Sombke Sounds Alarm on Market Manipulation

At the National Farmers Union Convention, South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke shared concerns about trade policies, rising costs, and the uncertainty around the farm bill. He criticized the way markets are being handled, saying it benefits the wealthy while hurting farmers. “I just think this president is manipulating the markets, I think it’s helping out his billionaires,” said Sombke. “It’s almost insider trading and he’s just playing games. That’s really what it looks like to me.”  Sombke also warned that tariffs are raising costs for farmers while driving down crop prices. “One thing it’s going to cause is that inputs are going to continue to go up. I mean, we get 85 percent of our potash from Canada so that’s already going up and it’s making our prices go down.  We dropped 84 cents in eight trading days.” With no farm bill passed and political divisions in Congress, Sombke worries it won’t happen this year.