• @derf82
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      2210 months ago

      Farmers and the amount of food they grow isn’t the issue. It’s corporate greed.

        • @derf82
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          1310 months ago

          At times for some things. But tell me, is there a shortage right now of any major staple food/ingredient?

          The farmers are not the ones getting rich. It’s Nestle, Kraft, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kellogg’s and so on. As long as they remain the big market for what the farmer’s are selling, food prices won’t change. But the farmers could go under if their prices crash due to oversupply.

          • @afraid_of_zombies
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            -410 months ago

            Sorry why can’t you cosplay farmer simps keep your story straight? Half of you are arguing that farmers produce too much so the government is needed to make them produce less and the other half are arguing that farmers don’t produce enough and they need the government to make them produce more. Which is it?

            Just a fyi you can hold two ideas at once. There are asshole food distribution companies and there are asshole cosplay farmers getting subsidies to not grow. I know, my hometown was basically this. People pretending to be independent successful farmers when all they could grow was dirt and could only produce meth.

            • @[email protected]
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              810 months ago

              Seasonally and yearly there are different demands for crops. The government incentivizes and disincentivizes growing different crops at different times to promote a healthy market, and stable food supply.

              • @afraid_of_zombies
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                10 months ago

                Very well. Why isn’t there a subsidy in the north during oct/nov for milk? Cows production plummets during the switch to hay. Which is why milk prices get that bump during that time. Couldn’t be because the milk lobby is less effective compared to corn since it is much more scattered and hence doesn’t get nice solid voting blocks?

                Nah it must be for some deep metaphysical reason beyond our kin.

                • @derf82
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                  610 months ago

                  Maybe because you can’t manifest extra dairy cows out of the aether in the winter?

                  The government does try to help by buying surplus dairy and turning into preservable cheese, but that has just led to bad jokes about “government cheese.”

                  • @afraid_of_zombies
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                    -410 months ago

                    Maybe because you can’t manifest extra dairy cows out of the aether in the winter?

                    No but what you can do is use dried milk fat to even out production, you can do is simply pay ranchers more for that month given that they are making less, you can do is freeze butter a month earlier and release it when milk gets more dear, what they can do is subsidize hay so it can be introduced slowly creating less of a shock.

                    We don’t do any of those things. And why should we? Dairy lobby is no where near as powerful since it is spread out instead of concentrated. Which means less lobbying, less bribes, less government money.

                • @[email protected]
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                  10 months ago

                  I know, my hometown was a small farming town.

                  commenter explains the most basic farm economics

                  Very well.

                  You can hold two ideas at once you know. It’s called lying. Or making shit up about something you thought you knew about because you have the most base-line exposure possible. Or cognitive dissonance.

            • @derf82
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              710 months ago

              I don’t know what the hell a cosplay farmer is, but I am assuredly not one. I do my even have a god damn garden on my 0.10 acre city lot.

              Learn some history. Farmers have tried to overgrow to make more money, and it has led to collapse as the market forms a glut.

              The government does do something different with corn subsidies, causing over abundance of corn, but that has just lead to the overuse of corn syrup sugar, which is a major contributor to obesity.

              • @afraid_of_zombies
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                -810 months ago

                I see. So we are not going to mention the dust bowl and starvation argument anymore. Love how this arguments just keep wandering.

                Do you know what a moral ought from an is is?

                • @derf82
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                  410 months ago

                  On the subject of wandering arguments: you never answered my initial question: what staple food are we experiencing a major shortage of?

                  We had shortages during the pandemic. They have largely resolved. But food companies have learned people still will buy food, so they kept prices high. What has truly hurt is consolidation. With so much food controlled by so few, competition isn’t working.

                  Growing food isn’t without a massive carbon and environmental footprint. Trying to force a glut which will just result is spoiled food and bankrupt farmers is not the answer.

                  • @afraid_of_zombies
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                    -510 months ago

                    what staple food are we experiencing a major shortage of?

                    Me personally? Nothing. Parts of the world are pretty messed up now.

                    We had shortages during the pandemic. They have largely resolved.

                    Yes black swan events tend to create black swan effects. Not relevant when we are talking about 90 year old programs.

                    But food companies have learned people still will buy food, so they kept prices high

                    Already addressed this. Free money to people who want to cosplay as farmers is not me saying food distribution companies are morally perfect. I don’t have anything against cosplay but I don’t think you would like me to get your tax dollars to do it.

                    With so much food controlled by so few, competition isn’t working.

                    Wandering argument. Go demand an anti-trust suit.

                    Growing food isn’t without a massive carbon and environmental footprint.

                    Just throwing everything you can at this now?

                    Trying to force a glut which will just result is spoiled food and bankrupt farmers is not the answer.

                    Supply goes up, price goes down. And cosplay farmers should go bankrupt. Free them to do something useful with their life. I would be lying if I can list off a single one I grew up with who wasn’t a total failure at what they did. Go do something else! Be a welder, be an electrician, be an accountant do productive things and stop pretending you are good at what you aren’t.

                    It makes as much sense to give fail farmers money as it does to pay my fat ass to play basketball

    • @SupraMario
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      1110 months ago

      Do you like famines? Cause that’s how you get famines…all governments have their farmers run a surplus, so when a year is bad…we don’t all starve to death.

      • @afraid_of_zombies
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        -710 months ago

        I wasn’t aware paying people not to grow was the same as paying them to grow too much.

        • @SupraMario
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          410 months ago

          You like the dust bowl?

          Soil conservation is a thing, when a farmer cannot grow, do you just let them starve?

          Cause that’s what you’re suggesting.

          • @[email protected]
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            710 months ago

            I dont know what the other poster was arguing at all, but the dustbowl was not caused by a shortage of farming. The dust bowl was a result of overfarming: native grasslands with incredibly deep roots hold down topsoil, crops like corn and wheat, which we very heavily subisidze, have much much much shorter roots which dont compact the topsoil. If we are to prevent another dustbowl, it will be by reviving the American prairie, not by planting more useless crops.

            • @SupraMario
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              210 months ago

              The other poster is basically saying we shouldn’t pay farmers to not grow crops. When the reality is we pay farmers not to grow to allow the soil to regenerate. The dust bowl was because farmers weren’t subsidized to not grow, so instead of allowing the land to rest and the farmer not go bankrupt, they kept growing crops. So now the government pays them when they let plots rest, so they aren’t forced to keep growing or eat and pay bills.

          • @afraid_of_zombies
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            -210 months ago

            Yes I am clearly suggesting that I would like farmers to starve. Any honest person would conclude that from what I wrote. Are there any other views you have magically determined that I hold?

            I bet your strawman could survive a dust bowl.

            But hey I am 100% sure you have researched this topic in depth and know for a fact that literally every politician who demands farm subsidies is only doing it for the pure altruistic avoidance of a dust bowl. Never mind that all the progress that has been made in agriculture the past 100 years.

    • @[email protected]
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      710 months ago

      This is the edgy, low information shit which makes Lemmy so obnoxious. Every. Fucking. Thread.