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After the flood comes the enormous pile of burning soybeans

Aug 22, 2019
Following severe flodding in the Midwest, a pile of 650,000 bushels of soybeans in rural Missouri spontaneously combusted and have been burning for a month.
This pile of soybeans, once 650,000 bushels, has been burning since mid-July.
(Peggy Lowe for Marketplace

Soybean commodity traders are skeptical of renewed U.S.-China trade negotiations

Jul 1, 2019
Al Kluis, managing director of Kluis Commodity Advisors, thinks traders won't see the soybean market turn until there are real orders and action taken.
Soybeans are loaded onto a truck to be taken to a grain elevator in Dwight, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Trade deficit widens in March

May 9, 2019
The overall deficit getting bigger isn't necessarily a bad thing, said Dan Ikenson, director of the Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.
Container ships are docked at the Port of Oakland on March 06, 2019 in California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Bad weather and trade complicate planting for Midwest farmers

Apr 22, 2019
Flood damage has made things extremely difficult.
Farmer Richard Oswald, standing on U.S. 136 near Rock Port, Missouri. In the background is a flooded grain elevator, where millions of bushels of corn and soybeans are rotting in the water.
Peggy Lowe/KCUR

Lots of soybeans with no place to go

Nov 6, 2018
A Chinese tariff on the U.S. crop has shut down a critical market.
Soybeans are loaded onto a truck before delivery to a grain elevator in June in Dwight, Illinois. 
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Here’s how deficit-inducing tax cuts lead to trade deficits

Sep 5, 2018
The U.S. trade deficit in July surged to a five-month high, $50.1 billion, as exports of products like soybeans and civilian aircraft fell, while imports reached record levels. President Donald Trump regularly complains about trade deficits, but his own spending policies tend to undermine the goal of lowering the trade gap. One part of the […]

Government aid is coming to U.S. farmers hit by tariff losses, but it probably won’t be enough

Aug 27, 2018
U.S. farmers who are caught up in the wider U.S., China and Mexico trade disputes are expected to get details today on a $12 billion aid package to help offset the effects of retaliatory tariffs. Farmers have been watching prices drop for milk, wheat, soybeans and more, and they don’t even know how to calculate […]
A farmer collects stray ears of corn while harvesting the crop in 2014 in Polk, Nebraska.
Andrew Burton/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Can the government offset the costs of its trade fight?

Jul 25, 2018
The Department of Agriculture announced a $12 billion aid package on Tuesday for farmers impacted by U.S. trade disputes. The money would go to pork, soybean and dairy farmers among others who have been slapped with retaliatory tariffs in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods. But how much can the government do […]
Hank Keizer selects cattle to bring into the milk barn on his farm June 29, 2005 near Delavan, Wisconsin. The $12 billion aid package would go to dairy, soybean and pork farmers.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Farmers plant soybeans amid uncertainty over tariffs

May 2, 2018
After President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods, the Chinese government threatened to target soybeans, an important American cash crop. As farmers got ready to plant their fields, they didn’t have much choice but to stick to planting soybeans and hope for the best. But there are other actions they could […]

Trump proposes $100 billion in new tariffs on Chinese goods

Apr 5, 2018
President Donald Trump has instructed the U.S. trade representative to consider slapping $100 billion in additional tariffs on Chinese goods. The move comes a day after China issued a $50 billion list of U.S. goods including soybeans and small aircraft for possible tariff hikes in an escalating and potentially damaging dispute. The White House said […]
Workers load imported soybeans from cargo ships at a port in Nantong in China's eastern Jiangsu province on April 4.
AFP/Getty Images