Broadcasting across the state of Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and around the world on the Civic Media app.
This is the Dom Salvia show.
And now here's your host, Dom Salvia.
Good to see you, Dom.
And today, it's Wednesday.
My co-host for the day, Matt Rothschild, former formerly of the Progressive Magazine.
former, well, a lot of former is here, former executive director of the Wisconsin democracy campaign, current friend of ours and frequent civic media contributor and big bird fan.
Hey, Matt, welcome back.
Oh, it's always great to be with you and Jess on a Wednesday afternoon, even a rainy snowy
I know, man.
Spring in Wisconsin, almost anyway.
That's how we do it around here.
Lots to get to, as always, Matt, and I always appreciate you coming around and getting your perspective on these things.
And I love it.
You've been around a long time.
You've been involved and been paying attention to politics for a very long time.
And I keep hearing this recurring theme over and over and over and over and over again.
from Republicans over and over again, man.
And let me just throw this one out there.
Alison Der, reporting at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Two weeks before Wisconsin's Supreme Court election, Shimmel raises Milwaukee vote counting trope.
Of course he does.
Of course.
And just doing the hard work found this, right?
Yes, I did.
So Schimmel goes on right wing talk radio.
And this was a cat here in the state of Wisconsin who called Tim Walz's young son a blubbering bitch boy.
So I like to
refer.
Right.
Just
Yes.
Yes.
Which is something, you know, Jay Weber is probably not used to just saying.
So I'm going to call Jay Weber, the blubbering bitch boy.
And I think I'm going to throw Brad Schimmel in here as well.
They keep repeating it.
They could have fixed it, but they keep wanting to sow doubt or confusion or both to the electorate.
And there's only, there's only a couple of things that I think that would cause this.
Either Brad Schimmel is truly an idiot.
I mean, really that dumb that he cannot.
pick up I don't know the most recent paper quoting his own words and learn and understand how the voting works in Milwaukee County or or he knows how it works and he's lying to everyone.
I take door number two.
I
don't know.
Door
three.
Remove the oar.
It's
Get our votes banked.
Make this too big to rig.
So we don't have to worry that 1130 in Milwaukee, they're going to find
bags of ballots that they forgot to put into the machines like they did in 2018 or in 2024 when Eric Kovdee, you know, was ahead all night and then all of a sudden Milwaukee County changed that.
I don't know what happened.
I don't know
if
there was fraud there.
There's no way for me to know that.
There is no fraud
there's no way for you to know that didn't they do a recount at least in the during the for the Trump election?
From some of the reported Matt and I just it is so frustrating to me that people could still consider this and anyone that that talks about this in these ways Just think that they are a serious candidate for anything.
I would let this guy hold my pen
As the reporting states at the Milwaukee General Sentinel, just after midnight on 2018, more than 47,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee voters were added to the statewide tally, giving Democrat Tony Evers his first solid lead in the race for governor against the incumbent at the time, was Governor Scott Walker.
Now, Evers ultimately won, though the time the city reported this absentee ballot prompted criticism from Republicans, including Walker, who said he was blindsided, blindsided, I tell you, when he learned the city
absentee ballots were still being counted.
In the same race as Schimel's lamenting, Schimel lost his bid for a second term as Republican Attorney General.
If I recall some of the reporting on this, he was the only incumbent Attorney General to lose in that cycle.
Way to go, Brad!
Now, also in November of 24, Hubdy, let's forget Hubdy, don't forget the mustache, right, lost his bid to unseat Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin and claimed he was shocked, shocked, I tell ya.
These people are so shocked and surprised.
He was shocked by Milwaukee's reporting of its absentee ballot results early in the morning after the election.
More than six years after the scuffle over the 2018 absentee ballots, it is widespread knowledge.
Is it really though Allison?
Is it widespread knowledge?
Widespread knowledge that the state's most populous city consistently reports its absentee ballots all at once early in the morning after a major election.
Now, why would that be?
Matt, is that because of the fraud?
You know, all those black people in Milwaukee.
Isn't that what you really say in Brad Shimmel Republicans?
That's because the sheer number of absentee ballots cast by the city's votes of voters in major elections coupled with a state law prohibiting clerks from processing absentee ballots before 7 a.m.
on Election Day.
And they could have fixed that.
In fact, there was a bill to fix that, to allow the clerks to count the absentee ballots before 7 a.m.
the day of the election.
