CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - President Trump’s $12 billion payment to farmers is meant to alleviate hardship after a year of shifting tariffs and fluctuating federal funding along with the government shutdown.

“It’s a Band-Aid on a much larger wound, which is chronically unstable markets for American farmers,” Tommy Hexter with the Iowa Food System Coalition, said.

Hexter says, even with the payment, farmers are continuing to struggle as it’s difficult to plan ahead with the ever-changing international trade policy.

“It’s a Band-Aid on a much larger wound, which is chronically unstable markets for American farmers,” Hexter said.

Stu Swanson, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, has seen that struggle first-hand while running his own soybean farm.

“Working through a reset on

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