When a photographer recently captured U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reading a text message at the United Nations General Assembly, the image inadvertently revealed the scale of America’s deepening agricultural crisis.
“We bailed out Argentina yesterday,” read the message, apparently from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “In return, the Argentine’s (sic) are removing their export tariffs on grains, reducing their price and sold a bunch of soybeans to China, at a time when we would normally be selling to China.”
Within 48 hours of Argentina’s decision to eliminate export taxes on grain products, Chinese buyers had purchased roughly 1.3 million tons of Argentine soybeans — just as U.S. farmers began their harvest season with zero Chinese orders. The surge in Argentine exports drove soybean prices lower, giving China even greater leverage over the United States.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.