But Republicans wouldn't pass it.
So now, as has happened, not just in Milwaukee, but dozens of other towns and cities, they do a central count of all absentee ballots after they closed the doors on the people who've been standing in line till 8 p.m.
So you can't count.
hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of ballots, you know, between eight o'clock and eight 10.
It takes a while to count those.
That's why in Milwaukee, you get the results at 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock or one in the morning or two in the morning.
It's just standard.
It's been audited.
It's been recounted dozens of times and there's nothing wrong there in Milwaukee or in other
cities and towns that do central count.
And I gotta believe Schimel knows this.
I mean, there's no way he can't know it.
He can't come out in public and say, you know, these, Houghdy lost Farron Square, or he himself lost Farron Square, or...
dare I say it, Donald Trump lost fair and square sometime.
They don't want to admit that.
That man
Yes,
Wide spread knowledge, Matt.
Apparently, only widespread knowledge if you're not a losing Republican in that particular race.
Because I don't remember Donald Trump lamenting the late counting of the absentee ballots in the last election.
Right?
Wide spread knowledge.
Maybe someone should tell HuffD
Scott Walker and wannabe Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brad Schimmel to your point the Republican controlled Senate last year Let a bipartisan bill die now for Brad Schimmel.
That means both Republicans and Democrats in the Assembly Would have made it possible for clerks to start processing and finish counting the absentee ballots earlier They let it die.
They let it die and why well because that gives them
reason, excuse, ability to shed, you know, cast some shade on the city of Milwaukee.
They let it die.
They could have done something about it.
Oh, but there's a little bit more from the reporting at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Um, let's see here.
They talked about the board.
Let's get down to Schimel, a conservative Waukesha County judge.
We know he's running against Susan Crawford.
Vote for Susan.
I think she knows how the votes are counted in the city of Milwaukee.
In a statement Crawford's spokesman said this, Schimel is dabbling in conspiracy theories to please his ally, Elon Musk, and it's unbecoming of a judge and candidate for the state's high court.
Of course, referencing Musk and the millions of dollars he
put into the, both the presidential race and of course he's supporting Schimel as well.
They could have fixed it.
They keep bringing it up.
And I don't know.
I know, I know.
So maybe it's better.
Is it better?
I'm not sure.
Is it better that Brad Schimel is actually aware of this and is lying to everybody, putting this out there to cast doubt on the selection?
Is that possible or?
Or is he just a bull run?
Does he really not?
Is he just actually, actually ignorant of how it happens?
I don't know which one is worth, but both of them are disqualifying for him to be certainly on the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge in Waukesha.
You might want to reconsider, you know, who you have on your bench.
I mean, he's just regurgitating this myth, this falsehood, this lie, this blatant lie.
Uh, to please not just Elon Musk, as it's said in that article, but Donald Trump himself and all the right-wingers in Wisconsin who've been fed this propaganda, you know, for years now.
They just need, you know, to hear, to get their steady diet of this...
of this crap.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
And Brad Schimel, I mean, the guy's been a hack since day one.
In 2010, when he is district attorney in Walworth County, he gave Scott Jensen, who was the former Republican majority leader in the state assembly, just to slap on the wrist and settle for a misdemeanor when he had been indicted.
on three felonies for the caucus scandals caucus scandal 2001 when he and his his democratic counterpart Chuck Walla they and their staffs were engaging in campaigning in the people's house on our dime and they got caught red-handed both were convicted Jensen got to appeal his conviction and get a retrial in Waukesha County and who was the DA there Brad Schimmel and Brad Schimmel just you know gave no time
you know, was sentenced to nine months
I mean, different outcomes from the same crime mean, uh, not to get Democrat and a Republican.
And I'll, I'll, I would also know it.
My understanding Jensen is a big paid lobbyist and you can't be a big paid lobbyist if you're a big fat felon.
So that was very critical for Jensen to do this lobbying gig that he has, I think for
God, maybe it's a school choice.
I mean, he's involved in Google it, folks.
You know where it's at.
All the lobbyists are listed somewhere.
You can find out who's paying them and what they're advocating for.
But that action with, you know, through the movie, you know, I think the venue of that, and they put it in Walker shot and it was Brad Shim when they were able to do that.
And he got a misdemeanor.
Now he's able to, you know, go on and make that big lobby money.
