ATR Trent Loos: Property vs sales tax, barges carrying less freight and solar rent checks

About this episode

Vance Crowe hosts Trent Loos, a longtime grassroots ag media figure (Loose Tales, Rural Route Radio, Protect Our Harvest), for this week's Ag Tribes Report. Headlines cover low Mississippi River water levels driving up barge freight costs by 57% versus the three-year average just as harvest floods the grain market; a South Dakota proposal (echoed in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana) to eliminate residential property tax by roughly doubling sales tax, prompted by property valuations Loos says have risen 154% since 2021 in Nebraska; and investor-driven solar leasing paying farmers 3x traditional cash rent, which Loos calls a "starvation" trajectory as the US shifts toward net food-importing status. Loos delivers an extensive breakdown of Nebraska school district spending as the real driver of property tax pain (his local district raised its budget by $3M despite plummeting test scores), and frames nearly all major policy failures as a loss of local/county-level control per the US Constitution. Bitcoin land price report pegs Nebraska farmland at ~0.069 BTC/acre ($4,021/acre; BTC at $58,200). His Peter Thiel paradox answer is unusually blunt for an ag-audience guest: he believes Trump is "dangerous to the future of America" (citing Trump's ties to Wilbur Ross/the Rothschild banking network and support for federal animal-rights legislation) despite having served on Trump's first-term Ag Advisory Committee, while still viewing Harris as worse. His worthy adversary is RFK Jr., a former courtroom rival turned wartime ally on agricultural issues during RFK's 2024 campaign.

“We're now in a position where we are no longer land owners. We're leasing land from the government... I can take you and sit you down with a guy at his kitchen table that he is currently paying more in property tax than he paid to buy the place.”

“We have increased our valuations of land by 154% since 2021... our property taxes increased by 300% since 2006.”

“We have a spending problem... there's a concerted effort to go through the National Association of School Boards into the State School Boards Association... to get them to spend more money than what the taxpayers of that particular school district can handle.”

Key moments

• early ~5-15%: Freight cost breakdown from low Mississippi water levels, plus a tangent on rumored California pipelines seeking Missouri/Mississippi water rights (institutions, money).
• middle ~20-45%: Extended property tax deep-dive — Nebraska valuations up 154% since 2021, school district spending as root cause, TEEOSA equalization formula details (institutions, money).
• middle ~55-65%: Solar lease rents 3x cash rent; Loos frames renewable energy subsidies as accelerating US net food-import status ("starvation") (money, institutions).
• Peter Thiel paradox — Loos states Trump is "dangerous," citing Wilbur Ross/Rothschild ties and federal animal-rights legislation, despite serving on Trump's Ag Advisory Committee (trust).
• Worthy adversary segment — Loos details his adversarial-to-allied relationship arc with RFK Jr., including a post-9/11 confrontation and later 2024 campaign-era collaboration (trust).