While acknowledging the economic pain from trade disputes, farmers in Iowa and neighboring states believe that confronting China over its trade practices will benefit U.S. agriculture in the long term, according to a new poll conducted by Iowa State University (ISU).

“Our survey showed that farmers see the China issue as a short-term pain, long-term gain phenomenon,” said Wendong Zhang, an ISU economist who helped analyze the survey. “The farmers we surveyed were more optimistic about long-term exports to China than I expected them to be.”

ISU’s Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) garnered responses from nearly 700 farmers in Iowa,...