So there you go, folks.
This is the guy who wants to be your next Wisconsin Supreme.
court justice.
This is a guy who was piling around with Trump Jr.
and the bad Kirk man, not even the good Kirk, you know, Captain Kirk, the bad Kirk, Charlie Kirk.
I mean, and he's also said multiple times he is here.
We've heard the video.
We've heard the audio.
I'm here to be a support team for Donald Trump.
He needs people like Brad Schimmel on the court.
And this is the guy who bragged or complained, I guess depends on how you look at it.
while going through knee pads for begging all that money.
Well, you know, he made good use of him.
Elon Musk has poured in $12 million at last count, probably more by now.
I don't know if he was begging man come back with us Matt Ross child joining me today just ps is back on the board We got some sound we got some sound Tim Walls was in Eau Claire as well and folks Tammy Baldwin our state senator or sorry our senator from the great state of Wisconsin She's going around and similar I guess took to what but Bernie Sanders is doing some of these some of our representatives Mark Polk and included her out there now the pound in the pavement They're talking to the folks we're gonna get to some of that as well also
Julie Beaumar, she's the executive director of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
We had a quick conversation yesterday about what the federal government is doing to Wisconsin farmers.
We're going to get her take as well.
Come back with us.
855-752-4842.
Welcome back to the Dom Salvis show eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five civic got Matt rust child joining me today.
Got just PS on the board.
I believe we're having a few phone problems.
So folks be patient.
We'll get the some engineers, some smarter folks and I working on that eight five five seven five two four eight four two.
Hopefully that will not stop us from interviewing our guests coming up at the bottom of the hour, Julie Bolmar, executive director from the Wisconsin farmers union on the impact of these administrative changes going on, the tariffs and what's happening to Wisconsin farmers.
We look forward to that conversation.
Matt, as mentioned,
Tim Walls, you know Claire, man, we got some sound of that one to bring it to you fine folks and just always doing the hard work.
Let's start with cut number one about come on, do something people.
Let's hear what
I understand what I have is I have a platform and a megaphone and my goal in doing these town halls is I was hearing that primal scream of God dang it, do something.
he was listening.
least he did hear it.
Well, I've been wondering, I've been wondering, you know, where's Kamala Harris been?
I mean, she's, she's got to be here in this primal scream too.
Anyone who knows any Democrat or progressive who's looking at what Donald Trump's doing to our country has got to be here in this primal scream.
The, you know, the democratic base is angry.
You know, all the, all the, the Democrats save one in the house voted against this continuing resolutions and the Democrats in the Senate just rolled over and took it.
I'm still mad about that.
We will get to that.
But let's stay on point right now.
Tim Wall is in Eau Claire.
Let's hear cut number two, please.
I don't know, some of you know this on the iPhone.
They've got that little stock app.
I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day.
225 and dropping.
And if you own one, if you own one, we're not blaming you.
You can take dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off, you know, and take it out
and just tell me.
I
you
need, man.
Pope,
guys.
Don't let them just torment us to death.
Well, yeah, I mean, when the only humor that you're allowed to have is something that, you know, makes fun of other human beings for innate characteristics.
deep, diggin' deep.
Yeah, you know, I just love what what Tammy Baldwin is doing now and what what Mark Pokan has been doing to going up to Van Orden's district.
Tammy was in La Crosse on Monday.
This is a hands off Medicaid tour.
She's in La Crosse on Monday.
She was in Eau Claire also yesterday.
Tomorrow she's going to be in Madison and Racine and then Waukesha on Friday.
I mean, she's getting out there.
you know, going across the state, meeting with constituents where Republicans are hiding from constituents right now, and she's bringing up this issue, look, 1.3 million Wisconsinites get some Medicaid help, and Trump and the Republicans in the Congress are gonna cut Medicaid, and people are gonna get hurt, and she's drawn attention to that, and she's fighting back against that, and that's just what we need.
Wow, 1.3 million Wisconsin citizens on some sort of Medicaid or disability or something and some, you know, they're, they're deriving a benefit from that program.
And Tammy Baldwin isn't out there asking folks, are you a dammer Republican?
Cause you know what?
Doesn't matter if you're on this program and it gets cut.
It won't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican or a non-voter.
You will be impacted by the decisions that this administration is making.
And let's remind everyone why we are going through this process.
Because Donald Trump wants to give four and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts to the wealthy.
