Aug 8, 2018

Farmers for Free Trade launches $800k anti-tariff campaign

The advocacy group Farmers for Free Trade has rolled out a $800,000 campaign against tariffs that it says are hurting U.S. Agriculture.

The bipartisan campaign chaired by Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Max Baucus (D-MT) is called “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland.” The group is investing in local ads, town hall events on tariff impact in states across the country, and raising awareness about financial and job losses tied to the ongoing trade war. The advertisements will be a mix of radio, television, and print advertising that will run initially in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Listen to the two radio ads that will run beginning today here and here. The advertising, which also includes TV spots on local and nationally syndicated ag TV and print ads, will run through September.

“These ads will speak to American farmers who are watching the value of their hard work decrease every day as tariffs force the price of their crops and livestock downward,” said Sara Lilygren, president of the Farmers for Free Trade board.  “They are messages from farmers to farmers about how decisions in Washington D.C. are hurting their farms, their neighbors and the economy of rural America. We are taking the message that tariffs hurt ag directly to farmers at their breakfast tables, on their combines, and in the farm news outlets they check every single day.”