Representative Derrick Van Orden (Q - Bottom Of A Booze Bottle) likes to pretend that he is a big proponent for Wisconsin farmers. Following that facade, on Tuesday, he made a great show of celebrating National Agriculture Day by posting a photo of him walking through a field:
On Wednesday, he was back to "normal," and attacked Former Ambassador Kip Tom and the farmers he was representing by comparing farmers who want to sell their products overseas, including to China to people who were selling food in 1938. Tom appeared to be as confused as the rest of the world as to what DVO's point was supposed to be.
Maybe DVO actually hates the free market. Or more likely, isn't capable of understanding how commerce works. Maybe it's alcohol-induced early dementia. But if DVO was a true advocate for farmers, especially Wisconsin farmers, he would be welcoming any and all trade deals.
China is Wisconsin's third largest trade partner when it comes to exporting food products, following only Canada and Mexico. Furthermore, Wisconsin grows 95% of the United States ginseng. China and Taiwan buy about 40% of the state's ginseng for around $20 billion. Note to DVO: Twenty billion dollars would buy a lot of beer.
However, in 2020, Wisconsin farmers took it on the chin when China canceled billions of dollars of purchases in retaliation for Trump's trade wars. The hardest hit were the dairy farmers. Things got so bad that Wisconsin was losing two dairy farms every single day, losing more than 800 dairy farms in 2019 alone.
For DVO to sit there with a smug look on his face and equate American farmers to Nazi sympathizers and collaborators is beyond the pale, even for him.
