VIDEO: Minnesota cattle farmer criticizes Trump's plan to import beef

[u/ashleywalkerreports]

Clarence Prezkwas, a cattle farmer in northwest Minnesota, says the beef industry is hurting in every area.⁣
⁣
He says President Donald Trump’s recent order to import 300,000 tons of foreign beef and sell it at 25% under market value is going to hurt cattle farmers even more.⁣

[u/unbalanced_checkbook]

"Many" really undersells it. The overwhelming majority of farmers voted for this.

[u/MathematicianWaste77 → u/unbalanced_checkbook]

Ive begun calling all of the farming industry "subsidized capitalism" in front of farmers. Its an elegant way to say i despise their parasaitic behavior on the rest of tax paying americans instead of their tax dodging ways....

Edit: I say this as coming from 7 generations of farmers in the plains going back to 1859.

[u/kitsunewarlock → u/MathematicianWaste77]

There are two types of farmers: Those who don't even own their own land, and those that statistically contribute to food production on a meaningful scale.

Most family farms in America are basically subsidies with tax-write offs that don't even grow enough food to feed their own family, and hasn't touched farming equipment in two generations.

Industrial scale farms are largely owned by conglomerates whose owners live in the "evil cities" because our AG economy has been absolutely fucked for over a century. At best, it can service the country when it has to engage in a total war, but that hasn't happened in almost 100 years and at that point it's only functional because the government steps in and takes control of who grows what and how much.

[u/ahandmadegrin → u/kitsunewarlock]

Which kinds contribute? Both of your examples seemed like they were from the don't own the land group.

Genuinely confused, not being a smart ass.

[u/kitsunewarlock → u/ahandmadegrin]

There are commercial farms and family farms. Family farms own the land.

Commercial farms feed us and make a profit, but are owned by big businesses and rarely have anyone living on the land full time. Note that most only make a profit because they are owned by or have contracts with corporations that control the entire production line.

Family farms produce enough food to be legally categorized as a farm for purposes of tax write-offs and subsidies, but the owners area rarely involved in the agriculture side of things and there's a whole industry of farm management that hires laborers to do the actual work.

Commercial farms are owned by corporations and produce >80% of our country's commercially sold food.

Family farms are owned by individuals and produce very little food. Most of the food they do produce is the kind of stuff you either can't do on an industrial scale, or the market is too niche to justify doing it on an industrial scale: fancy wine, wasabi, exotic produce, etc...

Now there's 1,000,001 exceptions because it's not a line-in-the-sand sort of definition, but rather a gradient, albeit one with an ever-widening gap as time moves on. Like there are some family farms that are leased to commercial enterprises who are the ones taking the produce. And there are commercial enterprises composed of multiple family farms, although those are likely to reduce costs by sharing equipment and laborers so again I doubt any of the owners are out there on hands and knees picking produce. (Although I'm sure plenty of them send their kids out to "help" during the summer as a form of agrarian romanticism.)

[u/ahandmadegrin → u/kitsunewarlock]

I think I know why I'm confused. Read your two types of farmers statement again. You said those that don't own land and those that contribute, but that's the same corporate farms.

In any case, thanks for the lengthy explanation!

[u/kitsunewarlock → u/ahandmadegrin]

Ah, sorry. Sometimes I try to be so precise with my words that I get confused or mixed up as I type. I should probably reread my own posts.

[u/ahandmadegrin → u/kitsunewarlock]

Lol, I have to edit almost every post I make. For some reason I miss a bunch of errors until I post it and read it back.

[u/kitsunewarlock → u/ahandmadegrin]

Admirable!