Trump and Clinton’s stances on trade concern Iowa’s ag secretary

Aug 08, 2016

Bill Northey addressed his concerns at a recent convention

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have publically opposed some trade deals, and that concerns Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

“Trade is hugely important,” Northey said at a recent National Association of County Office Employees’ convention, according to the Sioux City Journal. “We ship almost 40 percent of our soybeans overseas and 70 percent of our exports go to China.”

When it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, both candidates said they’re not in favor of the deal.

“I’m going to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has not yet been ratified,” Trump said at a June campaign stop in Ohio, before adding that the deal is being pushed by special interests.

Hillary Clinton’s stance on TPP appears to have changed during the presidential campaign.

According to CNN, Clinton showed support for TPP on 45 different occasions, but now opposes the deal.

“I did hope that the TPP, negotiated by this administration, I was holding out hope that it would be the kind of trade agreement that I was looking for. Once I saw the outcome, I opposed it,” Clinton said in a February 2016 debate in New Hampshire.

The uncertainty of TPP and other trade deals has Northey worried about the impact on farmers and the rest of the U.S.

“It’s not only important for the ag community, but for the country,” Northey told the Sioux City Journal. “It would seem like it would make sense for us to be very careful about things that could damage (trade) and try to be aggressive in those things that could improve that.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.