September 2019: Besieged Michigan farmers back new trade pact with Canada and Mexico

August 2019: Michigan farmers testify of widespread crisis and uncertainty

June 2019: Stress builds as Michigan farmers are ‘hit from all directions’

July 27, 2018: As Trump pushes tariffs, Michigan farmers and businesses ‘getting clobbered’

July 27, 2018: A trade war’s brewing, Michigan. Here are five things to know

CHARLOTTE — Gary Parr never quite knows what the future will hold for the crops he plants each spring at his 117-year-old family farm. That’s the norm for folks who make their living from the land.

“I’ve heard farmers described as probably the biggest gamblers this side of Las Vegas, because you put all these dollars up front, and then you basically hope for the best,” the 54-year-old said on a rainy Thursday inside his musty shop. “It’s basically all up to Mother Nature.”

But Parr this year faces an added layer of uncertainty while he works his fields 20 miles southwest of Lansing: the threat of Chinese tariffs on soybeans and corn, which grow on 900 of his acres.

Opinion: Trump is my president. But his tariffs would ruin my company.

Related: Low milk prices are a big headache for Michigan’s family dairy farms

As the Midwest soil heats up this planting season, so too has a trade squabble between the United States and China. The escalating feud has blown anxiety across the 52,000 Michigan farms that fuel the state’s $101 billion food and agriculture industry.

Last month, President Donald Trump accused China of “unfair trade practices” related to U.S. technology and intellectual property and proposed steep tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. China vows to retaliate — largely against U.S. agriculture.

But rural America helped elect Trump president, and Chinese tariffs of as much as 25 percent on crops such as soybeans would wallop bottom lines during tough times, farmers and economists say. Already, China is weaning itself from U.S. beans, according to media reports last week.

“The last three or four years we’ve been down. We’re kind of struggling now to keep a break-even scenario until prices go up,” said Parr, who voted Libertarian in 2016. “While I understand the trade imbalance, it’s very difficult for me to see the ag sector take another hit when we’re already under pressure.”

Farmers and their suppliers aren’t the only ones sweating the trade talks; Certain cars and airplanes were among the 106 U.S. products China threatened with 25 percent tariffs last month. That was after China imposed levies on a slew of other items, including fresh and dried fruits, nut items, wines, pork products, steel pipes and recycled aluminum.

Most items on both lists come from agriculture, the backbone of rural economies. It’s why the retaliation is seen as a swipe at Trump’s political base. That includes communities in Michigan, a crucial piece of Trump’s 2016 election campaign, where rural voters propelled his razor-thin victory.

A March poll by the trade website AgriPulse suggests support among farmers for Trump is waning: 67 percent voted for him in 2016, but only 45 percent said they would support his reelection.