Schumer meets with farmers and small business owners in Yates County to address the growing impact of Trump’s tariff war on the Finger Lakes economy

New York – In the rolling farmland of Yates County, where vineyards hug the hillsides and small breweries dot quiet rural roads, frustration is spilling over. The people who grow, bottle, and brew here are finding themselves caught between rising costs and shrinking markets — a collision they blame on the trade policies of former President Donald Trump.

This week, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer stood among them, not in a Washington committee room but on the ground in Penn Yan, at Klaas and Mary-Howell Martens’ Lakeview Organic Grains farm. He came to hear from those living through the economic pinch of tariffs that have cut deep into the Finger Lakes’ agriculture and hospitality sectors.

“Finger Lakes farmers and small business owners are on the frontlines of Trump’s destructive trade war,” Schumer said during the visit. “Earlier this week, I met with farmers in Yates County and small businesses from across the Finger Lakes to discuss the impact of Trump’s tariffs on local businesses, and they said what I have long known: Trump’s tariffs are a tax increase on Upstate NY. Our farmers, wineries, and farm breweries depend on supplies like aluminum cans and raw ingredients from Canada, from barley to soybeans, to make American-made food and beverages. As these costs skyrocket, our farmers are seeing sales plummet because our Canadian friends no longer want to come to New York or purchase our products. One farm told me they’re seeing a dip in businesses because Canadian grocery stores don’t want to buy American products, and a vineyard said they used to see customers from up to 35 different counties every year, but this year only one. Rising costs and lost customers are a double whammy that’s devastating our farms and vineyards,” said Senator Schumer. “Local farms can’t afford this chaos and need to be able to plan for tomorrow with the certainty they deserve. That’s why, when the Senate returns, I will force a vote to end Trump’s trade war with Canada that is crushing Finger Lakes farms. It is time we put an end to Trump’s reckless and costly trade war once and for all and save our farms.”

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For local vineyard owners, the issue is more than an abstract policy debate — it’s a direct hit to their livelihoods. Many wineries in the region have long relied on steady Canadian tourism, a dependable export market, and favorable trade relations with Ontario’s Liquor Control Board (LCBO), one of the largest wine buyers on the planet. Years of collaboration helped secure Finger Lakes wines a place on LCBO shelves, with Canada emerging as the biggest market for American wine outside the U.S. But the trade tensions have severed that connection, leaving a gap many winemakers fear will not be easily filled.

Owners told Schumer they have seen Canadian visitors all but vanish from tasting rooms that once hosted travelers from dozens of countries. One winery, accustomed to seeing patrons from as many as 35 countries each year, said this year they’ve greeted just a single Canadian visitor. It’s a pattern that mirrors border statistics: Schumer pointed to a 1.5 million drop in Canadian crossings into New York since Trump took office — a plunge of 22 percent. In an area where weekend tourism helps sustain businesses through the long winters, that decline is more than just a number.

The slump in exports is also creating a bottleneck of unsold product. One grape grower estimated the region’s vineyards may be left sitting on 6,000 tons of grape juice this year — enough for 360,000 cases of wine — because demand from Canada and Europe has collapsed. That surplus, while it sounds like abundance, actually represents revenue locked up in storage tanks instead of flowing into the local economy.

Brewers across the region are facing a similar squeeze. Craft beer production in New York State relies heavily on barley and malted barley from Canada, and tariffs have made those imports far more expensive. Small breweries, already operating with tight margins, worry that higher costs for core ingredients could threaten their survival.

Even businesses outside of beverages are feeling the sting. Northern Soy Inc., a nearly half-century-old tofu manufacturer in Rochester, is caught in the cross-border turbulence. The 25-employee company sells in both the U.S. and Canada, and while it sources most soybeans domestically — including from the Martens’ farm in Penn Yan — it also has contracts with Canadian suppliers. Tariffs are now adding uncertainty and potential cost increases on both sides of that equation, and the company says Canadian retailers have grown hesitant to stock U.S.-made goods.

Schumer’s visit brought together representatives from across the Finger Lakes’ food and beverage economy — the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, Wine America, Fox Run Vineyards, Anthony Road Vineyards, Scout Vineyard, Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard, Bully Hill Vineyard, the New York State Brewers Association, Iron Tug Craft Brewery, Simmons Vineyard, and more. Each had their own version of the same story: higher costs, fewer customers, and markets closing off.

The senator emphasized that this is not simply a matter of farmers adjusting to normal market shifts. Instead, he argued, the situation is the result of deliberate policy choices that have strained relationships with one of the region’s closest and most important trading partners.

Earlier this year, the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution aimed at lifting tariffs on Canadian goods. Schumer says he plans to take that further, promising to use a fast-track procedural maneuver to force a vote when Congress reconvenes. In addition, Senate Democrats — under his leadership — are pushing for exemptions that would shield small businesses from the brunt of tariff hikes and are working to end the broad, across-the-board levies. Schumer has even joined legal challenges to the president’s tariff powers, filing amicus briefs in cases disputing their legality.

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The stakes, he said, are high. Without a reversal, the Finger Lakes risks losing not only immediate revenue but also the long-term customer relationships and market positions it has spent decades building. For many here, the damage has already begun to reshape how they think about the future.

The Martens’ farm, where Schumer stood for his remarks, is emblematic of that vulnerability. It’s a place that depends on both domestic and cross-border trade to sustain operations — and where each unexpected policy change can ripple through the year’s planting, harvesting, and sales plans. Across the Finger Lakes, that same sense of uncertainty is leaving business owners unable to predict whether investments made today will pay off tomorrow.

For the farmers, vintners, brewers, and food producers who gathered this week, the frustration was palpable. Tariffs may be debated in faraway political chambers, but here, among the vines and grain silos, they are felt in real time — in higher bills, empty tasting rooms, and pallets of unsold goods. Whether Schumer’s push in the Senate will succeed remains to be seen, but for those in Yates County and beyond, the hope is simple: that the political tide in Washington will turn quickly enough to keep their businesses afloat.