Summary
California farmers, many of whom supported Trump, face a potential crisis as his immigration policies threaten mass deportations of undocumented workers, who make up at least half of the state’s 162,000 farm labor force.
Deportations could devastate agriculture, leading to labor shortages, unharvested crops, and rising food prices.
Farmers hope for solutions such as workforce legalization or expanded H-2A guest worker programs, though these have been criticized for exploitation risks.
Historical parallels to programs like “Operation Wetback” and the bracero system highlight possible labor and human rights challenges ahead.
I’m glad you’re getting what you voted for dumbasses.
Lol.
Didn’t he have to bail farmers out last time due to his horrendous policies?
And farmers didn’t learn?
That’s pretty stupid? Is our food safe?
removed by mod
The bailouts ensured they didn’t have to learn. The only thing better than selling a product for money is selling less product for the same amount of money because the government subsidized you to offset their shitty policies.
Still wild the conversation NEVER turns to the people employing undocumented workers and instead demonize the workers themselves.
The point isn’t to actually deport these people, it’s to give their employers and landlords a powerful tool to exploit them and prevent them from benefitting from any social services.
Fuck me, I hadn’t looked at it this way and I should have.
It’s such a noble and rare thing to admit that you understand something on a deeper level because of an internet comment that I genuinely don’t know how to respond.
Well done friend, and happy holidays.
When you put it like that, it sounds like slavery with extra steps.
Yep, the more precarious their legal status, the more compliant they are. This is all about suppressing labour rights.
That’s why the Republican playbook regarding the border was always just talk, and Trump somehow doesn’t get that it was always a scam to get the votes of the racists without ever seriously planning to follow through.
If all farm workers were legally in the US, they’d form unions right off the bat, especially since a strike during harvest season is going to fuck over a farmer financially within days.
But pushing them too far could result in them just starting some fires and leaving to go cross the border back home. Sure they left for a reason but pushing them too far is going to make them leave for one.
Not only does it cause compliance it creates a perfect setup for exploitation, extortion, and trafficking.
Yup. A place that my wife worked at employed at least one undocumented immigrant that got picked up by CBP. Did the company gave any fines or legal issues? Nope. But the undocumented employee had to pay a few thousand in fines and was never deported.
Hello Fuck Around, have you met my friend Find Out?
Sadly these rich farmers won’t find out anything… They’ll say there’s shortages because of the deportations, whether there actually are or not, and will jack up prices to more than cover their profit at consumer expense. They fuck around, WE (and the
slavesimmigrant farm workers) get to do the finding out.
They don’t even remember that the leopards ate their faces last time…
Leopards ate their hippocampus
Their hiphoppocampus, His lyrics are canyonus
FAFO
Fuckin’ dumb-dumbs. FAFO.
Too bad it’s mostly the cities here declaring themselves as sanctuary cities for the undocumented. Weird that Latinos make up such a huge majority in the central valley, too, but haters gonna hate and boy does rural CA love to hate.
If someone opens a farm in the city they will have all the workers!!!
But no land
According to this, urban farming seems surprisingly viable due to yields being so much higher than big ag farming. If we grew on rooftops and replaced parking lots with growing space, a city could theoretically become food self sufficient.
The parking lot idea is awesome! I have never thought of that. You can buy an old run down parking lot in a rough area for super cheap and turn that into an urban farm.
I love that for you lol
Completely agree. It’s extremely viable and should be pursued more. There’s enough vacant land, especially city-owned land, for it to totally work. And you are right about yields, but with a caveat. The issue is the lack of people with the skills and experience in actual production farming - where high yields and high quality are the focus. What happens all to often is that people get enthusiastic, make a big investment, then there’s nobody to carry it through multiple years and through the inevitable trial and error that occurs in any new growing situation. It doesn’t help when people massively undervalue the skill required and essentially call farmers morons, as we’ve seen here. That means often (a) they are not willing to invest in people with the skills and pay them adequately; (b) they assume high production farming is easy and they can do it but then bail when the fail. I personally have been involved in or know of probably a dozen urban farming projects that have failed. It’s sad to see.
Ha ha!
My Uncle is a close friend of Jeff Landry (R-Louisiana) and voted for Trump.
Constantly would demonize illegal immigrants with all kinds of vitriolic accusations. Then would immediately brag that his hydro seeding company is making so much profit because he hires almost exclusively illegal immigrants and pays them peanuts under the table.
I’ve reported him to the state numerous times but nothing ever gets done (remember who he is close friends with now…)
I hope he goes out of business. I hope it ruins him.
Thank you for trying, I hope it ruins him too
Well, that sucks. Oh well.
Reap what you sow.
Double entendre intended.
They are probably hoping for more work availability and higher pay for themselves if they don’t have to compete.
MAGA when they realize they are part of the collective America and are just as responsible for making it greater as anybody else.
