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You ever feel that deep pull to the land, to know it, to build something that lasts, that itch for your own wild country?
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American farmers under pressure.
This will be potentially the fourth bad year for farmers.
Farmers across the country are starting to harvest soybeans as we speak, and right now, 25 of our market is completely missing.
It's World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
This is Andrew Peach on the way how US farms were affected by trade wars, crop prices and the government shutdown, but could help be on the way.
Also today, as her new album drops, the business is transformed by the sparkling success of Taylor Swift.
And we're in Thailand with the best female chef in the world.
Let's start in the US though, where trade wars, crop prices and now the government shutdown haven't been making life easy for farmers.
A couple of hours ago, senators voted for a fourth time to reject proposals to reopen the US government, so the shutdown continues into next week.
Meanwhile, there are reports that President Trump is considering providing 10 billion in aid to farmers.
Let's talk to Jeff Winton, dairy farmer in Kansas, and Barb Calbor, fourth generation corn and soybean farmer in Iowa.
Let me put the question to you.
What's the biggest challenge you have?
Marketing our crop.
The prices are at a point where you don't really want to do it when you very first harvest, because that's usually when prices are down.
But if they stay down and then you store your crop and wait for higher prices, then you pay 20 cents a bushel to store the crop.
And so then you need to wait for a pretty good recovery in the price to come out even.
So, you know, you just kind of juggle what you should do.
And of course, too, you a lot of times have to come up with your payments at the end of the year.
And so that means sell your crop.
I suppose those things are to an extent true every year.
So what's making crop prices particularly difficult this year?
Well, the crop prices aren't moving.
They're staying low.
They're staying below cost of production.
And they aren't moving.
They're moving like one or two cents up, one or two cents down, but not really anything that you can plan on.
It's up 50 cents.
I better sell.
So, yeah, they just aren't moving.
They're just kind of hanging still.
And what about the trade wars with other countries that we talk about a lot on this program?
And for that matter, now that the government shut down, do those things have any impact on you?
Oh, my gosh.
That man started off with tariffs, number one.
Well, who do tariffs hurt but farmers down here at the far end of the country?
Of the trade, you know.
They are no longer buying any.
So now we have 50% of our soybean production that we have to figure out a place to market it.
Now Brazil.
China is getting a lot from Brazil and I guess they have bought what?
20 million bushels from Brazil.
They just made a big purchase from Argentina.
So they're finding a place to buy their soybeans.
And on top of everything else, once you've lost that buyer, it will take years to get him back.
So this isn't just going to impact us this year.
It's going to impact us for years down the road.
Another place that tariffs are hurting us is in getting our parts for our equipment.
My husband's out in the field right now and he said he has this sensor that's going off all the time and he needs to replace it.
And I said, well, you better call John Deere and see if they can even get it.
Bob, stay there.
Let's bring in Jeff, our dairy farmer in Kansas.
And Jeff, let me put the question to you.
What's the biggest challenge you've got farming at the moment?
Well, one of the biggest challenges we have is the uncertainty about what's happening with the markets.
In dairy farming.
It's a roller coaster under the best of circumstances, due to the complex milk marketing and pricing programs that have been in place for many, many years.
And so any given month, you're never quite sure what you will be getting for the milk that's been produced.
So we are very concerned about what this means for the export of our products.
Our farm.
In addition to the one in Kansas, where I'm talking to you from, we also have a farm in New York, on the Canadian border.
And so a lot of our equipment, even the components for fertilizer, comes from Canada.
And we're already seeing the prices escalating there.
But, if I had to say, my number one concern as not only a farmer but as a mental health advocate, is the incredible stress that this is putting on farmers, farm families and agricultural communities across the country.
Farmers in the United States already are three and a half times more likely to die by suicide than any other occupation.
And, considering the number of calls and messages I am receiving, I am concerned that that number is going to be rising exponentially in the coming months.
Barbara, we hear these reports that President Trump is sympathetic and there's the suggestion that there could be a large amount of aid on the way to US farmers.
