5 ms·
Protect the farmers.
by brink 2y ago
Protect the farmers.
- nayuki 2y agoExplain how
- lotsoweiners 2y agoI guess buy their crops.
- mulmen 2y agoHonest question. Why? Clearly we need a food supply but why do we need to prop up unsustainable businesses that are over-producing demand? Farmers are massively subsidized and still barely make ends meet. Is that actually beneficial? I ask this as someone who paid for books and beer in college working on farms.
- rajamaka 2y agoStill need to eat tomatoes when we are at war with country we buy tomatoes from.
- PeterisP 2y agoThose farmers with second jobs would need protection from local megafarms who are outcompeting them, not other countries - it's not about location, it's about size of the operation.
- rajamaka 2y agoMy reply was in relation to the comment "Protect the farmers." I assumed that included local megafarms too.
- jjmarr 2y agoBecause it's objectively cheaper to outsource food production to countries with low cost of living. In an economically efficient world, all food in North America would be coming from Africa instead of going to Africa (see Dead Aid). But if that ever actually happened, those countries could blockade the United States and cut off the food supply. It would be a shitshow. Imagine the 1970s oil crisis, but instead of being unable to drive anywhere, mass famines occurred. In Canada, we don't use subsidies for the dairy market. We use "supply management" where we make it difficult to import butter or milk and ban farmers from producing too much of it. This keeps the prices artificially high which allows for farmers to continue domestic production in a HCOL country. However, 4 sticks of butter costs $6.
- mulmen 2y agoYes we obviously need domestic food production. But do we need small farms that are essentially a hobby? “Supply management” as described is a subsidy because it artificially increases prices.
- jmward01 2y agoWe should be encouraging small farms, hobby or not, because diversity breeds innovation and durability. We have propped up big ag too much. Subsidies, to any sector, should always trail off as size increases to encourage diversity and durability of that industry.
- docandrew 2y agoIt’s objectively cheaper to outsource software development to countries with lower costs of living too. How’s that working out?
- jjmarr 2y agoIt's working out great for me, actually, as the entire Canadian tech industry is based on outsourcing. We're less of a national security risk as an American client state. For critical infrastructure though, outsourcing is the wrong move. This is because the consequences of failure are borne by society instead of the corporation. If Americans were banned from all social media tomorrow, realistically there wouldn't be mass rioting and civil unrest. Contrast if you found out tomorrow that the USA only has 7 days worth of food for all its citizens, and no more is coming. Are you going to start killing people to boost your odds of survival?
- colechristensen 2y agoWhat are the current farm subsidies? Many people "know" this but have zero idea what is actually in the Farm Bill. Check your understanding. Threads like this on many kinds of topics are full of debate between people who barely know anything beyond vague facts absorbed through osmosis over the years.
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- mulmen 2y agoThe first two that pop to mind are CRP and Ethanol fuel. According to [1] 20% of farm profits in 2019 were from subsidies. [1]: https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-data-says/ https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-da...
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- forgetfreeman 2y agoHonest answer: because forcing folks to move to major urban areas to avoid crippling poverty causes at least as many problems as having some economic opportunities continue to exist in rural areas.
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- jmward01 2y agoIt looks like most American farmers don't want socialism (looking at the recent elections). Why is socialism, collectively protecting farmers, OK? Shouldn't we instead implement the ideology that America voted for and actually start dismantling the socialism inspired protections that are in place?
- aaronbrethorst 2y agoIt’s only socialism when someone else benefits.
- kube-system 2y agoI don't think the recent election results will tell you much about farmers, specifically. Even in the states with the densest concentrations of farms, only a small percentage of people are farmers.
- 123yawaworht456 2y agoyou didn't vote for it either. the only vaguely "socialist" candidate in the recent history was Bernie Sanders, who got passed over in favor of bland, faux-progressive neo-liberals both times he ran.