.

[A]

Let's talk about that a little bit. This government shutdown that's happening right now, one of the real reasons for that is health care. And, you know, this past summer, the administration, along with the folks in power in our government, passed a bill that basically ended the subsidies for the Affordable Care act in Kentucky that's called Connect. And there are many people in Congress and Democrats who have said that's really going to hurt people and we need to take a stand. And so I wanted to sort of get your take because you have folks that work for you who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act.

[B]

That's true. My wife and I don't because we're old enough to be on Medicare, but with the employees have been on. We've made an effort to get them onto the Affordable Care act policies that they could get, and they have taken advantage of those and, and to stay healthy. If the prices go up the way they're talking about, they're all going to lose their insurance. Yeah. And then they won't be able to do anything but go to the emergency room.

[A]

That's right. That's. That'll be devastating for, for people. You know, also something that we don't talk about enough with regards to these, what I think are just insanely stupid across the board tariffs right now is that we pay the price. But you also pay the price as a farmer in the equipment that we see around us in your shop here, because everything is made, a lot of things are made overseas. Right.

[B]

A lot of the basic hardware, the nuts, the bolts, the raw steel, the raw aluminum. I'm able to do a lot of the work on the equipment myself, including building it. So if you look around, you see pieces of equipment that have been constructed and sitting out back or equipment being repaired and I've got to buy parts.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And a lot of those, the nuts and bolts, basic hardware, the, the steel comes from overseas. Even if I were buying brand new equipment, that steel that is used in those in the hardware is also bought overseas.

[A]

What is your message? If you were to sit here with the President sitting next to you, what would your message to him be? Given the amount of sort of uncertainty and upheaval that you have experienced because.

[B]

Of these policies, it's not all going to come back, even if they come to an agreement. We had a good market, and now it's pretty much destroyed. And whether or not it can be rebuilt, it won't come back the way it was.

[A]

And my concern, Jim, was like, why? Why are we doing this? What are we getting out of it?

[B]

I'm not getting anything out of it.

[A]

Right, you're not. I mean, we know the Chinese have. Have done things that we don't like. They've taken a lot of intellectual property, they're doing things that we don't like, but they have not changed their behavior in any of those areas. And so if we come with a deal, a trade deal with them, now we're back to square one that we were at a year ago. But nothing has changed. And all we've done is just hurt our farmers, hurt our bourbon industry, hurt our auto industry, and hurt ourselves in the checkout line at Kroger.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Is there anything else that you think the American people or your fellow Kentuckians ought to know about what's happening right now?

[B]

It's bad. It's not going to get better for a long time, and it'll take a significant effort to get us back to where we were.

[A]

Yeah. And again, it didn't have to be this way.

[B]

No, it did not.

[A]

I look at some of these policies, and I really don't. I don't understand. And I think a lot of Americans don't really fully understand what it's all about. And I talk to voters all the time. I talk to my fellow Kentuckians. You know what I hear, Jim? I hear. Well, I think the President knows what he's doing. I don't really know what a tariff is, but I think he knows what he's doing. And I wanted to do an interview you, Jim, because I want to let people know that these policies hurt people and they hurt businesses and they hurt our farmers. And hear it straight from you is really important.

[B]

Well, I used to be other things other than a farmer, and a lot of that involved world trade and. And selling products overseas and the efforts we made to do that. Tariffs haven't helped any of that.

[A]

They haven't helped it. You know, in Kentucky, we have the second highest per capita dependency on international trade in the country. We are twice as dependent here In Kentucky as New York or California or Texas. And it's because we have industries that we built here. It's because we have a strong agriculture, you know, farming soybeans, for example. But it's also because of our aerospace industry. It's also because of our. Our car industry here. Bourbon industry. Yes. And so, you know, bourbon is the.

[B]

Biggest industry in Kentucky right now.

[A]

Yeah. Well, when you. You slap on tariffs on our Canada and Mexico, which are our largest trading partners for no reason, then all the.

[B]

Trucks turned around and came back home with suburban in them.

[A]

Yes. You mentioned immigration. Tell me what your thoughts are.

[B]

When I was tobacco farmer, we had a very high dependence on labor from immigrants, Mexicans. I could hire a Mexican crew to cut tobacco and put it in the barn and get it done on a timely basis. And I'm no longer a tobacco farmer, so I don't have that problem. I don't have any immigrant labor here on the farm. But it's very common on the horse farms in the area. And those are some of the people you need to be talking to about the labor situation that they have. Yeah, we're all immigrants.

[A]

Yeah. I had a. I did a conference today, this afternoon, in which one of the other candidates. I'm running for U.S. senate here in Kentucky, as you know, and one of the other candidates made the statement that we're being invaded by immigrants that are all out to. To harm us and we need to get rid of them all.

[B]

No, they're not. Like, like I say, when we were doing tobacco, we had a lot of immigrants around and they did a good job and are being treated poorly now.

[A]

Yeah. And they're just trying to make a living.

[B]

They're trying to make a living, trying to do better than what they were.

[A]

The horse industry, of course, in Kentucky.

[B]

Is heavily, very definitely.

[A]

Yeah. My husband's family is in the agriculture equipment business, and so I've gotten to know a little bit about agriculture through them. And one of the things that they talk about is how hard it is to get into farming. If you're a young person, you have to almost have it, be in your family and you inherit it, or else you just can't break into that. What do you think on that?

[B]

That's true. It's hard to start out. I know people who do know people who have.

[A]

It is hard. And the healthcare piece, what we talked about earlier, is a big part of that, because if you're a small farmer, you're on your own when it comes to health care and the Affordable Care act. Allows you to buy health care and connect is Kentucky's equivalent in that individual marketplace in a way that's affordable. So if those subsidies go away, then.

[B]

The healthcare is going to go away and that's going to be a big problem. Yeah, but if people can't make it this year, they're going to go out of business and then there'll be a whole lot of farms, a whole lot of equipment that wounds up being sold and going up for auction and land that will either fall idle or be available for somebody else to pick up.

[A]

I know you're not a beef farmer, but I'm going to ask you a little bit about the president's idea to buy beef from. From Argentina because he likes Argentina so much.

[B]

Bad idea. I used to be in the beef farming business and got out of it. I know a number of other people who are into beef right now, but there are other things as well. So they're not. They're not solely into to cattle, but it ought to be a market issue and not something that our government is trying to push us into.

[A]

I hear you.

[B]

And the beef farmers this year are getting their reward for sticking with it for as long as they have. And now it's being taken away.

[A]

Yeah. What are your thoughts? And this doesn't have to make the cut at all, but is there anything that the president and Republicans are doing well right now?

[B]

Not that I can see.

[A]

I try to find something and it's really hard. It's really hard. I feel like the hurricane.

[B]

They've promised me some payments, but I haven't seen them.

[A]

Yeah, well, we need better leaders and we're going to keep working on that.

[B]

That's why I'm in your court.

[A]

Awesome. Thanks, Jim.

[C]

Hey, this is Sarah. Look, I'm standing out front of a.m. p.m. Right now and, well, you're sweet and all, but I found something more fulfilling, Even kind of cheesy. But I like it. Sure, you met some of my dietary needs, but they've just got it all. So farewell. Oatmeal. So long, you strange soggy.

[D]

Break up with bland breakfast and taste AM PM's Baker. Bacon, egg and cheese biscuit made with K tree egg, smoked bacon and melty cheese on a buttery biscuit. AM PM Too much. Good stuff.