MECHANICSBURG, PA. — Farmers across 44 states reported in an April 2026 survey that federal policies and the war with Iran are increasing their costs and hurting their operations. The findings describe economic pressures facing agricultural producers, including Ian Stamy, a sixth-generation farmer in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

An April 2026 survey of 974 farmers in 44 states found that 94% said the war with Iran was increasing their costs. Additionally, 55% said federal policies over the previous year had hurt their operations, while 19% said those policies had helped. The survey also found that 78% listed machinery, fertilizer, fuel, seed, and chemicals among their top three concerns.

Ian Stamy is a 38-year-old who grows soybeans and grain on approximately 1,200 acres. He won the state prize for soybean yield last year with an average of just over 100 bushels per acre. Stamy transitioned from dairy farming to soybeans and corn in 2018 because dairy was no longer profitable.

President Trump's trade disputes have reduced agricultural exports to Canada and China. China responded to U.S. trade disputes by sourcing soybeans from other suppliers, including Brazil. Brazil overtook the U.S. as the world's largest soybean producer in 2017 and currently supplies 65% of China's soybean needs.

Farm bankruptcies spiked across much of the country in 2025, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Farmers make up less than 2% of the U.S. population, according to the Farm Bureau, and the number of farmers in the U.S. is one-third the number who farmed in 1960.

The April 2026 survey of 974 farmers in 44 states found that 39% considered themselves persuadable in the 2026 elections. Farm-dependent counties overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024.

"Looking at the vote of farmers is a good way to view the concerns that extend beyond the farming community about the costs of living and about how some of the policies of the Trump administration … have really harmed everyday working people's economics, said Berwood Yost, director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College. I think that they're more likely that they just don't vote."

"All of a sudden, politicians are making their way out to the rural countryside and talk to folks. Then once the election is over, [they] disappear," said Clinton Griffiths, executive director of Farm Journal.