Farmers have become like religious figures in the developed world. Nobody dares to criticize them, out of some kind of misplaced guilt for living in cities and shopping in supermarkets. Well, we need to get over this cultural cringe towards farmers because it’s killing us. The subsidies they receive should be going to their poor compatriots. The tariffs that protect them should be abolished so that their competitors from Africa and elsewhere can get a leg up at last. And their disastrous industrial techniques need to be regulated to oblivion: pesticides, nitrate pollution, over-irrigation, and obviously the moral catastrophe that is factory farming. Farmers have too much power just about everywhere, partly because they’re over-represented in politics yes, but we only tolerate that because so many people still think that agriculture is special in some mythological way. Well it’s not. It’s a sector like any other and farmers are just ordinary citizens with too much power. They need to be brought down to size.
I agree with a lot of your points but first world countries rightly protect local farmers because relying exclusively on foreign food is not a smart idea.
There’s much more to food than just the farmer. There’s a whole supply chain, and every link in that chain has as much power over the foodsupply as the farmer. Farmers are not special!
In the Netherlands the farmers recently blocked highways because politicians dared to put the meat-industry under stricter environmental regulations. The farmers argued that it would risk the foodsupply in the Netherlands… Guess what? 80% of their meat-produce is being shipped to china.
what if the farmers are on their last stand, because society has already lost its path to protect people of so many other walks of life? if i was them, I might also be stressed about monsanto-bayer lab meat. our society really loves to make sure only the super rich can be relaxed while everyone else is sweating towards the next bill… that said I’ll try to switch to lab meat asap, for the environment. I’m just trying to highlight that I’d wish myself some care and respect by the government
Farmers have become like religious figures in the developed world. Nobody dares to criticize them, out of some kind of misplaced guilt for living in cities and shopping in supermarkets. Well, we need to get over this cultural cringe towards farmers because it’s killing us. The subsidies they receive should be going to their poor compatriots. The tariffs that protect them should be abolished so that their competitors from Africa and elsewhere can get a leg up at last. And their disastrous industrial techniques need to be regulated to oblivion: pesticides, nitrate pollution, over-irrigation, and obviously the moral catastrophe that is factory farming. Farmers have too much power just about everywhere, partly because they’re over-represented in politics yes, but we only tolerate that because so many people still think that agriculture is special in some mythological way. Well it’s not. It’s a sector like any other and farmers are just ordinary citizens with too much power. They need to be brought down to size.
I agree with a lot of your points but first world countries rightly protect local farmers because relying exclusively on foreign food is not a smart idea.
There’s much more to food than just the farmer. There’s a whole supply chain, and every link in that chain has as much power over the foodsupply as the farmer. Farmers are not special!
In the Netherlands the farmers recently blocked highways because politicians dared to put the meat-industry under stricter environmental regulations. The farmers argued that it would risk the foodsupply in the Netherlands… Guess what? 80% of their meat-produce is being shipped to china.
Personally I’m not sure I like the idea of a zero-sum world where every country is zealously protecting its own food resources.
what if the farmers are on their last stand, because society has already lost its path to protect people of so many other walks of life? if i was them, I might also be stressed about monsanto-bayer lab meat. our society really loves to make sure only the super rich can be relaxed while everyone else is sweating towards the next bill… that said I’ll try to switch to lab meat asap, for the environment. I’m just trying to highlight that I’d wish myself some care and respect by the government
I don’t think that Monsanto has anything to with growing meat in labs.
no, but with farming in general a lot. this is an extrapolation.
You got a point. Are they protecting the farmers or the multi billion dollar companies living off them?
On the other hand, Putin has shown that it’s important to grow food locally.