(Radio Iowa) – American Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall is warning there may be collateral damage in rural America if President-elect Trump follows through on mass deportations and increases tariffs. Duvall is in Des Moines for the Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual meeting. “We really need this new administration focused on trade,” Duvall says. “I know that the new administration’s talking about tariffs. We don’t support tariffs. We know that when tariffs are put on that other countries take it out on agriculture and we’re real fearful of what might happen in that area.”

The first Trump Administration paid American farmers 28 BILLION dollars in so-called trade disruption payments to compensate for China’s retaliation to Trump’s tariffs. Duvall says expanding ag exports would help farmers get past the financial strain of inflation. Duvall, who spoke to reporters in Des Moines for nearly half an hour, says the Farm Bureau is very interested in learning the details of Trump’s plan to deport people who entered the country illegally.

“A lot of workers across this country are undocumented that’s working on farms, because there’s no other people who want to do that work,” Duvall says, “and so we’ll be working with the administration to try to make sure that we don’t harm the food system in our country and harm our rural communities and our farmers and ranchers as we move forward.”

A recent U-S Labor Department survey found about 44 percent of American farm workers are undocumented immigrants. Duvall says no one wants criminals from other countries here, harming U-S citizens, but he says the Farm Bureau will argue against deporting migrants who are critical to the ag economy. “What we’re planning on doing is making sure that we take that seat with the president and making sure he understands how valuable this workforce is to our farmers and ranchers,” Duvall says, “and make sure that we try to minimize the collateral damage that might go on in that area.”

American Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall spoke to reporters at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual convention on Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Brent Barnett/Brownfield)

Duvall says there may be an opportunity reduce regulations on farmers once Trump takes office and the Farm Bureau is lobbying for the total elimination of the federal inheritance tax. Duvall says he’s extremely disappointed a new Farm Bill has stalled, again, in congress. “We right now are focused on not just pushing for a modernized Farm Bill, but pushing for disaster and economic payments,” Duvall says, “to try to bind our farmers over until we can get a new Farm Bill passed.”

Duvall is a farmer from northern Georgia. On Monday, he drove through areas of his state that were hit by Hurricane Helene in late September. “It looks like a bomb went off for 100 miles,” Duvall says. “I mean it’s really, really bad and the crops that were destroyed, the barns that were destroyed, homes and lives that were lost — it really was difficult to look at when you ride up through there.”

Duvall says just about every part of the country has seen some form of natural disaster this year and congress needs to provide disaster assistance to farmers A-S-A-P. Duvall has been the American Farm Bureau’s president since 2016. He’s the keynote speaker at this week’s Iowa Farm Bureau convention.