'I don't know how we're going to survive this.' Some once-loyal farmers begin to doubt Trump.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.’ Some once-loyal farmers begin to doubt Trump.

By Annie Gowen June 21 at 11:32 AM

-snip-

More than 1,000 miles away in Washington, another deadline was looming. To avoid a potential trade war with Mexico, negotiators were rushing to hammer out a deal to stem the wave of migrants flowing through the country to the U.S. border. Without an agreement by the coming Monday, President Trump said he would implement punishing new tariffs on Mexico, dealing another blow to farmers like those here in Orient, S.D., where residents were already reeling from the trade war with China and months of bad weather.

Like farmers around the country, they were faced with gut-wrenching choices: Plant their corn in muddy fields or file an insurance claim? How much would they receive from the $14.5 billion of aid that Trump promised in May to offset their losses from China’s tariffs, and what crops would they have to plant to receive it?

Some rural residents are growing increasingly frustrated with the ongoing trade feuds and wonder how long Trump will call upon farmers to make sacrifices as the country’s “patriots.”

“People are starting to say, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this,’?” said Martinmaas, who voted for Trump in 2016, but says he’s open to a Democrat like Montana Gov. Steve Bullock this time. “You know, we’re the ones taking the brunt of it in all these negotiations, so they need to be kind of helping us out right now.”

Martinmaas, whose family homesteaded this land in 1888, said his farm operation lost more than $700,000 last year. He’s had to put a moratorium on buying new equipment, and he’s stuck with grain bins full of soybeans, because China isn’t buying. Other farmers can’t pay their bills for the hay and grain they bought from him.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/i-dont-know-how-were-going-to-survive-this-once-loyal-farmers-begin-to-doubt-trump/2019/06/21/04a32c65-c385-4052-8cd7-5cb4ef2119cc_story.html

[sandensea]

1. I can just hear Cheeto now:

"Hey, Jared. Did you read this? I wonder how we can get in on this farm foreclosure action."

"Eww. Farming? Sounds gross!"

"Yeah, well - I know some guys on Wall Street that are making a killing on this. Get me Munchkin - or whatever the hell his name is!"

[progree]

2. I wonder about the supply of farm labor ... all the immigrant/border stuff must be affecting

the supply of migrant labor big time, I would think.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. And now the raids. Immigrant farm labor is everywhere

At the farmer's market, the people with the big farms that look like mini grocery stores in the variety of produce they claim to grow and raise themselves, they use immigrant labor too. I don't and I assumed if you grew organic you didn't use migrant labor. I was wrong. All the big farms use migrant labor even if they are local and organic.

So the raids are going to affect farmers big time. After Trump pissed on their markets, he turns around and shits on their cheap labor too. Farmers are going to have tough times because around here harvest season is starting and farmers are fighting over the remnants of migrant workers now. It's going to be hell come fall when the really big harvests start.

And I'll bet you every one of those farmers who are losing their cheap labor voted for Traitor Trump.