r/LeopardsAteMyFarm • u/Conscious-Quarter423 • 6h ago

so MAGA farmers chased off immigrant farmworkers because Trump said they were taking American jobs, now they can’t find anyone to pick their crops. Funny how the pick-yourselves-up-by-the-bootstraps crowd suddenly needs someone else to do the work

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u/Quantum3ntaglement 6h ago edited 5h ago

We often pay our farmers to throw away food so they can get higher prices for their crops. Welfare queens. https://www.ams.usda.gov/content/usda-establishes-free-and-restricted-percentages-tart-cherries-2023-24-crop-year

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u/Few_Breadfruit0 6h ago

*higher

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u/dockellis24 6h ago

Raise??

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u/th3rdnutt 4h ago

Believe it or not, food prices in the US are some of the lowest in the world as a percentage of income. Somewhere below 7%.

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u/jeremiahthedamned 1h ago

these low prices are keeping millions of americans from starving to death!

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u/12D1 3h ago

its called agriculture subsidies. you get paid X per ton or pallet or w.e but anything over x and you make x-y, the more over X you are the bigger Y gets. But there's also a base-minimum. I knew, well my family knew, farmers growing up. Around harvest season(s) they would drop off pallets of corn or strawberries or w/e they had grown in excess. We'd then leave sell it for the LOW at our grocery store. im talking 10 ears of corn for a dollar low or free even if someone wanted just a few.

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u/breaducate 3h ago

throw away food so they can get higher prices for their crops.

That's just something they do under capitalism, regardless of policy.

Amazon has entire warehouses dedicated to the arbitrary destruction of goods for the same reason.

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u/frequenZphaZe 2h ago

people really dont appreciate the truly incredible amount of waste and discarded product our economic organization creates, food and otherwise. the farm in the OP will probably get paid to cover their losses, just like when trump bailed out farmers in his first term. they wont learn anything. the whole system is designed to forgive, and sometimes reward, waste

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u/RedditIsOverMan 1h ago

What?  That doesn't make any sense.  Limiting output makes sense for producers, but not middlemen like amazon

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u/breaducate 1h ago

What we naively think of as making sense doesn't always line up with capital's interests.

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u/RedditIsOverMan 1h ago

Oh, but this is a totally different thing and makes fiscal sense.  They don't destroy things to raise the value of the remaining stock.  They destroy things because it's cheaper than restocking it.

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u/breaducate 51m ago

Arbitrary destruction of useful goods because it makes the capitalist more money this way is different from arbitrary destruction of useful goods because it makes the capitalist more money this way.

This isn't even would you rather be shot or stabbed, it's would you rather die by artillery strike or bomber.

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u/b0tbuilder 6h ago

Do you know any small business owners who don’t cheat the IRS. In my entire life, I have only known 1.

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u/I_Got_Ur_Number_8675 4h ago

Had a boss who kept everything on paper reciepts, separate pad for cash. He'd burn them at the end of every day

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u/b0tbuilder 1h ago

Unsurprising

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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits 5h ago

Like, yes, but also no, and we really shouldn't start to demonize the idea of food stability and preparedness just because it's fun to bash on farmers.

Having an excess of food production is basic preparation for disaster and unexpected hard times. Protecting from some type of national food disaster is not something an individual can really do. That is why it is the governments job to do that. We should absolutely be reviewing how this is being done, as it's clear corruption has tainted our system top to bottom, but we should not act like the idea of government subsidies for food to make sure we have an excess supply is a bad idea or policy. Food security is one of the most basic jobs of government.

Getting rid of food subsidies because we don't need the food now would be like getting rid of a pandemic team, because you're not currently in a pandemic. It's how you get egg on your face in the form of thousands of dead people.

I have absolutely no sympathy for these farmers. I just don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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u/Quantum3ntaglement 4h ago

Agreed. I'm not suggesting that the welfare queens lose their meal ticket. I just want them to acknowledge that they are welfare queens in the hopes that they will show some grace towards those of the working class who may also require government assistance.

But they probably won't.