Most progressives are supportive of family size farmers, but I’ve learned from a recent blog here and a few other forums some of you have a real ax to grind against farmers. Farmers are a minority like most ethnic and racial minority groups, having chosen against all odds to pursue a career of long hours and short profits. Nobody in the progressive sphere would dare attack jews, muslims, immigrants, gays, etc. and farmers deserve the same respect.
It’s time we quit bashing the farmers that largely gave birth to our progressive movement a century or so ago. So to educate both our farmers allies and the “guilty parties”, I’m gonna set out to debunk some of the myths, falsehoods, and out and out Trump grade lies about farmers. In no particular order…
“They voted for Trump”… Trump lied and told them what they wanted to hear.
“Corn (which gets blamed for a lot) causes diabetes”… Yup, if you eat too much corn or anything you’ll probably get a bunch of diseases, but there’s no good science to back that claim up.
“Ethanol is a waste”… According to the GREET model calculations of “well to wheel” greenhouse gas production of vehicles, ethanol produces less GHG than gasoline. Ethanol plants also produce a feed bi-product known as DDG, which is considered a premium animal feed.
“Monoculture is the problem”… Partly true, problem is finding other crops that will yield as much profit per acre to pay off the loans on the land.
“Farmers should convert to organic/non GMO production”… Would be great if they could, as organic and non GMO crops bring premium prices. Unfortunately few farmers can afford to quit using chemicals for several years until their land can be certified organic. And if farmers switched en masse to organics, they might saturate the market and drive prices down to unprofitable levels. Meanwhile, the bank still expects their loan payments…
“Farmers abuse farm workers”… Thanks to mechanization, farmers have become so efficient that they have the time and necessity to work off farm jobs to get health insurance and these days make up for some of their farming losses. So most farms have no hired help, and the family farms that have employees are very dependent on them and tend to treat them well. The abuses tend to happen in large scale corporate farms who have smart lawyers.
“Farmers should grow fruit and vegetables instead of corn and soy beans”… Great if you’ve got the market and can pull it off, for example our land grant university reports over thousand dollar an acre profits for strawberries. But fruits and veggies can demand a lot more of a farmer’s time so they don’t work for everyone. You also need enough markets to absorb your crops- If you’re close to a major metro area the land may be too expensive to farm, and out where I live the population is so thin that a couple 500 acre farms would probably saturate the local markets.
And this is by no means an inclusive list…