Posted on 11/12/2022 8:49:20 AM PST by Right Wing Vegan
Within the next few months, the United States is projected to import more agricultural products than it exports for the first time in history — a worrisome development for America’s family farmers, who say government meddling threatens their livelihoods and the nation’s food security.
“The United States has never had any trouble feeding itself and much of the world, too,” said upstate New York farmer Tim Stanton. “I guess the politicians just figure we’ll keep going no matter what they do to us.
“But, you know, there is a limit.”
Farmers all over New York and New Jersey say they are being pushed to those limits by President Biden’s attack on energy, Gov. Hochul’s labor betrayal, foreign competition and other woes. Here, five of them describe their challenges.
...“Biden is trying to get rid of fossil fuels, and it’s killing us,” Stanton said. “Our packaging costs almost doubled, fuel costs are through the roof, and we paid $1,000 a ton this year for fertilizer that was $500 a ton in 2021.” Natural gas is a key ingredient in nitrogen fertilizers.
“So we get hit twice,” he said. “It’s putting a lot of pressure on all of us.”
All six of Stanton’s adult children have worked by their father’s side, but only one of them, his oldest son, plans to take on the family legacy. “The biggest thing he’s pessimistic about is, What will the government do to interfere with this operation? That’s a horrible thing to have hanging over your head.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Stalin farms to ensue
Will the make America last Dems turn the USA into Venezuela on energy and Zimbabwe on growing food? I know that the Dems in DC hate America but do they really want to destroy our food growing abilities?
And China swoops in to buy at a discount.
10% for The Big Guy? Or James/Hunter??
o The cost to run the tractors and other equipment
o The cost to purchase fertilizer
o The cost to harvest and process the crops
o The cost to move the crops from farm to market
o The costs of packaging the product
Did I miss anything? The huge increase in productivity in the 20th century is in major part due to cheap energy from coal, gas, and oil. We now have a population over 8 Billion that still needs to be fed, clothed, and housed. Unless we replace this quickly with other inexpensive forms of energy like thorium-based nuclear power then we will have massive die-offs of people.
Stop shipping agricultural products to blue cities. Let them eat bugs and rats.
Haha!
Cost of money. (interest, inflation)
They can eat themselves if they want. It will be the stuff of poems and ballads. You know, like Robin Hood. Spit.
“What will the government do to interfere with this operation? That’s a horrible thing to have hanging over your head.”
That is EXACTLY why I left the power business after 30 years. I just couldn’t stand it any more.
Government tampering with our energy supply was bad, but tampering with our food supply is far worse. Of course, a lot of government tampering with our energy supply ruins every sector that depends on energy...which is the entire economy.
“Biden is trying to get rid of fossil fuels, and it’s killing us...”
It’s NOT ‘fossil fuels’; it’s PETROLEUM.
Americans are going to have to choose between what is right and what is easy. Our ancestors faced the same decisions many times.
Not too far back the Feds used to try and enforce prohibition laws too. Strange things happened in the hills back in those days.
CORRECT:
“Farmers all over . . . say they are being pushed to those limits by President Biden’s attack on energy.”
Energy Comes from Walls
Food Comes from Shelves
Socialism is the Longest Distance Between Two Points
And coal. Coal is great for generating clean electric power and there are LOTS of motors and heaters on farms that need cheap, reliable electricity.
No doubt that’s the plan. You’ll own nothing and be happy.
Store chains, he said, bring in sweet potatoes from Georgia — where, under federal law, seasonal farm workers make just $11.99 per hour, compared to the $15.54 hourly wage mandated in New Jersey.
But Reeves’ operation is about to take a direct hit from Gov. Kathy Hochul. Next year, the Democrat’s Labor Department plans to phase in a lower overtime-pay threshold for farm workers: an unrealistic standard for weather-dependent jobs, farmers say, that could all but eliminate local crops from New York’s markets.
” His family’s organic berries are hand-picked by workers who come from Mexico on special H-2A visas each harvest season. But more and more foreign workers are refusing New York farm jobs and instead heading to states where they can rack up more hours.
I am reminded of the 1930s when people without jobs were starving. Yet food in the USA was so plentiful and cheap that the government decided to get the price UP by buying and slaughtering millions of head of cattle and hogs.
And they refused to give the poor any of that meat. It had to be shot and buried.
YES!
Also:
“Natural gas is a key ingredient in nitrogen fertilizers”
We could just keep using petroleum fuels until something cheaper comes along. Just saying...
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