Do you believe that?
Would it help?
Not really.
With President Trump, you believe it when you see it, you know, for sure.
I think he did give us some financial aid in his first term, too, and that will help.
A lot of times it isn't the complete answer, but it will help.
You know a lot of people when that comes through.
So we'll just have to wait and see.
And what do you make of that idea, Jeff?
I mean, I'm summarizing what you've said so far.
It seems like you think, well, he'd just be helping with the problem he'd caused in the first place.
Yeah, that's precisely right.
The fact remains, farmers by nature are very proud and independent, and they do not want handouts.
I do not want handouts.
Instead, what we want are stable markets and that we can rely on.
So I think, no matter what farmer you would talk to here in the United States and Barb, I think you would agree that they would tell you that returning the stability to our markets is way more important than any handout we're getting from President Trump.
Right, right.
And Barb, how would he do that for you?
What would the president need to do to restore the sort of stability that you guys are looking for?
Well, he'd keep his sticky fingers out of it for once.
He wouldn't.
Well, like the tariffs.
I mean my gosh.
The tariffs not only impact our exports, but they impact the parts that we get for our equipment and whether or not we can get them.
It hurts a lot of companies.
And I don't see where it helps anyone, where the tariffs are helping any company, including farmers.
And the expense, the expenses.
We already have prices below cost of production and he's going to give us a little money to tide us over and get us through.
But when you look at the cost, the input cost to produce these crops, produce the milk, produce the cattle, it just takes your breath away.
And Geoff, are you with Barb on that?
It doesn't seem likely, but you're saying what you'd really like is to abandon the whole idea of tariffs.
Yes.
Well, I am not an expert when it comes to tariffs, but I do think that they're causing an inordinate amount of damage and stress to those of us who rely on a healthy export market for our product, as well as imports that are so critically important.
The one thing I would also say that I think people need to understand is is the labor situation in this country is in dire straits right now.
Agriculture relies on foreign guest workers to run our combines, to pick our grapes, to milk our cows.
The latest statistic I saw was that, within the last four months, 155000 farm workers have left the United States, or at least left their jobs in agriculture, including documented workers, by the way, that are equally concerned.
So farming is very labor-intensive and we rely on the people that our government is now targeting, and I am very concerned about where that will end up, because we were already Jeff, we're going to have to leave it there.
The line is a bit dodgy, as our listeners can tell.
Jeff Winton is in Kansas, and Barb Calbor, thank you to you for joining us as well from Iowa.
I would like to say to end up on what Jeff was saying right there, we have a JBS beef processor in one of our smaller towns in southeast Iowa that hired 200 immigrant workers and they had the proper visas and stuff to work for JBS.
And I arrested all 200 of them.
So JBS is in a pickle as far as trying to process beef for consumers.
So it hurts consumers as well as farmers.
Good to talk to you, Barb.
Thank you very much indeed for being with us on the programme.
We're going to turn next to the idea of saving up a deposit to go on a cruise but never getting to go.
We've been talking to retired people who did just that.
The firm involved continues to advertise the cruise on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, while many of those who signed up are giving up any hope of getting their money back.
Our Asia business correspondent, Suranjana Tiwari, told me more.
I've personally spoken to about a dozen people and we understand there could be dozens more.
It's thought this company, which is called Victoria Cruises Line or VCL, may have taken almost 1 million in deposits, possibly more.
And they were advertising a fully fledged cruise, but they don't seem to have a lease or a charter for a ship.
Now, this cruise was a retirement cruise, where passengers would live on the ship for a minimum of three years and they'd have the choice to extend.
They signed up for a cabin, which cost about $3,800 per month.
And you can imagine, for retirees it really was something of a dream, especially those who didn't know where they're going to live out their retirement or those that really enjoy cruising.
Now we've reached out to this company and they said that they did have about 132 cancellations, but that 38 people who were asking for a refund were not entitled to one because they had stipulated that they needed to reach a roughly 80 occupancy to be able to charter a ship.