That's why we're doing this.
That's why we're banging our head against the wall.
That's why Tammy Baldwin's out talking about the impact of one, the reduction of services and Medicaid to 1.3 million citizens.
That's why our next.
Exactly.
I just want
to go ahead.
I want to interrupt here.
Please.
You know, Tammy made this point herself.
She said.
We need to show the president and congressional Republicans what cuts to Medicaid would mean to Wisconsinites, show them that their tax cut for their wealthy friends will be life or death to some Wisconsinites, and show them that we're fighting back.
That's our senator Tammy Baldwin.
She's on a hands-off Medicaid tour.
She's speaking up here at a time where we need all our elected...
uh, representatives to, to speak up.
At least those were the conscience.
I'm not talking to you.
Well, I mean, and, and for the policy of the, at least the directive, uh, from house speaker, Mike Johnson is don't have town halls.
Hey, you know, we, we got a great, we got all this COVID going around and what are we going to do with, you know, all these, everyone's testing positive while.
Just don't test anymore.
It'll be fine.
All these people want to solve our town halls.
Everyone's mad at us.
What should we do?
Should we change our policies?
Should we change our minds?
Should we reevaluate our positions?
No, no, just don't have town halls anymore.
Whisk it under the road.
Bear your head just saying.
Way to represent the constituents.
And then when they actually do do a town hall and haven't forbid someone to get mad at them about the various cuts and things that they're saying they're going to do against veterans and farmers and the poor and the elderly.
I mean, the only people that I don't know who's going to get a negative impact from the policies of this administration are the very ones that we're going through these quote unquote exercises for.
one percent the billionaires and the millionaires man they're gonna be fine but that's why we're doing those folks aren't showing up the town halls right though those folks are scratching the checks and meeting in the smoke filled back rooms right these folks that are showing up they're not all
You know hard lunatic left you whatever you want to call it.
These are outside agitators Yeah, yeah outside as as they came from outside inside cuz you're in their town you're you represent their district Yeah, they're coming in they're telling you what they think and even if they voted for someone else or even if they didn't vote hell Even if they voted for you
Maybe they should listen.
Maybe you should listen to Republicans when these folks are showing up and telling you how concerned they are.
Maybe you should take that under advisement.
Maybe you should be more worried about whether or not your constituents were able to, I don't know, feed themselves versus whether or not we need to go through these exercises.
So with your vote and the support of your president, you can give tax breaks for billionaires.
Folks, come back with us.
Julie Bulmar, executive director from the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Wisconsin Farmers, Wisconsin Citizens, Wisconsin's Food Challenge.
They're going to be impacted by this administration.
We'll get into it next.
855-752-4842.
And welcome back to the Dom Salvia Show, 855-752-4842-855-755.
Civic, it's a talk line, it's a text line.
Usually it works.
We're working on it right now, but be patient.
We appreciate everyone.
Matt Rothschild joining me today.
Jess P.S.
is on the board and I'm jazzed as hell to introduce to you our next guest.
Her name's Julie Beaumar.
She's the executive director from the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
Julie, welcome to the Dom Salvia Show.
The administration, the federal administration, the Trump administration, making all sorts of changes.
And we reported on this quite a bit yesterday.
So this is a timely interview.
We appreciate you joining us.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is saying that the Trump administration canceled a program that paid Wisconsin farmers to grow food for food pantries.
And one of the statistics that
Stood out to me that I was unaware of and I'm still kind of shocking to me is that more than 617,000 Wisconsin residents are food insecure 617,000 Wisconsin residents are food insecure Julie what what what's your impression on how this is going to impact not only those 617,000 Wisconsin residents, but the farmers that provide that food to those pantries
The local food purchase assistance program has been in effect for several years now.
And you know, COVID really woke us all up, right?
To the problems in the supply chain and how we don't really have access to fresh food.
If anything happens, it's a fragile food system.
And so there were some monies that were made available at that time.
And really what happened is that just
helped develop a structure that could provide food insecure people with fresh, nutritious, protein-ridden food that was locally grown by farmers, by their neighbors, and it benefited groups of farmers that don't often benefit from the Farm Bill, and it developed a great infrastructure across the entire state so that smaller farmers could actually participate in the food system in a way that they hadn't before.
