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/theskippyraccoon 5h ago

Instead of letting in go to waste while occupying their time with sob stories on tik tok they could TRY to recoup some losses by offering a discounted rate for locals to pick their own produce and charge a reasonable price per pound.

There are orchards and berry farms who offer this as a novel, country-esque touristy experience in some areas. Hell! Some vineyards in Europe used to do the same.

These people aren't capable of thinking outside of the box and doing anything that could possibly garner real sympathy or change the minds of the public at this time.

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u/flip69 5h ago edited 4h ago

Oh you think that big farms are close to residential areas?

They are not close to metropolitan areas where people need the fruit. The nearest farm will take me far too much in gas EVEN IF I HAD THE TIME TO SPARE to pick fruit.

Those locals to the farm will have sauce till next year.

The rest of us are screwed
You’re dreaming and I don’t want to go back to the 1930’s with the migrant mother and her 3 children starving in a tent.
So much for the failed economist Peter Navarro and his insane economic trade policies I hate the fact that he was from here like so many other GOP / trump crazies.
.

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u/Pineapplepizzaracoon 3h ago

Also they would need to be in a tourism path or have something desirable.

No one is getting excited to go pull low quality mass farmed tomatoes.

Truffle hunting or picking a basket of apples in a quaint little country village is novel. Photo ops in canola or sunflower sure.

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u/qqererer 1h ago

Google maps doesn't even begin to show how far away and in the middle of nowhere a majority of these fields are.

They're typically far far away from major highways and pock marked by tiny tiny towns where farmers live.

You almost have to zoom in to max level before you see any resemblance of a neighborhood, or small town if you're lucky.

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u/OkNeighborhood5060 5h ago

Most of what they'd offer are corn and soybeans specially bred to feed livestock.

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u/asmodeanreborn 5h ago

Migrant works aren't hired to pick corn and soybeans by hand, though.

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u/Ancient-Afternoon374 44m ago

They 100% pick corn where i live. It's all sweet corn tho not field corn for feed.

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u/asmodeanreborn 39m ago

Yeah, sweet corn is different and would be the type humans who want to eat might be interested in picking as a touristy thing (where I grew up, this is common for strawberries and sometimes even potatoes). The comment I responded to was talking about the livestock feed type of corn and soybeans.

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u/Corfiz74 4h ago

That's what I was thinking! That's what some German asparagus farmers did when the migrant workers couldn't come during the pandemic. Some even kept a few fields for that, since it became quite popular.

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u/DancesWithInkPens 4h ago

40 acres of potatoes next to 100 acres of potatoes. Ain't gettin' in the car for that.

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u/Consistent-Fig7484 4h ago

This works for California and Oregon vineyards or apple orchards in Washington. People aren’t taking vacations to buttfuck Oklahoma to pick feed corn.

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u/MangoCats 4h ago

U-pick only goes so far, at some point it's not worth it for people to drive that far to pick the food even if it was free. Price of gas isn't helping this equation.