Nah, even if they wanted to they're kinda busy w more urgent affairs right now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This one got people mad LOL For a good time, go check out the comments youtube.com/shorts/zxlbB...

Guess who got juuuust enough ahead of farm work to do do some quick debunky videos. Today's feature: "Yes farmers are planting less crops this year. Considering we're in a trade war, that's probably a good idea!" youtube.com/shorts/2P8sj...

"turning surprisingly sound mental health advice from random internet users into embroidery patterns & selling them on etsy" has to be a business model somebody's doing, right

In WI, UMOS.org is a great org that educates and fights for farm laborers, including those who find themselves in labor trafficking situations. I highly recommend them. Donate if you can and want to help farm laborers in this big ag state.

extremely serious take: how much of the vibecession comes from legalizing weed -People buy from dispensaries (mostly owned by People Who Can Afford Lawyers) instead of the local guy -> fewer opportunities for local guys -No more awkward hanging out with the weed guy -> male loneliness epidemic

This should be a reminder that MTG is a total nut and just because she occasionally feuds with Trump, this does not make her any ally.

Honestly all the raspberries I've grown here so far worked out at least ok. During peak summer heat the berries can be a little small & juicy-to-the-point-of-kinda-soupy. But that's fine for growing your own, & they're still great flavor-wise.

My wife once marvelled at how radicalized the local farmers seemed to be, and I remember telling her that it made more sense to think of them as landed gentry than as right-wing radicals.

Yeah a lot of people want to think of racism as incoherent, unexamined, gut-level knee-jerk hate. It's not? It's a tactical tool. And it works on left-of-center voters too, bc farm worker issues can be safely walled away as "a Latino issue" instead of a "THIS IS THE HORROR YOU FEED ON" issue.

Once upon a time, I was talking to a group about ag's labor problems & how we need to take them more seriously. Someone raised their hand & said "Ok but when are we gonna talk about the RACISM?" They were clearly very proud of themselves for Saying It Out Loud, & wanted kudos for it.

"racism is just the beginning" sounds like the tagline for a nightmarish movie sequel of some sort

I do think it’s a mistake to assume that hostility towards majority rule is purely a product of bigotry, when I think it exists as its own thing, right alongside the bigotry. If you’ve built your identity around personal property and personal wealth, you kind of NEED to place yourself above others.

Yeah farmers are a lot more classist than people realize. Like... that whole "We're real America & better & more authentic than all those city folk" thing? That's not farmers bein' folksy. That's just millionaires doing classism. They think they're better than you because they have land & estates.

Me: Farmers supported Trump in order to get specific financial gains. -Bailouts (getting your money) -Tax breaks (getting your money) -Being able to get back to forced labor. Bsky readers: Oh I get it, they're just racist!

Farmers weren't lied to, they legit wanted a racist real estate fail son in charge because a lot of them look at Trump like one looks in a mirror

Um.... no. I don't think anybody is under the impression that farm workers voted for Trump. A lot of people ARE confused bc they think farmers are peasants, rather than what they are: nepo babies with property. The median SMALL family farmer is a millionaire with a 6-figure income.

We gotta talk about this "Farmers were lied to" thing. You know who doesn't say that? Farmers. Try reading the farm press! They say things like "We took a gamble, and it hasn't paid off. (Yet.)"

Plus immigration reform, basic food safety, SNAP, national labor laws, to name a few And no, it's not "just agribusiness." Most family farmers themselves are enthusiastic participants in this conservative voting & donor bloc.

When I was in high school, the farmers' kids had the best and newest cars. 🤷‍♂️

Also, just practice some basic information literacy. Most "factoids on agriculture" are cherry-picked, spun, and distorted to fit a "poor farmers need your money" narrative. If you hear anything about agriculture, fact-check it before you believe it. EVERYTHING.

No. Fresh tomatoes aren't 100% under the USMCA free trade agreement. They're covered by a separate agreement. Not to be rude, but you could have simply read your article... it links to another article on how tomatoes are in a separate trade agreement. Here it is : / www.trade.gov/feature-arti...

And it controls trillions of dollars of real estate, your daily bread, a meaningful majority of US senators, our immigration system, & apparently most news outlets- judging by how the news just spits out farm lobby talking points with 0 fact-checks ever. You know, just to name a few things.

