578. John Boyd, Jr. on the Fight for the Future of American Agriculture

Thank you so much for having me.

It's wonderful to be a guest on your show.

Thank you.

I want to start, John, if it's okay with what's happening on your own farm.

You recently said it cost you nearly $1,000 to fill up your tractor with diesel.

What does that mean for the farm, especially during harvest time?

Well, in this harvest, I was filling up my combine, which cost about $1,000 to fill up.

It holds 140 gallons of diesel fuel and roughly seven bucks a gallon.

And farmers have to have somewhere to get the additional money from.

So I found myself... letting some other bills go right now.

And I made the choice to get my crop harvested, you know, out of the field, you know, while I can.

And those were very difficult decisions for farmers.

You know, health care had to go.

And as I was picking corn, I had $100,000 left.

fertilizer bill that they owe roughly 40 grand left on it.

And then these companies said that they're going to work with farmers.

So I think it's very important for people to hear this.

And instead of doing that, these companies, these huge fertilizer companies are taking farmers to court like they did me and others.

And it's horrible because the increase in fertilizer was up nearly 40% as well, $200 a metric ton.

And you just have to have somewhere to get this extra money from people.

It's not there.

Farmers are really working in the red if you look at what's going on out here in the country.

And it all stems from this president.

I don't care how you look at it.

People who support him, you're not going to like what I'm getting ready to say, but all this stuff happened from President Trump.