Veganism is quickly becoming an economic necessity.
Emotionally estranged offspring of farming folk here: yeah I would not be shocked if some decide to quit while they’re ahead and don’t even bother putting seed in because there are enough cracks in the story to question whether they’ll get their usual bailout in time or with enough cash to make up for shit yields.
Maybe some small-timers call it quits. Maybe they rent the land to someone else to farm it, maybe for real cheap. Maybe it’s a real great time for some of them there South African immigrants (white farmers) to “pick up the slack” and farm it. And heck, maybe they won’t even need the help of SA “visitors” who have been year for 15+ years already, traversing the countryside custom harvesting. Or maybe they will, and it’ll be one more way for a Big, Beautiful Partnership™ to emerge from this totally unmanufactured crisis!
But Trump wouldn’t have done (and most definitely isn’t doing) any favors for his frenemy Musk and his poor disparaged countrymen, right?
/endconspiracytheory
The best time is now to take up communal gardening and hold mini farmer’s markets in neighborhoods, etc. Several of us on our street each have started gardens. More join each year as other neighbors see progress!
Yeah unfortunately ground’s too frozen for that atm.
It’s also difficult for farmers to decide on fertiliser purchase waiting an extra week for “Trump promise” of costs will go back way down after glorious victory is achieved this week. 2 weeks ago oil (fertilizer prices largely follow) was $80.
Is anybody dumb enough to still listen to whatever comes out of Trump’s mouth though?
It’s not a mindless sort of belief - they want to believe. They’re believing as hard as they can, because the alternative is ruin.
And this will only hurt them more, prices are just going to keep going up. Anyone who waits that extra week is paying more than anyone who already bought what they needed. The people who wait the longest will be hurt the most.
For sure, people who didn’t plan ahead are now basically screwed. They were hoping prices would come down, but instead they just keep going up, and if they can’t afford current prices, they’re not going to be able to afford higher ones down the road.
While polls are likely BS, supposedly 90%+ of Republicans support Trump, in what can only be believing what he says. Even though farmers benefit the most from free trade, and immigrant labour for that matter, they seem to keep voting for him.
People treat politics like sports until there are clear personal consequences for them. The problem is that most people don’t really connect government policy with the goings on in their daily lives. They treat it as an abstract team sport that happens on TV. But when you get an economic crash as a result from a war, it becomes hard to ignore the causality behind it/
