Local farmer discusses future of farm industry in Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — Jim Coleman grew up on his family farm in Lexington, but he’s worried that the future of small, family-owned farms is at risk.

“At the rate it’s going, within the next ten years there will be no family farms in Kentucky,” Coleman said.

Similar to many other families in the Commonwealth, Coleman’s farm has been passed down for generations. As of recently, he says he’s felt unsettled by President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, specifically tariffs.

“We’re living in a perfect storm right now and we need certainty, we need free trade, and we need a farm bill,” he said.

Even though the president has paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico for one month, the Kentucky Farm Bureau says the stakes are still high, especially when it comes to China.

“If there are certain replacement equipment needs, there could be a delay in getting those or at least it’ll be much more expensive,” Ericka King with the Kentucky Farm Bureau said. “We know that our best interests are served when we have tariffs that are not those retaliatory tariffs that we’re having to deal with.”

She says corn farmers, the bourbon industry and small family farms could all face financial burdens from retaliatory tariffs.

“It doesn’t take much to freak out the business community to where it could shift us into a complete recession,” Coleman said.

The Kentucky Farm Bureau says they support border security and fair-trade programs.

“Those are the goals of the tariffs that are in place,” King said, “But for us, historically we’ve seen that when retaliatory tariffs are instituted, agriculture and rural communities typically face the brunt of those before it trickles out to the rest of the economy.”

Coleman says at the end of the day, farming is more than just business.

“They are worried every day that they’re getting ready to lose the family farm which has been in the business, for like mine, 100 years.”