China is investing billions in Latin America — and rerouting global soybean trade
One of this year’s most important agriculture stories has been the ongoing trade war and China’s halt of soybean purchases from U.S. farmers. The Trump administration recently announced a pending deal with China to buy more soybeans, but there is skepticism it will be enough to fill the nearly $12.6 billion export shortfall.
There are also signs that China’s pivot to buy soybeans — and other agricultural products — from Latin America will be a long-term move.
In this week’s feature story, Mónica Cordero investigated the billions of dollars being spent by China in Brazil and other Latin American countries on new seaports, rail lines and other infrastructure that will set up Chinese companies to buy non-U.S. soybeans for years to come.
“Ports, railways, roads, bridges, metro lines, energy, power plants are probably the best signs that China has a long-term commitment … These are long-term projects,” said Henry Ziemer, an associate fellow with the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Investigate Midwest also published a story this week in partnership with the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, focusing on the impact on U.S. farmers, who ended this year with unsold harvests and uncertainty going into the next season.
— Ben Felder, editor-in-chief
Soybeans have been a top US ag export for decades. What happens when the top buyer stops buying?
By Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest, Cassandra Stephenson, Tennessee Lookout and Gabby Nelson, Buffalo’s Fire
RYDER, N.D., — Tyler Stafslien is a fourth-generation farmer who’s worked his family’s land in central North Dakota for about 20 years. Roughly half of his 2,500 acres are typically dedicated to soybeans, a major crop in the state and in the Mississippi River Basin. But growing soybeans has become less profitable over the last decade as input costs rose and the Trump administration’s tariff negotiations in 2018 and 2025 destabilized trade and strained farmers’ incomes.
This year, wary of the precarious export market, Stafslien decreased his soybean acres by half.
“We’ve been experiencing in ag, the last couple of years, a downturn in commodity prices, a lot of that related to just a large supply across the globe of major commodities, but then you add this trade war on top of it, and it’s like the icing on the cake,” Stafslien said.
DATA HARVEST: Meat consumption grows in US and Asia, while Europe is on the decline
By Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest
Residents of the United States and Europe have increasingly eaten more meat since 1960, but the two regions’ meat consumption has diverged over the past 15 years.
Since 2010, U.S. meat consumption per capita has risen by 10%, while Europe has seen a nearly 19% decline, according to data from the United Nations and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This year, the U.S.’s annual per capita consumption of poultry, pork, beef and other red meat products is estimated to reach 227 pounds per person.
Europe’s estimated rate is 152 pounds per person.
While Europe has seen a significant drop, the opposite is true in Asia. In 1960, the U.S.’s meat consumption rate was nearly 13 times higher than Asia’s. Today, the U.S. still consumes significantly more meat, but the gap has narrowed.
ICYMI: What a 2019 bailout reveals about who benefits from farm aid
As the Trump administration prepares another $12 billion farm aid package, this 2019 story by Sky Chadde offers context on how previous relief flowed.
During the last tariff programs, the single largest recipient was not a farmer but an alternative lender, ARM, which collected about $75 million because many producers were required to assign their payments to cover high-interest operating loans.
The story explains how tight credit, rising debt and limited access to traditional lenders shaped who benefited and is a revealing look at financial pressures that still affect many farmers today.