It's had a hell of an impact and we're really really upset that that of contracts and promises are broken
Apparently the USDA deputy administrator Jack Tuck Willer wrote when they sent a letter canceling this program That this program quote no longer effectuate agency priorities What are what is the USDA?
priority then, Julie, if not to assist farmers in at least this kind of way.
Because we, I mean, farmers get all sorts of other assistance, right?
This isn't the only assistance that we as taxpayers provide to our farmers for our agriculture and our food supply chain and all that.
Why is it that this one is being targeted in your opinion?
maybe meet the stereotypical definition of farmer in the United States.
And so commodity growers, big commodity growers may often benefit from subsidy programs, from insurance and things, you know, benefits like that by way of growing commodities.
A lot of the smaller growers, which actually are all across Wisconsin, we have a very diversified agricultural landscape.
Many of those farmers do not get to benefit in the same ways.
They may be a specialty crop grower.
And then you don't get subsidies from the United States government.
You may be growing hay, and you don't get subsidies from the United States government, whereas the big guys, the big boys of it all do.
They are at least more eligible for it.
So this one really targeted those folks that are often left out in the Farm Bill by helping them get into these food systems.
Highways, if you will, that literally can distribute food in smaller, more local quantities and qualities.
Folks, you're listening to the Dom Salvia show that is Julie Beaumar, the executive director from the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
According to the reporting, Julie...
the program, 289 Wisconsin farms participated in the program providing $4.2 million worth of food to more than 250 pantries and schools.
I mean, so this impacts everybody regardless of ideological or political leaning.
Julie, I'm assuming you have all sorts of political stripes in your organization.
How are folks reacting to this?
interesting to watch all of the federal actions and how they're impacting folks.
We have a big tent organization, lots of different kinds of growers.
And we did a survey just a few weeks ago to see how the federal decisions were affecting people and all different kinds of stories came out.
And so it kind of depends on what sector you're in and how you've been directly impacted, but the stories are varied and almost universally there's been negative impact on our
members.
There are a few who wrote in that they're hopeful that maybe tariffs and things like that will help help them in some way by because there may be a smaller producer and they're hoping that the local folks will have to buy more food from them because the costs are going to go up on imported foods.
So, you know, there has been some some differences in opinion, but the vast majority of folks that have written in and showed up at our town hall are saying this negatively impacts them.
Julie, our
Do you know, you know, you have folks, farmers with different political leanings.
Do you know any that have expressed little buyer's remorse to you?
They voted for Trump and now Holy smokes.
He's taking our programs our way.
He's taking our subsidies away.
You know, I haven't had anybody just come up and say they had buyers remorse I mean certainly their farmers are not a monolith.
We all know that right there are differences of opinion They may say I kind of am waiting to see what happens in this area.
I don't like what's happening over here I think it's an overreach.
So I think it's not necessarily an easy yes or no or buyers remorse or not But a lot of folks of course didn't vote for Trump either.
So they they didn't go into this with that those kinds
of expectations.
You know, I drive down 94 between Madison and Milwaukee and I'm always surprised at these huge Trump signs in the farmers fields.
I'm just scratching my head.
You know, what is it that Trump has given these folks that make them so zealous in favor of him?
Do you have any clue on that?
Well, I think we've had four decades, multiple administrations to demonstrate that the Farmville doesn't work for
all farmers and so whether you're Democrat or Republican you probably have a beef with the way that the federal government is managing the helping shape the food system and so you know there's a lot of folks that really believe that big
Big ag and big pharma need to go and they maybe saw a disruptor that could change and help shake those things loose.
I think that certainly is an opinion by some.
Others may have a lot of trouble with the regulatory control that we see at the state and the federal level as well.
a large factor of reasons that people may choose this.
I think one thing that I can say that working in the farm community for a long time that farmers believe contracts should be honored.
They're not
being honored.
And one of those contracts is to schools.
I mean, fresh food for school lunches.
Those are being cut.
And, you know, I thought this was a great program so the kids can have something, you know, fresher than tater tots that are deep fried, you know, when the local farmers bring food to the school.
And how many schools are going to be impacted by this cut on this program?
It's gonna be massive if you look across the state.
And we have close to 300 food pantries that are gonna be impacted by the termination of the local food purchase assistance program, close to 300 farmers.
It is gonna have a big impact.
I also happened to sit on a board of directors for a local food bank.
