3 ms·

Off topic but, I am curious, why would people hate the people that produce their food? Seems like a footgun position to take.

• reducesuffering 2y ago
  Usually problems vis-a-vis farmers come from farmers being exalted just like you're doing, so politically they've been given a lot of leeway for government subsidies and entitlements. There are many farmers who struggle making a living on limited land, even with subsidies. But in other professions, there wouldn't be those subsidies and that specific job wouldn't be economically viable. But there are also many other farmers with $10m+ properties and paying meager farmhand wages to those doing the actual work, while the farmer landowner gets the million dollar subsidies paying them to dump milk or grow wasteful corn fuel. Essentially, it's because producing food doesn't give you the right to be pampered by everyone else and make economically bad decisions. In Europe specifically, it would be in part because of the "tractor protests" where tractors were mass driven into city centers in protest, especially the Netherlands because they didn't like being restricted on nitrogen pollution. It would be especially irksome when you can get most peoples' votes for bad policy just by saying "support farmers, they grow your food." Except that all that nitrogen in the Netherlands goes to actually growing exported food ($$)... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/16/nitrogen-wars-the-dutch-farmers-revolt-that-turned-a-nation-upside-down https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/16/nitrogen...