To address the oversupply of soybeans, RFK Jr. announced that the Health Department has developed new crackers combining the legume with lentils for a tasty and nutritious snack.

Soybeans — adding insult to injury, and then piling on more injury. 

 

 Jesus Mesa writing for Newsweek:

A photographer’s snapshot of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the United Nations General Assembly last week revealed a private message that captured the Trump administration’s deepening concern over collapsing U.S. soybean exports to China—a crisis now entangled with a controversial economic bailout of Argentina.

“Finally – just a heads up, I’m getting more intel, but this is highly unfortunate,” read the message, which appeared to be sent from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “We bailed out Argentina yesterday (Bessent) and in return, the Argentine’s [sic] are removing their export tariffs on grains, reducing their price, and sold a bunch of soybeans to China, at a time when we would normally be selling to China. Soy prices are dropping further because of it. This gives China more leverage on us.”

...

The missive has also drawn new scrutiny to the Trump administration’s pledge to support Argentina with a possible $20 billion swap line and direct U.S. purchases of government debt. Days after the deal, Chinese importers bought more than a million metric tons of Argentine soybeans just as the American harvest season began.

...

China, once the largest buyer of American soybeans, has not purchased a single shipment since May, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. In 2024, China bought $12.5 billion of the $24.5 billion worth of soybeans the U.S. exported globally—more than 50 percent. For months now, the figure has been zero. 

As an Arkansas good ol' boy and some times press critic, I'm usually annoyed by how little attention the press normally gives agriculture stories, but this one appears to have legs.  

Soybean farmer: Our entire cost structure has increased, but our revenue has decreased. It's quite challenging. It's a bloodbath

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— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 7:13 AM

As ag scientist Sarah Taber points out, once you cut off a market, demand for a crop doesn’t simply bounce back when the supply reopens. Sometimes it never fully returns.

Absolutely true. The crop that has been mainstay of (especially) South Dakota economy now zeroed out, in exports to their biggest customer. Those farmers know (have told us) that they will never get those markets back. The PRC has switched to Brazil and Argentina.

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— James Fallows (@jfallows.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM

Angus: American farmers who bought into Trump, thinking tariffs would help them—their markets are gone. Canada’s not making noise about it; we’re just moving in. Canadian corn is now being sold in Ireland, Spain, and the UK. Those used to be guaranteed American markets. Not anymore.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 12:50 PM

The textbook example is cotton. In the first half of the 19th century, America dominated the high-grade cotton trade while Egypt was a minor player. But when the Civil War disrupted U.S. supply, British textile mills grew desperate for raw material, and Egypt rushed in to fill the vacuum. By the time the war ended, Egypt had become the dominant supplier, with the added advantage of being geographically closer to Britain. It also built a reputation for quality that persists to this day.