And they're very concerned about how they're gonna be procuring
fresh meat Fresh eggs and you know all those high quality things that they were getting from the program And especially because they were counting on it remember a lot of the farmers are already planting right now in their greenhouses They've they agreed to uphold their end of the bargain and they're put out the work They put out the money and now that's going to be cut.
That's what's so irritating I think to many is that's just a matter of integrity
So that violation of that contract, of that word that the government gave them is so galling to them right now on top of the fact that they're going to have an economic negative impact
That is Julie Beaumar, executive director from the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
Matt Rothschild joining us today as well.
Some of the reporting continuing on this, this stepping stones of Dunn County, they use this program to provide 50,000 pounds of food to its clients.
And apparently, this pantry feeds more than 11% of Dunn County.
I know some of these counties don't have a lot of people, but 11% is a lot of people.
That's a big percentage of the population.
I don't care how many people are in that county, Julie.
And this is all to say, if I'm understanding the math here, is this like a four or some million dollar program?
That's what's being cut here?
And it was really run efficiently.
How much more efficient can you get than shipping locally, right?
And the money stays in the economy.
It's not going out to Walmart and then to Arkansas.
I mean, this is like literally an economic booster for rural economies as well.
So it was run effectively and I lived in Dunn County for 30 some years.
I remember talking to physicians.
I did a lot of research on rural poverty in a previous career.
There are people who
who are malnourished, not just like they cannot leave their community to go in to these food pantries.
So these pop up pantries and things that they have in rural Wisconsin are critical for people who cannot afford to even drive into town.
And so it is incredibly serious.
And I think, you know, most.
people regardless of their political affiliation agree that we should try to keep things efficient and local and do the best that we can for those folks that are literally, you know, malnourished.
This is the fresh farm food.
You know, these aren't bags of chips.
These aren't, you know, processed by big food manufacturing.
This is money that's being circulated through the local economy more than once, right?
We heard people about that are hiring some part-time help to help, you know, to help them in these endeavors.
Well, that also, you know, it creates employment.
It creates food security.
It creates a secure
food supply lines.
As you mentioned before, COVID really exposed a lot of these, a lot of these concerns.
So as a, literally as an investment on the dollar, it's hard to think of another program of a program that would be have, that would have the impact that this program, and it's a, it's, I hate to say $4 million is a little, not a big program, but it's really not, especially we consider some of the monies that I don't know.
president of the United States spends when he goes and Air Force one to go golfing, I believe, but about three and a half million dollars per when he's got to pull out the plane.
Uh, you know, these efforts are being done, Julie, uh, to, to, to effectuate a justification for trillions of dollars in tax cuts.
Um, and you can, people can have an opinion whether or not they think that's righteous or just are, are your members and, and the people in your communities, do they recognize that this is
the the impetus for all of this that's why we're doing this is to justify and pay for tax cuts.
I think that a lot of folks were excited you know maybe about more efficient government or wasteful programs being targeted and and they maybe didn't sign up for the kinds of cuts that we're seeing and they weren't sure where they were going to be targeted but
rural America is going to be hit particularly lopsidedly in all of this and you know where people I think are starting to put it together.
I want to ask about tariffs and what you saw as the impact currently and perhaps what was done in the past.
But while we have just this one segment, I appreciate your time.
The local politicians in these areas, is there any discussion?
So they shown up at any of the meetings?
Have they provided any insight?
Right, left, regardless of their political meetings, are they involved in the community?
And what are their thoughts?
Have you heard anything?
We did have a town hall that we sponsored a few weeks ago.
We offered it open to representatives of regard.
We were a nonpartisan organization.
We invite everybody.
The only folks to show up were on the Democratic side of the aisle.
Although I have seen signs that GOP representatives are visiting food pantries and food banks, so that's good to see.
But yeah, we were disappointed that they didn't show up.
folks are listening to the Dom Salvia show come back with us Julie Beaumar executive director from Wisconsin farmers at Union Matt Ross child as well just PS working on the board I want to get into some of the tariff conversations and what you're hearing on the current situation plus when he gets your feedback on how it went the last time Donald Trump started a trade war and how he paid the farmers come back with us eight five five seven five two four eight four
two
Thank you so much for listening.
You got Matt Rothschild joining me today as a co-host, just PS is on the board.
And Julie Beaumar, the executive director for Wisconsin Farmers Union joining us for one more segment.
Julie, thank you for sticking around.
