This is amazing for all the wrong reasons.
We already know the Department of Agriculture (USDA) will reimburse farmers for slightly less than simply selling their crops to China would have been worth, but here's something else: many farmers may not even be to file a claim for a bailout.
One consequence of so many farmers having nowhere to sell their soybeans is that they also have nowhere to store it, and if they can't store it they also can't make a claim for it.
US Farm Bureau Economist Veronica Nigh says there's a major problem.
"We're starting to harvest this big crop and there's no place to go with them because our exports to China have basically been cut off," Nigh said.
"You're now taking your crop to the elevator looking for a price and the elevator says no room at the inn," Nigh said. [...]
There is a federal program designed to help farmers through trade disputes, but subsidies are based on receipts from storage facilities. Full elevators means no receipts and no help for farmers.
Because commercial storage facilities are full of crops that no one can sell, farmers are being advised to consider building storage silos on their own property.
Of course, storage silos are made out of metals that Trump's trade war has also made more expensive.
Look, none of this is funny, but how could you not laugh your ass off at this? I don't know how else to react. It's a comedy of errors. It feels as though there was never any chance this program would properly function under Trump. The consequences and possibilities weren't considered when Trump started his trade war or when he announced his bailout.