Food and farm issues have emerged as central to party platforms in the 2024 election, and a tight race has candidates more focused on agriculture policies in order to gain ground in swing states and beyond.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have engaged more publicly with farm policy, with both choosing vice presidential candidates who could strengthen their appeal in farm and rural communities.
Despite representing the U.S.’ largest agricultural state as California attorney general, Harris’ record on farm issues is scant, and she hasn’t weighed in on state policies such as Prop. 12, which was passed by voters shortly after she left state office.
Trump, meanwhile, has a long and far more controversial agriculture record. As president, he kicked off a costly global trade war, rolled back environmental policies and cracked down on illegal immigration, including in the poultry sector. A second Trump term would build on those efforts with the former president campaigning on expanded tariffs and broad deregulation.
Using party platforms, questionnaires and more, Agriculture Dive took a deep look at where the two candidates stand on some of the most significant concerns in agriculture.
Food price inflation
HARRIS
Addressing higher food prices is central to Harris’ economic plan, with a ban on price-gouging in the meat industry emerging as one of her first major public policy proposals since becoming the Democratic candidate.
Harris vows to pass the first federal ban on price gouging, and has made statements explicitly targeting the grocery, meat and poultry industries. She is also looking to address higher consumer prices by expanding competition throughout the food system, telling the Farm Bureau in a presidential questionnaire that she will “crack down on unfair mergers and acquisitions involving big food corporations to help create a level playing field.”
TRUMP
Trump has made a number of promises to cut farm production costs, though he and his team haven’t provided many details. The former president told the Farm Bureau he will “bring down interest rates” and slash farm energy costs by half within the first year of his term.
Trump also said he would reverse “every single Biden-Harris burdensome and costly regulation that is contributing to the increased cost of supplies,” without providing specifics.
Input costs are mostly down from their peak following a pandemic-induced price surge, but still remain historically high. Lowering producer costs in theory could allow some savings to trickle down to grocery store shoppers, though farm prices make up a small fraction of consumer food costs.
Farm labor and immigration
HARRIS
Applications for H-2A visas have soared throughout Biden and Harris’ term as a pressing labor shortage continues to push farms to recruit workers outside the United States. Large farm groups have pushed back against Biden-Harris administration efforts to strengthen farmworker rights and expand workplace protections including heat safety.
In her response to the Farm Bureau, Harris said her administration would focus on “improving our legal immigration system to function better for our economy, farmers, and workers.” The vice president added that any solution should include “both strong border security and an earned path to citizenship.”
TRUMP
While Trump was president, he oversaw a significant increase in worksite raids to detain and deport workers. In one of the largest raids of the last decade, immigration agents arrested more than 650 people at seven Mississippi poultry plants.
In the 2024 campaign cycle, Trump has ramped up rhetoric on border control, threatening “mass deportations” of millions of immigrants, including those who have legally come into the country under two Biden administration programs.
Trump did not mention the H-2A visa program in his response to the Farm Bureau, saying he would prioritize “merit-based immigration” and expanded support in the domestic agriculture industry.
Climate-smart agriculture
HARRIS
The Biden-Harris administration expanded opportunities for farmers to transition to more sustainable practices, earmarking an additional $20 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act for climate-smart agriculture.
The Democratic platform released in August included a pledge to make the U.S.’ farm sector the world’s first to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 through accelerated adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices.
TRUMP
During his time in office, Trump rolled back more than 100 rules aimed at environmental protection, some of which were then reversed under Biden.
In his next term, Trump vows to roll back climate policies made during the Biden administration, which he claims have contributed to higher energy costs. Trump told the Farm Bureau that climate action should occur in the free market, saying “innovation and economic growth will allow us to unleash the technologies and processes that make the environment better while reshoring production away from foreign polluters.”
Farm bill
HARRIS
Harris has not publicly taken a stance on the farm bill, though her campaign said in response to the Farm Bureau that farm safety net programs like crop insurance are essential to “protect farmers from unforeseen changes in circumstances.”