Certainly appreciate it.
Last time around when Trump administration first came around they did we got into a trade war and he ended up scratching checks directly to farmers to the tune I believe of 16 billion dollars and one once time another time was like 8 it was almost like 30 billion dollars that were that was handed out
from a New Deal era program under Donald Trump directly to the farmers because of the retaliation that we were getting in the trade wars.
You know, keep them afloat, keep them going.
We got to keep our, got to have a food supply, right?
So for $30 billion, and this wasn't, this wasn't a loan.
I mean, this wasn't an auto bailout.
This was just cash out.
And I believe it was during the election.
So I have all sorts of
issues with that.
But I want to get your sense, when we were living through that, how were the farmers reacting to the first round of tariff wars, let's call it?
Well, as an ag organization that serves mainly small and medium-sized farmers, I can tell you that our members felt like the
the bailout was disproportionately beneficial to the largest growers.
And so, especially commodity growers, soybeans, corn, that kind of thing.
Whereas if you look across the entire sector, we're exporting specialty cheeses, cranberries, and ginseng.
I mean, it is a diversified...
agriculture system that we operate in.
So when only a certain segment of the biggest producers are benefiting from it, you're going to hear a foul from the smaller growers, for sure.
And we lose markets, right?
We just lose markets.
If you're a commodity grower as well, you should be concerned about China and Brazil stepping up and taking over those market shares.
I think ginseng was one of the things that was really hurt.
And they got found other buyers in other countries.
we rebounded to your understanding from the repercussions of that first trade war when those markets were lost?
Have we gotten them back?
We got a fraction back?
What's your experience been?
I mean, you see some that have bounced back.
Farming is up and down all the time anyway.
And so we use subsidies to try to stabilize things more on the demand side of things.
You know, when the demand goes down or markets crash, then we just try to fill it in with cash rather than having a more stabilized system where maybe we are monitoring supplies better like some other countries do where we really can try to have a little bit more control.
the breaks, if you will, for the hot and the cold of agriculture markets.
But nevertheless, it will hurt things.
And especially now with our big kerfuffle with Europe, I think those folks are not going to come back very easy.
We're doing some permanent damage in our global relationships.
And I think they're not going to come back to the table very quickly.
It must be almost impossible for farmers to figure out what to do here.
You mentioned it's planting season right now or coming up.
Our biggest export partners here are, guess what?
Canada, Mexico, China, and Europe's got to be right behind that.
And so how much do you grow?
Are you going to be able to sell all you got?
Are your markets going to dry up because of these tariffs?
There just must be all these questions and swirling around.
How do farmers wrestle with that?
So we get 85% of our potash from Canada.
That's essential for our type of soils and growing, you know, having healthiest enough soil to grow, especially commodity crops.
And so when 85% of the potash market is dependent on a relationship with Canada, yeah, you can bet that people are concerned and they may see
you know, hundreds of percentage increases going up on that.
And we can't store enough potash to build ahead for that.
We can only hold it in the supply sheds that we have.
And so people are very concerned, and that won't hit until later in the growing season.
So you bet, farmers are concerned.
We've heard a lot about that.
It is very difficult and you know being a farmer means you have to have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things and then above and beyond that the things you cannot control, they got to fall in line as well in order to make it profitable.
And it's more than just profit as mentioned, this is feeding the United States, this is feeding the world, this is what we do.
You brought up regulation a little bit and you said we fill the hole in cash.
What's the appetite for
greater government regulation to kind of level off some of the peaks and valleys that we experience in the industry.
I can tell you I've never met a farmer ever that wants to get
They would rather have their profit come from the market, not from the government.
That is a universal theme.
They want the market to work for them.
And so I think that there's different ideas on how to do that, whether you work more on the demand or on the supply side.
But I can tell you, a lot of folks are paying directly out of their farm gate profits to pay for exporting and developing relationships overseas.
It's called the check off system.
They actually are required by law to pay
for things and for exporting and developing those relationships, and those relationships are being destroyed.
So you can bet that your dairy producers and your pork producers are mad about that.
All right folks you're listening to the Dom Salvia show Matt Rothschild just PS come back on the other side gonna hit some of the National news John Roberts once he's doing the Fed they had a meeting today We'll see what happens there plus updates on the crap show that is going on right now Stick around eight five five seven five two four eight four two maybe the folds will be fixed by that
