Mary Carroll Dodd has had to increase the price of her collard greens and lettuce in recent months — just some of the impacts she attributes to the Trump Administration's tariffs.
Dodd owns Red Scout Farm in Black Mountain, where she grows organic produce and sells it directly to customers.
Since the Trump Administration returned to office and hiked tariffs on thousands of products, Dodd has seen increases on prices for things like the mesh netting her farm uses to keep insects away or the plastic bags they put vegetables in once they've been picked. Now, with the holidays approaching, she and other farmers are warning those import taxes on foreign-made goods are having a significant effect on Americans' groceries.
"When the price of everything it takes to grow vegetables goes up from soil to tools to fertilizer, packaging, transportation, then the vegetables on the holiday table goes up as well. Because of increases in our costs, mostly due to tariffs, we’ve had to raise the cost of some of our vegetables," Dodd said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The event was part of a campaign called Tariffs Cost U.S., highlighting the impact the Trump Administration’s tariffs are having on businesses and consumers across the country.
Data from the U.S. Consumer Price Index shows that the price of food eaten at home increased 2.7% from September 2024 to September 2025.
Dodd warned that the impact of tariffs on rising prices isn't always obvious. Once the farm figured out that prices were rising, she said, it took calling suppliers and actually asking what was going on and where the products used on the farm were made to realize that tariffs were having an effect.
"For a small, diversified farm like us, those costs add up quickly. Our profit margins are already very thin, so every increase means tough choices," Dodd said.
That forces the farm to decide whether to raise its prices or cut spending elsewhere.
There are varying estimates as to whether a Thanksgiving dinner this year is more or less expensive than last year.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, for instance, projects that a full Thanksgiving spread including both ham and turkey will cost $77.09 this year, down from $77.37 last year. Meanwhile, the Century Foundation found that Thanksgiving dinner, desserts and drinks will cost $140.25 this year versus $127.76 last year, a nearly 10% increase.
Collin Tuthill is the CEO of Royal Food Import Corp., an Asheville-based company that helps restaurants, food banks and even prisons source dry groceries.
Since the Trump Administration started implementing tariffs earlier this year, Tuthill said, the organization has seen its customers purchasing less food or else trading down to buy cheaper items. That means less food at food banks, smaller portions in cafeterias or less nutritious food in hospitals and prisons, Tuthill said.
“Placing a tariff or a tax on any kind of food item is something that makes absolutely no sense to me. You know, I can understand if you want to place tariffs on TVs or tennis shoes or something that’s not an essential item,” Tuthill said.
Trump Administration officials argue tariffs are necessary to defend American industries, make trade agreements more fair and create incentives for companies to bring manufacturing and other jobs back to the United States.
Researchers at the Tax Foundation found that Trump Administration tariffs are effectively a $1,200 tax on the average U.S. consumer in 2025, rising to $1,600 in 2026. Over the next decade, the tariffs will raise $2.3 trillion in revenue for the federal government but also reduce the national gross domestic product by 0.6%.
Tuthill pointed specifically to canned fruit, much of which he said comes from China because of a significantly lower cost of production there.
Last year, there was a 25% tariff on canned fruit. That jumped to 55% over the year and has since dropped back to 45%.
“It’s a significant increase, which is, again, cutting down the purchases,” Tuthill said.
Earlier this month, the Trump Administration announced that it would roll back tariffs on certain grocery items like bananas, beef, coffee and spices.
Along those same lines, Nick Levendofsky, president of the Kansas Farmers Union, pointed to 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as particularly detrimental to farmers. That tariff had been 25%.
Steel and aluminum aren’t only important to the price of canned goods, Levendofsky said, but also have an impact on how much it costs farmers to produce grains and vegetables because they make up a significant amount of farming equipment.
“If farmers have had to purchase that equipment ahead of harvest or even planting season, those are reflected in those prices,” Levendofsky said.
