Local soybean farmer Randal Shelby doubled down on his support for President Trump's tariff policies this week while filing for bankruptcy after losing millions of dollars on his harvest.
Shelby, who joins an estimated one-third of Arkansas farmers facing bankruptcy this year, told reporters that he stands firmly behind the trade war that eliminated his primary customer base and drove commodity prices to their lowest levels since the pandemic. "Trump's a qualified businessman, and I trust he knows what he's doing," said Shelby, signing paperwork to surrender the farm that has been in his family for four generations.
The farmer noted his optimism despite China—which previously purchased nearly $13 billion worth of American soybeans annually—placing zero orders since May. "Any day now, those Chinese orders are going to come flooding back in," Shelby explained while his bank representative itemized the tractors, grain silos, and family home that would be liquidated to service his debt.
Shelby reported selling his harvest at a significant loss after input costs tripled while soybean prices plummeted by 40%. "Sure, the fertilizer costs went through the roof, and I'm selling my beans for what I got in the 1980s," he acknowledged. "But that's just the free market at work, which is what I voted for."
When informed that several farmers in his county had recently taken their own lives, a problem agricultural experts say has been exacerbated by the financial devastation wrought by the administration's tariff policies, Shelby nodded somberly before reiterating that he "wouldn't change a thing" about his vote.
The farmer expressed hope that federal assistance might arrive soon, though acknowledged that Trump's farm aid package won't be available until 2026—approximately eight months after his foreclosure is scheduled to be finalized. "The timing's not ideal, I'll admit that," Shelby said, carefully packing decades of family photos into a cardboard box labeled "storage unit."