VCL says it hasn't yet reached this target and that's why it hasn't chartered a vessel yet.
Now, these travellers signed up and they paid at least $10,000 each.
And what happened was the departure date just kept on getting postponed.
As I said, for many people, this cruise was something of a dream experience.
And they transformed their lives in order to go on it.
Some people sold their homes.
They stored their belongings.
One even put down an elderly pet.
And they thought they were going to live out their retirement on a cruise.
And it's really turned into something of a nightmare.
Now, I traveled to Perth in Australia to meet one couple, Dennis and Tarunia Wan.
And they'd been going through some family trauma.
They really saw this cruise as something of an escape.
They told me about their experience.
We tried to get in touch with lots of news entities.
The people in the United States tried to get in touch with government entities.
Nobody really has been willing to listen.
And we just want to stop them advertising and others losing their money as well.
There's at least 80 people that haven't received their refunds.
A couple of people that did that obviously asked for their refund at a time where it was viable for them.
And it was the decision that best suited them to refund the money so they could continue.
Victoria, who is the owner of the company.
Her son claimed that we've never said we had a ship, we've never promised we had a ship, and yet when you go to their website, you're able to book the exact cabin that you want.
So if they haven't got a ship, so stay well away from them and hopefully facebook will shut them down after this is.
And, soren jana, why has it been so hard for these people to get refunds?
Yeah well, I've been looking into VCL for some time now and what I found was a tangled web of registrations and business uses for the company across Hungary and Italy.
There's little evidence that I saw that it was ever registered or had the documentation in order to operate a cruise.
And the people who have been affected.
They reached out to the owners of the ship that was advertised and they said that they have no agreement with VCL.
Now, this website of VCL is very sophisticated.
It's still operational.
It's still advertising the cruise at discount.
Although I did reverse image search a lot of the pictures on there and they are stock shots which are widely available on the internet.
VCL social media campaign is also very proficient to promote the cruise.
And people I spoke to described how they were guided into booking a particular cabin on the ship.
And as we heard from Dennis and Tarina, one said The people affected have tried a lot of things legal cases in Hungary and Italy, US government agencies, a consumer court in the US, but with a very limited outcome.
And one person even contacted the FBI.
As far as the advertising goes and the continued advertising, I've reached out to Meta, which of course, owns Instagram and Facebook.
Meta told me that it hasn't taken the ads down because it did not find any evidence that the page violates its policies.
A consumer advocate that I spoke to in Australia, Adam Gleaser, says that older people had been targeted because they wouldn't be as willing to fight back.
VCL has threatened legal action against a number of customers who have raised complaints on social media or talked to the media themselves.
And I've seen evidence of that.
And many of them told me the whole saga has affected their mental and physical health.
I asked VCL its response to accusations that it's running a scam and VCL denied it, saying there are no victims, just that some people cannot accept that they are not entitled to a refund.
And that was Surinjana Tiwari reporting.
You ever feel that deep pull to the land, to know it, to build something that lasts, that itch for your own wild country?
What ain't just a daydream?
In 2025, it matters more than ever.
Whether you're a lifelong hunter or just starting out, dreaming of land to explore, to leave something real, or there is a trailhead where you can start.
It's called land.com, the biggest online network for rural property.
Find the right agent and explore everything from timber tracks to ranches.
Get the tools you need to buy that dream generational property.
Stop dreaming about it and head to land.com.
It's your place to find your open space.
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
Now, I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's premium wireless is $15 a month.
But I'd like to offer one other perk.
We have no stores.
That means no small talk.
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No, it's not.
It's just weather.
It is an introvert's dream.
Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan.
$15 per month equivalent required.
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Taxes and fees extra.
See mintmobile.com.
This is World Business Report from the BBC World Service with Andrew Peach.
I drove my daughter to school this morning listening to the new Taylor Swift album which was just out The Life of a Showgirl.
