How do U.S. farmers and farm groups reconcile what appears to be a growing breach between one of their biggest, best food customers and their about-to-be inaugurated president? Two ways.

First, most write off President-elect Trump’s tough China talk as campaign-fueled overstatement that will become, they hope, more diplomatic once he assumes the presidency.

Maybe, but two-thirds of the way through the transition he continues to confirm (most recently through a tweet on a submersible U.S. drone China already had said it would return) that his hard China line isn’t softening. Indeed, the word still used to explain his China policy is “reset,” not “return.”

The second way, again hopefully, is that Trump’s apprentice ambassador, Iowa’s Gov. Terry Branstad, will keep the grocery pipeline to China open and full no matter his boss’s rhetoric because of Branstad’s “extensive ties to China and a personal friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping that dates back decades,” noted the Dec. 7 Washington Post.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work, sure. Given the earth-rattling, precedent-shattering politics of 2016, however, anyone willing to bet that it will work like that in the new year?

Either way, American agriculture has a lot riding on Donald Trump in an already tough-looking 2017. Any hiccup, stumble, or tweet — either intentional or accidental — will carry a steep cost for everyone.

The Farm and Food File is published weekly through the U.S. and Canada. Source material and contact information are posted at www.farmandfoodfile.com.

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