I think it's just because it's May? so there's a gap btwn the big production areas in Mexico, FL, & CA temporarily short supply -> temporarily higher prices

Nope, there are no tariffs on most food traded between the US, Canada, & Mexico! There's a free trade agreement btwn our 3 countries (a new one that replaced NAFTA), everything covered by that treaty is exempt from tariffs, and nearly all food products you can think of are on that list.

-Farm bankruptcies are indeed on the rise...from historic lows, back to still-slightly-lower-than-normal levels. -The US used to grow a lot of crops for export. We can't sell them anymore. We SHOULD cut back on crop acreage. To keep growing the same amount we used to would be absolutely insane.

Farm update: a bunch of pepper seedlings got killed by a heavy wind today- they were almost healed up from transplant shock. BOOM, fried. On the one hand, it's a bummer! On the other hand, I planted way too many pepper seedlings & have extra seed for re-planting because BABY PEPPERS LOVE TO DIE.

There's nothing quite like looking up the author & finding out he has two (2) Pulitzers.

THIS Like. People can be stupid. But very few people are really, truly *that* stupid. "We were lied to" is an excuse folks are making now- after their decision's blown up in their face. When you hear "We were lied to," you are, in fact, actively BEING lied to.

Farmers are wealthy(think land and equipment). They believed their cult leader would bail them out with our tax money AGAIN when the proverbial 💩 hit the fan on the tariffs they KNEW he was going to impose. They were NOT lied to! They wanted the tax breaks(remember they are rich!). Now? 😭😭😭

Appreciate it but no, we don't agree here! Farmers were not lied to! I'm a farmer. I would know. Trump did a trade war in his 1st term. We cannot claim"he lied to us!" when he literally already did the thing. That's... what the video linked in this tweet is talking about. bsky.app/profile/sara...

Are you... asking why I voted for Trump? My man. My dude. I ran for Commissioner of Agriculture in NC in 2024. As the Democrat. Hope that answers your question! 💙

Most farmers in the US are millionaires with a six figure income. Median household income: $116,493 Median household net worth: $1,244,229 www.ers.usda.gov/media/5698/u...

This is the point that deserves being pounded like a drum, Trump did this in term 1, it was also very bad, farmers just assumed this time, for reasons I will never understand, that Trump would be more generous the next time he did it. Delusion, basically

i dont have sympathy for these people but every one of these stories needs an opening paragraph thats like “this outlet didnt offer a single fact check or rebuttal to trumps claim hes pro farmer instead we were like ‘hell yea brotha’”

there would literally be riots but I appreciate the vote of confidence o7

This is a really good response rooted in a lot of truth. Especially salient when Sarah mentions letting folks have the dignity of their choices and the the questions the American public should be asking when it comes to bailouts and subsidies.

Amid all the poor-farmer framing of that NYTimes story was a tell: the banker pointing out to them that the farm was losing money (colorfully calling it a "hobby"). Thing is, truly working class people don't hear a loss projection from a banker reviewing spreadsheets. They run out of money.

Yes capitalists - including capitalist farmers - do not want free markets or competition: these involve hard work and risk. Capitalists want sure things, stable and sure streams of profits in the form of passive rents, govt bailouts and slave labor.

The real "threat to our land" was our own incompetent mistakes that we made along the way 💕

Essential watch. Some takeaways that clicked for me: 1. Most small farmers are wealthy (not working class) 2. Farm lobbyist knew there would be a trade war but bargained on subsidies + human bondage + tax cuts 3. If you’re not growing food for American consumers why should we bail you out?

GET 'EM, SARAH

Yeah believe it or not, the New York Times is not exactly hip to the streets [dirt roads]

In the US, "what makes a farmer" is claiming farm income/losses, usually on a Schedule F form. People are usually looking for a poetical answer, but it's actually pretty prosaic. Farmer is as farmer does. And "farmer does means "did you actually spend money on farming?"

So, min $12M in land value plus other ongoing royalty contracts. Tough life there.

One of the funnest things about posting about farms & money is watching peoples' brains melt down in real time trying to explain that "yes farmers ARE poor, because they HAVE TO HAVE A DAY JOB" Sir and/or madame, what must you think of the rest of us 🤣

now reaching "the Dutch are discussing your situation" level of farm tomfoolery