We love a bit of Taylor, and we're not alone, because more than 5 million fans pre-saved it on Spotify.
That's the largest number in Spotify's history.
Pre-orders for the vinyl edition sold out from Swift's online shop in less than an hour.
Even though not all the critics are loving these new songs, which are a bit less anguished and a bit more poppy.
But how long can it all continue?
Well, we wanted to talk to someone whose business has been boosted by Taylor Swift.
Aliette Buttleman is the co-founder of Faze It Beauty, a brand that went viral after Taylor Swift wore their glitter freckles at an NFL game last year.
She's live with me from New York.
Aliette, thank you for being with us.
When you saw Taylor Swift wearing your product, talk me through what went through your mind.
Hi, Andrew.
Thank you so much for having me.
So when you saw it, when you found out that Taylor Swift had chosen your product, what were you thinking?
Oh yeah, I mean it was completely just an emotional evening.
We had gifted product to her makeup artist six months prior.
We had released this first ever makeup patch.
It was this glitter freckle design and when we produced it we said, oh my gosh, how amazing would it be if Taylor wore this during the Heiress tour or her fans were wearing it and six months later she wore it to an NFL game and Really, it was such an overwhelming feeling for us as a company because we had laid this foundation, you know, to support a moment like this.
And Taylor was really the catalyst for our company.
And you know we exploded, you know, not just in the US but on such a global stage, over the last year.
Take a listen to this.
Taylor wore glitter freckles, so I'm wearing glitter freckles.
Taylor wore glitter freckles, so I wore glitter freckles.
Taylor Swift wore glitter freckles, so I'm wearing glitter freckles.
And that's the impact I suppose is someone as influential as Taylor Swift means that all her fans, everyone wants to start wearing not only glitter freckles, but perhaps your glitter freckles.
Yeah, I mean, we were the first company that launched this product and it was great.
I went to the heiress tour two weeks after Taylor wore the product.
And I would say one in three girls was wearing our glitter freckles.
And it was so emotional to see just how much people were resonating with our brand and with this product.
And, you know, we're seeing it across sports arenas now.
Every concert I feel like friends of mine go to say oh my gosh, I've seen somebody wearing your product out.
I went to the Aera store and I wasn't wearing your product and I feel bad.
I feel I should have been.
So that obviously makes a huge impact on your business almost overnight.
I know you wanted it.
You're almost like hoping that this would happen.
But how do you then scale up in a way that meets demand?
Yeah, I mean, like I said, we really laid the foundation.
We had a few viral moments before Taylor had worn our product.
So our team was ready for something like this to potentially happen.
I think it's a bit of strategy and luck.
Our supply chain was ready for this.
And luckily, we had more product shipping on the way two days after Taylor wore the product.
So we were in a good place in order to meet the demand of customers.
But And since that moment, we have scaled our team.
We've scaled our retail presence.
We launched at Target and Walmart and CVS in the United States.
And we are coming to the UK actually this month to a retailer.
And yeah, I mean, the global attention has really been immense.
Aliette, thank you.
Aliette Buttleman from Fazit Beauty.
Now, Thailand is well known for its delicious food and has produced some internationally renowned chefs.
Among them, Pichaya Sutunyonakid, who is known as Chef Pam.
This year, she was named the best female chef in the world by a panel of 1,000 gastronomists.
She is the first Asian woman to win that award.
My colleague Gideon Long met her in Bangkok.
Yeah, so I met Chef Pam at Potong, which is her Michelin-starred restaurant in Chinatown, and it's a building which has got real significance for her because it was built by her family well over 100 years ago, originally as a Chinese medicine shop.
So Chef Pam is Thai but she's Chinese Thai and she says her food is very much a fusion of those two culinary cultures.
But the highlight of the trip Andrew, is when Chef Pam took me food shopping in Bangkok's Chinatown.
It's where she buys many of the ingredients she uses in her restaurant.
Chinatown in Bangkok is one of the biggest out of China.
