At an eye-opener breakfast celebrating Christian County agriculture, local award winners shared the spotlight with several of President Trump’s policies — including tariffs, immigration, health care and massive reductions in the federal workforce and programs — that could unsettle the economy for Kentucky farmers and communities.
Republican U.S. Rep. James Comer, keynote speaker for the Salute to Agriculture on Tuesday at the Bruce Convention Center, said he believes that Trump will ultimately take care of farmers.
“I had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with the president about a week before he was sworn into office,” said Comer, Kentucky’s 1st District congressman. “It was a small, private dinner and we talked about tariffs. I wasn’t the only person in the room that was concerned about tariffs and mentioned the negative impact that tariffs have on agriculture. The president made very clear, it’s going to take a little pain.”
The goal is to address the trade imbalance with other countries, said Comer.
“President Trump is like most people that run for office. He knows where his support is. He probably got 95% of the farmer votes in America. That’s not an exaggeration,” said Comer. “… I don’t like the tariffs either. My life would be a lot better if we weren’t even having the discussion on tariffs. But I understand that we’ve got to bring production back to the United States. We can’t have all of our pharmaceuticals made in China.”
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Trump plans tariffs on products from the United States’ three biggest trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China — which are slated to take effect on April 2.
Concerns persist that tariffs will hurt farmers who lose export markets and have to pay more for imported goods. Comer’s fellow Kentucky Republicans in the U.S. Senate — Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul — have both raised concerns about Trump’s tariffs.
“I’m all for pushing back on predatory trade practices and leveling the playing field for American producers, but I’m not a fan of tariffs,” McConnell said, according to an Associated Press report. “At the end of the day, tariffs drive up the cost of goods and services we all rely on, and American consumers pay the price.”
In the same AP report, Paul said, “From bourbon distillers to car manufacturers, to makers of fences to the builders of homes, to our farmers, nobody in Kentucky is coming up to me and say, ‘please put tariffs on things.’”
“We need to back away from this,” said Paul.
Comer took a few questions from the audience, including one from Hopkinsville Milling Co. president Robert Harper. He said he appreciated efforts to “root out fraud” but questioned who would do that “if we are firing all of the government employees.”
Comer responded that he hoped the Trump administration would deal with the fraud that others have failed to address.
Ken Cooley, of Trigg County, asked about proposed massive cuts to Medicaid — $880 billion over 10 years, which are needed to extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Medicaid is a program for low-income people, and it serves about one in five Americans. The rate is higher in Kentucky.
“The challenge we have in Kentucky, we have 30% of the state on Medicaid,” said Comer, adding the program was supposed to be temporary for “poor children, pregnant women, people who are disabled.”
Comer added, “There are people on these government programs that are ineligible to be on the government programs, so we are just trying to clean the rolls. Just like the secretary of state wants to get rid of all the dead people on the voter rolls — I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. We are trying to do the same thing with Medicaid.”
Cooley also wanted to know how many federal workers in Kentucky had been dismissed from their jobs, such as those at IRS offices.
Comer said he didn’t know but that his office was working to get that information.
Protesting policies
While several hundred people filed into the Bruce Center for the Salute to Agriculture, retired educators Bonnie Lynch and Karen Shields stood outside on the sidewalk with protest signs directed at Trump policies.
Lynch held a sign that read “Protect Medicaid James Comer.” She told Hoptown Chronicle the message was for the congressman and for local residents that she wants to see paying more attention to the potential harm of federal program cuts.
“I want him to protect Medicaid because we have a whole lot of people who will suffer in the 1st District for sure,” she said. … We wanted to be present today to remind folks these are some issues that they ought to be talking to him about.”
According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, 32.4% of the population in the 1st Congressional District is covered by Medicaid. It is the second highest share for Medicaid coverage among the state’s six congressional districts.
Shields’ sign referred to Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student who was arrested at his university housing on March 8. He has been threatened with deportation for his role in campus protests against Israel.
“We are seeing our rights taken away daily,” Shields said. “The freedom of speech is a basic tenet, or used to be, of democracy … and we want to let our representatives know that that is being taken away from us.”
The award winners
The Christian County Agri-Business Association presented the following awards at the program:
- Agri-Business of the Year — Higgins Insurance
- Farmer of the Year — Dixon Farms run by father and son, Donnie Dixon and Sheldon Dixon III
- Troy Goode Memorial Scholarships recipients — Mollie Goode, Cheyanne Rodgers, Micah Goode, Rebecca Wood and Bailey Kington.
The association also presented the inaugural Kentucky Agriculture Lifetime Achievement Award to Wayne Hunt, whose family farms 11,000 acres.
Hunt got his start as a farmer in the 1960s while also working a night shift at the former Thomas Industries factory in Hopkinsville, said Brandon Garnett, regional vice president for Farm Credit Services. He eventually founded a fertilizer business, Agri-Chem, and then started Agri-Power, which later became H&R Agri-Power by merging with H&R Implement Co. The company now has 21 locations in six states.
Hunt also serves on the Kentucky Agriculture Development Board and the Kentucky Agriculture Finance Corp.
Following the award presentations, a country ham basket was auctioned to raise money for scholarships. H&R Agri-Power was the top bidder at $12,000.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