Harris’ vice presidential pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz served six terms on the House Agriculture Committee as congressman and helped write three farm bills. Walz, and his experience in Congress representing a rural district, should be “especially encouraging to agricultural stakeholders,” former Environmental Protection Agency senior agriculture advisor Rod Snyder said during a Farm Foundation presidential debate on farm policy.
Democrats oppose House Republicans’ farm bill plan, arguing it would reverse changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding formula that boosted assistance levels for participants in 2021.
TRUMP
The Trump campaign told the Farm Bureau it supports improvements to reference prices, crop insurance and dairy margin coverage. The former president also supports more specialty crop insurance plus investments in science and technology to “stay ahead of China.”
While Trump hasn’t explicitly supported either version of the farm bill, House Republicans have pushed for a package that looks to solve budgetary constraints by cutting $30 billion from SNAP and removing funding protections for climate-smart agriculture, while also increasing farm subsidies.
Trade and relations with China
HARRIS
The Biden-Harris administration largely kept Trump’s 301 tariffs on China intact, and recently took steps to ratchet up duties on Chinese goods in a bid to protect U.S. manufacturing.
“As President, she will not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American farmers and ranchers,” her campaign wrote to the Farm Bureau.
As trade tensions push China to shun U.S. commodities, the Biden-Harris administration has encouraged producers to diversify their export markets to places like Europe and Africa. While targeted agreements have lifted barriers for certain crops, farm groups have pushed for more trade pacts to offset losses from China.
TRUMP
As president, Trump kicked off a trade war with China that sent farm exports plummeting and oversaw billions of dollars in controversial bailout payments meant to offset those losses.
Trump promises to be even tougher on China in his next term, floating tariffs of more than 60% on imports. He’s also looking to implement 10% across-the-board tariffs on all U.S. imports, threatening to erode relations with traditional partners and restart a potentially widespread trade war.
Higher tariffs could erode market opportunities for farmers as they continue to compete with lower-priced commodities from other countries. To address the potential loss in exports, Trump said during a campaign stop at a Pennsylvania farm that he would enforce a trade agreement that rolled back some tariffs in exchange for China buying $50 million in farm goods.
Ethanol and biofuels
HARRIS
The Biden-Harris administration expanded ethanol opportunities to give corn producers more of a chance to cash in on a renewable energy transition.
Biden approved a request from eight major farm producing states to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol starting in 2025. The administration also opened the door for ethanol makers to get in on the lucrative sustainable aviation fuel market, though the farm requirements to access tax credits has faced some criticism.
Harris told the Farm Bureau she looks to build on biofuels opportunities in the sector plus rural infrastructure investments made under the Inflation Reduction Act, saying she is committed to “boosting high-quality job opportunities across rural America and enlisting agriculture as a pivotal tool to fight climate change.”
TRUMP
Trump moved to completely lift restrictions on the sale of E15 gasoline in 2019, though a court threw out the rule two years later. In his response to the Farm Bureau, Trump said he’s committed to lowering energy prices by removing regulations and increasing domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal.
The former president said, “we won’t just increase Ethanol production in our own country, we will make it our mission to export ethanol all over the world.”
Accelerating farm innovation
HARRIS
The Biden-Harris administration launched the U.S.’ first plan to expand biotechnology and biomanufacturing in 2022 as demand for bio-based products and fuels continues to mount.
Earlier this year, the USDA unveiled its roadmap to increase processing capabilities for crop residues and other feedstocks. The department invested $772 million in 2023 for research, development and expanding biomanufacturing infrastructure.
Harris touted investments made during the Biden administration, such as increased funding for land-grant universities, in her response to the Farm Bureau. However, she did not outline any future proposals.
TRUMP
Trump has portrayed regulation as a barrier to innovation, and during his presidency streamlined the approval processes for ag biotech including gene-editing. The move worried some in the research community, who expressed concern it would make it more difficult to assess risks of these new products.
The former president will continue to take aim at regulations in his next term, telling the Farm Bureau he “will slash regulations that stifle American agriculture and make everything more expensive.”
