In addition to the new tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China that went into effect on Tuesday, President Donald Trump alerted American farmers to another round of tariffs coming early next month. On social media, he wrote, “To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!”

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with April Hemmes about the new and upcoming tariffs and what they’ll mean for her corn and soybean farm in Iowa. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: I want to know what you’re thinking about the news and everything.

April Hemmes: Oh my god, everything? Well, I heard our TV guy say, “Just as soon as I say this, something’s gonna change.” And it’s so true. I got the social media whatever that the president sent out to farmers, and you know, “It’s gonna hurt, but it’s gonna be fun.” And all I have to say is his definition of fun is way different than the farmers’ definition, because tariffs are not fun.

Ryssdal: Let’s talk about that for a minute. First of all, this is not your first rodeo with tariffs and President Trump, right? It wasn’t fun last time. Are you more prepared this time somehow?

Hemmes: No. Well, like I say, same song, it’s not the second verse, it’s a whole chorus this time. Because he’s including Mexico and Canada, and the consumers are going to get hurt. Usually it’s the [agriculture] people that get hurt, but now it’s going to be a lot more of the consumer things. But more prepared? No, actually, we in the ag community are worse off now because the interest rates are higher than they were before, and our cost of production is way up. But it’s an interesting world we have.

Ryssdal: It is indeed. So there was a speech last night, and you know, it’s “There’s going to be disturbance, but we’re OK with that,” although I don’t think he probably called you to check if you were OK with that. The other thing he did yesterday on social was “get ready to sell only domestically starting April 2.” And that doesn’t seem to me to make a whole bunch of sense.

Hemmes: No, I’m glad you said that. Yes, 60% of our soybeans are exported. Twenty to twenty-five percent of our corn is exported. So you don’t build those markets domestically overnight. We just can’t. You have to build, you know, plants and things like that, there’s a whole lot that goes into it. So it’s not going to happen overnight. And I’ve heard some interviews with farmers that said, “Oh, it’s OK if these tariffs only last a couple months, but if it’s more than that, it’s not OK.” And I went, “Pull your head out of the sand, buddy, it’s gonna last more than that.”

Ryssdal: I talked to a guy the other day who used to run, because it’s about to be shut down, something called the Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois. And in the middle of that conversation, I got to thinking about you, and soybeans, and just the work that the government does or has done in building markets for all American farmers. But the mechanisms by which you all find markets is being dismantled.

Hemmes: Right, I never hardly engage on Twitter, X or whatever it’s called. But there’s these people out there that are smack-talking USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] only thinking it’s USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture], and I’ve been on two USAID trips to Uganda and did great work there. And people don’t understand the work and then the products they buy from farmers to feed the world. So it’s very disheartening to see all of this going on.

Ryssdal: You and I have been talking for a long time, and every now and then, I ask you, why you do it. But this does seem to be a turning point, and I will say this to you only because I’ve met you and we’ve been talking for a long time. You ain’t no spring chicken. And I guess I wonder if there’s a point at which this could get so bad that you would just say, “The heck with it. I’m done, I’m out. I’m gonna sell off.”

Hemmes: Oh, yeah, no. This is my 40th year farming. I’m going to be planting my 40th crop, and I’m very proud of that, you know. So I have seen the ups and downs, and what we’re going through now is — what did they call it? A revolution? The president and Mr. [Elon] Musk want to be revolutionaries. Well, you know, we’ll see. You know, hopefully this is better for everyone, but it’s, I don’t know. I think my farm will weather this. I just hope other younger farmers get through this. It’s very scary. But, I mean, I had a grandpa who lived to be 101 years old, and started farming with three horses and lived to have an auto-steer tractor. So that really is my guiding light. You know, he went through a lot, and this farm will go through more, but I’ll still be here.