Looking around, it's kind of what I guess lots of people would imagine a Chinatown should look like.
These narrow alleys, lots of restaurants, really bustling, a lot of people around.
Do you know what this is?
No.
So it's actually the swimming bladder of a fish.
And then they dry it.
And once they dry it, they deep fry it.
That's why it pops up.
And we cook that in a soup.
And these are very...
A delicacy for Thai and Chinese food, which is dried scallop.
Dried scallop?
I was thinking that might be ginger.
It's kind of the color of ginger, little cubes.
And see, only this small packet is 450 baht, which is considered very expensive.
Duck, chicken.
Duck and chicken, yeah.
Finally recognize something.
Now, what are these?
These are very authentic snacks.
Do you think we can try?
Yes, you cannot find this around bangkok apart from here.
This is the only place in bangkok you'd find it.
Yeah, just to describe it, these are little rings about the size of a coin, a large coin, with a hole in the middle, and they're green.
They're kind of the color of the inside of a kiwi fruit, and they seem to be covered in maybe sesame seeds.
I'm guessing sesame seeds.
Yes Okay, and what is the sauce that you're pouring onto them?
Coconut sugar.
Coconut sugar, okay.
It's going to be sweet for sure.
We like this kind of texture.
It's soft, but then there's texture to it.
Some bite to it.
Really chewy.
Yeah.
Fish?
Is that fish?
Squid?
Squid, yeah.
So we're standing in front of a table.
There are nine huge bowls filled with water and filled with, I guess, seafood, all of them?
No.
Oh.
That's squid.
And this is duck feet.
Duck's feet?
Yes.
And this is bamboo.
Bamboo?
Dried bamboo.
Dried bamboo, like this, but then cut into like this.
And that's a jellyfish.
I would say, looking at most of the produce that's on sale here, I would be hard-pressed to recognise what it was or to tell you what it was.
So if you're here walking alone, would you dare to buy some of the stuff and taste?
Well, I would, but I would have no idea what I was buying or what to expect in terms of taste.
Yeah.
So that's the food market, the ingredients, but of course it's all very well being a fantastic chef and having these great ingredients, but a restaurant is a business and you have to make it work as a business.
Here's what she had to say about that.
I think, doing business.
There's a guide to how to do a successful restaurant, but there's no right or wrong because it's a business that varies from different situation to different situation and from different countries.
It has different factors.
That goes into how to become a successful entrepreneur.
And you're a double act, right?
Your husband is your business manager as well.
Yes.
So actually, I'm just a chef, works in the kitchen.
Well, not just a chef.
And create dishes and recipes.
For me, I think there's so many great chefs around the world that cook fabulous food.
But not all chefs can run a successful and positive restaurant.
And that's the hard part.
And it's interesting that you've set up here right in the heart of Chinatown.
And you've done it because this building means so much to you.
But it's not where you'd expect to find a Michelin-starred restaurant.
When we tell many people that we're going to open a restaurant, right here, they were like I'm telling you because I love you.
I'm warning you, like, don't do this.
It's going to be a mistake because there's no market for people who want to pay $180 for a meal.
It's not a usual place for them.
Do you run any cooking classes?
Actually, no.
It's not my forte.
You should share your talent, surely.
For me, teaching my staff and my team in the kitchen is already enough.
And how do you find the chefs who work in your kitchen?
What I'm looking for when I hire people here and the people who stay with me for a long time, is their attitude.
I think it's more important than skills.
Because skills you can always teach, but attitude you cannot teach anyone.
Will you remain working at Potong at this site, or can you imagine yourself working elsewhere?
I don't think I can work anywhere else anymore.
This is my place and my ground.
The food here is from my soul and from my inspiration, so I cannot be anywhere else apart from Potong.
That report by Gideon Long.
That's it from me, Andrew Peach, and the World Business Report team.
Thank you for being with us on the BBC World Service.
America is changing, and so is the world.
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.
It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.
I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is The Global Story.
Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
