Donald Trump’s trade war is about to rumble through the dairy farms of Wisconsin and the cheeseheads are beginning to brace for, well … utter disaster. From the New York Times:
“If export markets get shut off, I could see us getting to the point where we’re dumping our milk in the fields,” said Jeff Schwager, the president of Sartori Company, which has produced cheese in a nearby town for generations with milk it purchases from more than 100 dairy farms throughout Wisconsin. “It’ll be a big ripple effect through the state.”
And who’s the No. 1 importer of Wisconsin cheese? The same country that is the No. 1 buyer of Iowa pork: Mexico. Donald Trump’s trade war is going to have a profound impact on American cheese, pork, and soybeans. Retaliatory tariffs from Mexico, Europe, and China will be hitting Trump country with precision. Nevertheless, despite it all, those farmers are still supporting Donald Trump.
But the president’s aggressive style has its supporters. A few miles out of town, past soybean fields and empty asphalt roads, Scott Ditter, a dairy farmer who sent milk from his cows to the Sartori factory that morning, defended the president’s actions. Mr. Trump was “really standing up for agriculture as a whole,” Mr. Ditter said.
How long will they stand by Trump if or when dairy farms begin to shudder? How much milk will be dumped before they dump Trump? Ditter told the New York Times that “Sometimes you have to suffer a little to get what you want.”
Jeff Schwager of the cheese-making Satori Company was not as sure.
“I’ll give the E.U. a lot of credit,” Mr. Schwager says. “They’re trying to win the trade war long term.” Meanwhile, he adds, “we’re having to play with one arm tied behind our back.”
Buckle up, Wisconsin.