Ag industry starts talks with Trump team

The U.S. agriculture industry has started talks with Donald Trump’s transition team in a bid to advocate for the food business as the president-elect pledges tariffs and mass deportations.

Groups including the National Grain and Feed Association, which represents agriculture powerhouses such as Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Cargill Inc., and the International Fresh Produce Association, were among those involved in the discussions, according to people familiar with the matter. The National Council of Agricultural Employers also has a meeting on the books.

The groups are prioritizing topics such as Trump’s promised tariffs, which could upend trade with key commodity buyers like China and Mexico, as well as immigration, with U.S. agriculture becoming more reliant on foreign labor.

Some industry advocates are lobbying for the expansion of a visa program for temporary workers, and others want China to stick to crop purchases pledged during the “Phase One” trade deal negotiated by Trump in his previous term, said the people who asked not to be named citing private talks.

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, like deporting migrant criminals and restoring our economic greatness. He will deliver,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team.

“In his first term, President Trump instituted tariffs against China that created jobs, spurred investment, and resulted in no inflation.”

If the president-elect follows through with his plan to send millions of undocumented workers out of the country, it would have repercussions across the farming world, exacerbating a decades-long labor-shortage problem.

Many migrants enter the United States through the federal H-2A visa program, which has allowed the numbers of documented temporary workers to surge in the past decade. Even then, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates nearly half of hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status.