By Doug Tenney, Leist Mercantile

Last month, my cycling friend Roger and I were enjoying a Saturday morning bike ride in Hocking County on Big Pine Road. We’ve ridden this route several times a year for the past eight years, passing the same small, run-down barn just a few feet off the road. It always has an open-air pen with a handful of hogs, and, without fail, a terrifying, nose-curling, unforgettable stench.

I was a few feet ahead of Roger, hesitant to believe it might not happen this time. I thought to myself, Wait for it, wait for it. And suddenly, while entirely expected, Roger painfully announced, “And there it is.”

That phrase feels fitting for farmers with the rollercoaster of trade policy especially when it comes to China. After months of waiting in anticipation, an agreement

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