Kaine meets with Black farmers to talk about tariffs and ways to push back at Trump agenda

Local Black farmers already beset by historic discrimination met with Virginia Senator Tim Kaine this week to discuss their concerns with Trump Administration tariffs and funding cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The gathering was organized by John Boyd Jr., a fourth generation farmer and founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association. The meeting at Boyd’s Baskerville farm marked one of 26 stops that Kaine made as he toured Virginia this week to hear from constituents.

Boyd founded the National Black Farmers Association in 1995 to educate and advocate on behalf of Black farmers across the United States in the areas of civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training, and rural economic development.

In introducing Kaine to the crowd assembled at his farm, Boyd said, “This is a crossroads in American history. We are going to have to have the involvement of farmers, the very people who were at the core of the election, and that includes Black farmers to have a voice in the coming months and years.”

While Boyd said he opposes Trump’s agenda, he acknowledged that the tariff issue “has lifted the visibility of the actual working farmer, good, bad or indifferent.”

Kaine said there are three main issues that farmers in Virginia and across the U.S. must contend with under the current administration – tariffs, tight labor markets, and funding support for Black, Native American and farmers of color.

“I am deeply worried about the economy now,” Kaine told the gathering after noting that agriculture and forestry comprise the largest industry in the Commonwealth.

Kaine spoke about the problems that tariffs create, especially for farmers. “Tariffs are a tax on consumers. When we put tariffs on Canada or Mexico, goods that come in from those countries are more expensive. That’s a tax on everyday people,” Kaine said. “But it doesn’t stop there, because there’s never been a one-sided trade war in human history. Once one party launches tariffs, there’s always retaliation.”

The three-term Democratic senator said retaliation by Canada, Mexico, Europe and China in response to tariffs imposed by President Trump in his first administration were aimed “heavily against agriculture” to strike at Trump’s coalition and prod him to modify his trade policies.

“That’s kind of the rule about a trade war. If the U.S. puts a tariff on someone else, they don’t necessarily put a tariff on the same product. So if we we’re putting tariffs on Canada and Europe for aluminum and steel, say for instance, they don’t retaliate against aluminum and steel. They decide, ‘Well you are trying to hurt us, so we’re going to hurt you.’ They put tariffs on things that they think will hurt.

“When they do that, they intend to go after ag and forestry or related products,” Kaine said, citing the example of tariffs on America whiskey — produced in the home state of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, former leader of Senate Republicans.

The second issue farmers are facing under the current administration is a tight labor market — made worse by Trump’s draconian immigration policies, said Kaine. “You are looking at mass deportations. That’s going to make the labor market even tighter and will likely hurt ag and forestry more than most.”

In his talks with farmers of all backgrounds, Kaine said most tell him they “would like to see something meaningful done around the immigration reform issue. At least around work visas to make it easier to hire.”

Kaine said a third major issue is unique to Black, Native American and farmers of color — lost access to resources that were put in place through the efforts of Boyd and National Black Farmers Association, and implemented during the Biden Administration to help farmers who have suffered from discrimination and remedy wrongs of the past.

These resources included specific set-aside programs for minority and disadvantaged farmers under the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March 2021. “There are still dollars to spend. But what the Trump Administration is doing, aided and abetted by DOGE [Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency] headed by Elon Musk, is freezing those funds and we do not know when they will be released,” said Kaine. “Or they are laying off staff at the Department of Agriculture and we don’t know how deep those cuts are going to go.”

Kaine said USDA staffers are essential to ensure the flow of funds and other support programs for all farmers, but especially those who have been subjected to documented, historic discrimination at the hands of USDA. Moreover, he said, the Trump White House and DOGE are upending several programs enacted by Congress that “put dollars directly toward helping [minority and disadvantaged farmers].”

“Layoffs in the Department of Agriculture will have a significant impact on whether those funds will become unfrozen and even if they are unfrozen, will the people be there to help the farmers access those funds?” he asked.

Programs that are ending or being delayed by DOGE include Virginia’s Farm Market Fresh program (also called Senior & WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program), which helps eligible seniors obtain fresh, locally grown fruit, vegetables and cut herbs, while supporting local farmers and farmers’ markets.

Kaine said it was established as a pilot program that was to be extended and expanded under the Farm Bill reauthorization which never took place in 2024. After the November 2024 election, Republicans refused to negotiate the Farm Bill, choosing to wait until after January 1 when the party controlled both the House and Senate, Kaine said.

“I don’t know what the Republicans think about that program,” Kaine said.

While it is harder to advance his agenda as a member of the Democratic minority in Congress, Kaine said there are steps he is taking to draw attention to the problems being created for the ag and forestry industry.

He is using a Senate rule to force members of Congress to vote on the record, whether to support certain tariffs that President Trump said will go into effect on April 2, using his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

“[President Trump] used that law to declare a state of emergency with Canada and it’s that state of emergency that justifies the tariffs. One Senator can challenge the state of emergency and be guaranteed a vote. So last week I filed a challenge to the President’s Canada tariffs,” Kaine explained, adding that the vote will take place on either March 26 or 27.

Kaine said he filed a similar challenge a month ago when Trump declared an energy emergency. “I challenged the president’s emergency [declaration]. We did have a vote on the Senate floor. I could not get a single Republican to break from the president and come my way on that.

“Farmers around the country are very nervous about this tariff situation. They are particularly puzzled about an emergency with Canada,” Kaine said. “So I decided I would challenge one that I know would make some Republicans sweat when it came up to a vote. They are going to have to decide whether they are pro-tariffs on Canada or not. They are all going to have to vote.”

Kaine suggested that tariffs are a subterfuge employed by Trump to help pay for an upcoming tax bill that will explode the national debt and primarily benefit the wealthy.

“When they did the Trump tax bill in [his first term], they did not pay for the tax cut and they ran up the deficit. The Republican majority in the two houses wants to do another tax bill, but they don’t want to run up the deficit. That means they’ve got to pay for the tax cut. The way they are planning to pay for it is that they are going to take all of this savings from freezing agricultural loan funds and laying off people and they are going to take all that savings and then they are going to take all the revenue that is raised from tariffs — revenue raised off everyday people paying higher prices for household supplies and groceries. They are going to put that together and use that as the pay for the tax cut.”

Kaine added, “the goal is to use the tariff revenue to help play for the tax cut. I am very much against that.”

Kaine fielded several questions from the audience, including from Boyd, who asked about talks to offer an expedited path to citizenship to white South African farmers and give them free land. Kaine said the idea was floated by Elon Musk, who was raised in South Africa. He called it a “hair-brained scheme that is getting zero traction in Congress.

“Democracy is at a bit of a crossroads moment,” Kaine told the assembled growers. “The decisions we make as we come up on that 2026 commemoration [the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States] will be the decisions that will help us determine whether we can really celebrate — or whether we are mourning something we’ve lost or transitioning, not from democracy but to what our founders were worried about, tyranny and despotism. I am that serious about the stakes at this moment in time.”