By Braden Fogerson
The Documentation Project presented an informational meeting on the effects of Trump administration funding cuts Tuesday at Heartland Community College.
The event was sponsored by the McLean County League of Women Voters, a non-partisan political group. Michael Doherty, an independent consultant with the project, spoke about the impacts that Trump’s tariff policies are having on Central Illinois farmers, who he said have seen three consecutive years of negative returns on cash-rented acreage.
Doherty said it shows the return from harvesting farmland is not keeping up with the cost to rent land and purchase equipment.
The Documentation Project is a new citizens group working to document the totality of cuts to various funding sources for McLean County programs — and the impact on people served by those programs — during President Trump's second term.
In his presentation on Tuesday, Doherty also noted Trump’s policies are straining relations with China, the nation’s biggest market for soybeans, which also is hurting farmers. He said China has begun looking to Brazil and Argentina for soybeans in the aftermath of the 2018 trade war during Trump's first term.
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