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Brief lunchtime thread. Let's talk about....agriculture! @oliviacpaschal explains exactly why Trump's gratuitous trade war is killing farmers: not only driving down prices for their crops, but driving up prices for the farm equipment they need. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
2. Via @St_Verburg — did you know many farmers rely on immigrant labor? Dairy farmers here in Wisconsin more than most. @nytimes reporter @cegoldbaum wanted to see what @ICEgov sweeps for undocumented immigrants are doing to New York dairy farmers. nytimes.com/2019/03/18/nyr…
3. A couple of things to note: first, not all immigrant farm workers are undocumented. Exactly what the proportion is isn't known, though some types of farms in some locations seem to use more undocumented labor than others. However, even legal residents often have relatives
4...who are undocumented. The Trump administration's zeal to move nonwhite immigrants out of the country therefore discourages even legal immigrants from staying on American farms. The second thing to note is about the future of agriculture.
5. Farmers are one of the oldest occupational groups in America, & they pass on farm operations to their children less often than used to be the case. We will always need farmers. Where will the next generation come from?
6. There is no simple answer to that question, but one place to look for the farmers of tomorrow is the farm labor force we have today. We won't be able to do that if the Trump administration keeps telling foreign-born farm workers it doesn't want them in the country.
7. Stipulate that the President himself is ignorant of farming, and indifferent to rural America. This really isn't about that. It's about rock-headed policy.
8. You can't trash farmers' global markets, drive up their input costs, & tell their workers to go back where they came from, and still expect agriculture to reliably provide the food & fiber we'll need. Trump himself may not know or care, but the rest of us really ought to.
