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Sarah Taber Profile picture
@SarahTaber_bww
Apr 25 • 8 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Having had some experiences with prison labor, I want to talk about what we're seeing here.

(I had multiple manual labor farm jobs where I got to work & found out most of my coworkers were inmates. Long stories for a different day.) Screenshots of an influencer touring a prison garment shop where acres of inmates in yellow t-shirts are sewing. He's walking around talking about how cool it is that they get to work off their sentences.
When most people think "prison labor," especially *farm* labor, we tend to think people think Hollywood-style chain gangs. "Ah yes. Hard labor for hardened criminals. Murderers & the like."

Nope!
Think about it. What kind of person is ideal for giving a shovel & ordering them to work?

Not someone who's good at murder! They'll just use the shovel to chop you & run off!
The last thing prison labor programs want is honest-to-God violent offenders. They know how to fight back.

So my farm inmate coworkers were just standard-issue 19 year old boys. Weed & Xbox kids.
I spent long days seriously outnumbered with these dudes out in the fields. At no point was I worried ~harm might befall me.~

The worst thing about them? They were just kids who didn't know where their feet were. Kept stepping on seedlings we'd just planted.

Not scary people!
Looking at footage of that workshop, I see the same thing at work.

Sewing machines are fragile. Destroying equipment is a go-to move for unhappy workers for a reason- it costs the bosses a lot of money. And they literally can't make you work on busted machines.
Strictly from a business POV, gangsters are the last people you want to lock up with expensive equipment. They don't want to be there & have way more experience busting heads than you do.

You want nice, quiet people pleasers who do what they're told- with minimal supervision.
Check out the ratio of workers to wardens in there. It looks like at least 20:1. Could be up to 40 or 50:1.

They *know* those folks aren't a threat to anybody!

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More from @SarahTaber_bww

Sarah Taber Profile picture
Mar 28
So the $10B farmer bailout.

Is it $ for political support? Yeah. Bold move for an industry that talks so much about hard work & independence!

But it's also worse than that. This is a US food crisis in the making.



Let's talk about the payoff part first?usda.gov/about-usda/new…
If you remember 2022 when I kept saying "The global wheat shortage is not real. Stop panic-buying & driving up prices" & I was right? (Foreign Policy does!)

This is me saying "the US farm situation right now is very bad. We SHOULD worry about this."

foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/12/rus…
Trump's trade wars will push fert & fuel prices up- for ex, 80% of US's potash fertilizer comes from Canada. Trump just tariff'd it.

And US farmers will lose lots of sales as trade wars shut off their export markets.

Farmers knew this bc he ran on it!

reuters.com/markets/commod…
Read 18 tweets
Sarah Taber Profile picture
Mar 4
Ok we gotta talk about this whole thing.

It looks like "trying to get US farmers to grow food for domestic US market, instead of for export."

Remains to be seen what "tariffs on external product" means or if they'll even happen. This admin likes to tweet first, retract later. Screenshot of a post from Trump on Truth Social, March 3 2025. "To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!"
Anyway, this would roughly boil down to "lots of farms switching from grain & livestock to fruits & veggies."

Funny enough, when I suggested some farms may wanna move acreage from grain & livestock to veggies, parts of the farm lobby got REAL mad.

This will be fun to watch! 🤠
The thing you gotta understand is US farmers don't focus on grain & livestock because of subsidies.

The US was already a grain/livestock country before subsidies were a twinkle in anybody's eye!
Read 10 tweets
Sarah Taber Profile picture
Feb 4
Ok I know everything's been wild the last ::checks notes:: 96 hours but the farm news is buggin right now.

Preamble: Yes this is all part of the "let's move fast & shock them into submission" program.

Take a deep breath. FARMERS are pissed. This is just info on where we're at!
The Farm Bureau is yelling at Trump about the tariffs. In public!

The tariff'd countries buy $85B worth of goods from US farmers every year.

And 80% of our potassium fertilizer comes from Canada.

...

But wait! There's more!fb.org/news-release
Bird flu: The USDA has an emergency plan for it. If any of 6 triggers are met, we start vaxx'ing flocks to stop outbreaks.

AFAIK we're at 6 for 6.
Read 11 tweets
Sarah Taber Profile picture
Nov 7, 2024
THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported my run in ways large and small. To all our many volunteers, our donors, and everyone who helped spread our message. What we’ve accomplished is a testament to you. Image of Sarah Taber with the words "Thank you, from Sarah Taber for Agriculture"
Nobody runs for office alone. I could not have done this without you. And I have to thank you for putting your trust in me to work for you. Even- and especially- when it’s hard.

I congratulate Mr. Troxler on his sixth victory and wish him well.
When I decided to run for Commissioner of Agriculture, I did it because at 41, I’m still a young person in agriculture. If I wanted to have a future in agriculture, something had to change. North Carolina’s led the country in farmland loss for decades.
Read 10 tweets
Sarah Taber Profile picture
Nov 4, 2024
North Carolina, I ask for your vote.

We've come a long way in the past year. From being the "biggest underdog" to putting this race within the margin of error, this wouldn’t have been possible without you. Graphic with a picture of Sarah Taber and the words "It's time for Taber. Sarah Taber for Commissioner of Agriculture. For Our Farms - For Our Future."
Thank you to everyone for your support. In the past year, I've traveled over 25,000 miles, speaking with voters from the Outer Banks to the Tennessee border. I'm humbled to have received donations from folks in 73 counties.
And I'm honored to have met so many of you. I’m thinking of the farmer who drove half an hour to meet me at an event so he could tell me he was so excited someone was talking about growing produce. I’m thinking of the farmworkers who swapped stories with me about harvest seasons.
Read 8 tweets
Sarah Taber Profile picture
Nov 3, 2024
Just for fun, let's do some blueberry facts! 🫐
Ever notice how blueberries can be a soft baby blue, or a dark purple?

They've got a "bloom," or a layer of soft powdery wax when they grow on the bush. It helps repel water.

When you touch them, the bloom rubs right off. Pic of a cluster of blueberries on the bush. They're a soft, powdery baby blue.
Here's how much difference there can be in blueberry color, due to the bloom.

The berries on the left started off with a nice coating of bloom, and have just been picked- so they've only been touched once. They still have most of their bloom & are a pale powder blue. Photo of two small "clamshell" plastic containers of blueberries. The one on the left has pale blue blueberries with a matte surface. The one on the right is shiny, dark purple blueberries- there's no bloom left on them, due to handling & they may have started without much too.
Read 42 tweets

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