White House spokesperson assures farmers their 'little bit of short-term pain' will all be worth it

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/4/1754447/-White-House-spokesperson-assures-farmers-their-little-bit-of-short-term-pain-will-all-be-worth-it

White House spokesperson assures farmers their 'little bit of short-term pain' will all be worth it
Kerry Eleveld
Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday April 04, 2018 · 4:20 PM EDT


Donald Trump's White House obviously has no idea what it's like to have your entire livelihood threatened. As stocks jerked up and down Wednesday, a White House reporter asked Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if Trump was "worried that this saber rattling is causing many people in this country to lose money."

Obviously not, was her answer:

“We may have a little bit of short-term pain but we're certainly going to have long-term success.”

Hey, no worries, guys—there may be a few less meals on the table, some missed mortgage payments, and a bankruptcy-inducing health incident or two. But in the end, your personal pain will be so worth it for the country. Thanks in advance for understanding!

[htuttle]

1. Farmers live season to season

There is no 'long term success' for farmers. Their "investments" spoil pretty quickly.

One bad season is all it takes to lose everything.

[Squinch]

2. Most farmers voted for the republican president. What did they think would happen?

[ooky]

4. The question now is are they stupid enough to vote for him again?

[Squinch]

6. And the answer for most of them is, "yes." Sadly.

[PJMcK]

28. "Anyone but a Democrat"

It hurts my brain to try to understand why they vote the way they do.

[ooky]

37. I understand that, but...

when it directly hits their wallets, and they can CLEARLY see that its HIS policy that is hitting their wallets, will they actually be THAT stupid to keep voting for him and fascist Republicans who stand by and do nothing?

Up to now there are a lot of Trump voters who don't know they've been impacted financially by his policies because they are ignorant, and believe lies. But now they will absolutely know it when it comes out of their wallets. Or will they? It seems to me that believing more lies that Obama and or "crooked Hillary" caused THIS is getting into negative IQ territory.

[dhill926]

3. and we should trust what she says....

why again?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. "And remember...

.... you got that little bit of income tax relief, so that will make up for it!!!111!!!1!!!!"

[Farmer-Rick]

7. Listen, most small farmers do not sell their produce to China

Rarely do they sell outside the country, most don't even sell outside the state.

That leaves the big rich chemical loaded, subsidized agribusinesses. And they make millions. They can afford to lose a season or 2. I'm sure the USDA has them covered by insurance anyway since the USDA gave up assisting small farmer over 30 years ago

[mitch96]

8. I don't know squat about farming. Could they just shift crops?

Soybeans to corn? wheat? sorghum? etc?
m

[Farmer-Rick]

9. Well not once it's planted.

If you haven't planted you could put anything in that field. If you planted already and don't mind losing your seeds, and grain GMO seeds are expensive, and losing your time and feul for the initial planting, then you probably can still dig it up and replant.

There are some crops that take a little as 30 days to grow, then there are crops that have early, main and late season varieties that gives you crops spring summer and fall. But switching crops after you already planted will create a loss.

[Blue_true]

11. Don't you have to also prep your soil for specific plants?

I read that different plants deplete different soil nutrients. So planting another crop willy-nilly may not work?

[Farmer-Rick]

14. Not if you use chemical fertilizers

Really if you use the right chemicals, rotating crops is an old fashion idea. Ideally, it's nice and can reduce the spread of disease, but if you use the right mix of chemicals the condition of the soil is not realy a problem. Maybe you have to put in a little more calcium or lime, or nitrogen or borax for a different crop but with enough chemical fertilizers you can grow most anything in the worst soil.

Crop rotation is really only necessary if you plan a more organic product. Living mulches are also good but again just dump enough chemicals and you don't need to worry about your chemical laden dead dirt. These GMO crops are really quite happy to feed off chemicals. Of course there is a ton of run off but those are worries for other people.

[Tumbulu]

18. Yes, each crop requires different soil prep

And most follow multi year crop rotations. And so, it is not easy to switch crops, especially right now, it is planting season.

And there are plenty of small commodity farmers.

This is cruel and exactly what I would expect of T , just stick it to the farmers. Who are ready now for an '80's level farm collapse. Already dairies are going down so fast, it is heartbreaking.

[herding cats]

12. You're a farmer, you know soybeans are the rotation crop of most cotton farmers.

My family planted inoculated soybeans to help fix the nitrogen in the soil between cotton crops.

It worked out since soybeans had a good monetary yield, as did the cotton, and it was one crop that didn't need extra nitrogen. Money saved and soil and crop management win.

That's what it's all about, what you can grow on rotation that has a good monetary value and works as a rotation for your previous, and next crop. That's farming life.

[Farmer-Rick]

16. Yeah and old time cotton farmers dumped pounds of arsnic

On their soil to fight insect infestations. So be very careful about those beans.

Crop rotation is a smart and useful technique especially for organic farmers. I use it on my farm. But with all the chemicals out there and so many people willing to use them, crop rotation is not used as often as it shoud be.

[Tumbulu]

20. That's oversimplified as well

Last edited Thu Apr 5, 2018, 10:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Please, commodity crops are a different animal than the higher value crops that many associate with small scale farming.

The economies of the Midwest farm states are utterly tied to the commodity crop prices and most of these crops are grown by families who have tried to hang onto their farms.

[Farmer-Rick]

27. I don't live in the midwest but I worked for a huge "farmer" about 10 years ago

Let me tell you most of the farmers (or agribusiness managers) I met had NO concern for the land, the environment or the people who ended up exposed to the crap they grew. They were more like stock managers. Their only concern was money. They never, ever left their field empty of a cash crop. And they rarely rotated crops if they were getting a good return in that field with that crop. Once the yields started to drop, yeah they would put some other grain crop there. But it wasn't based on fixing nitrogen back into the soil. It was Not done out of any concern for the land. It was done for profit.

Now don't get me wrong, most of them pretend to care about their underpaid labor, and the land they are/were destroying. When you first meet them they are all about good farming practises. But behind closed doors, most of them were a bunch of greedy bastards.

I took the job to learn and what I learned I did not like. I thought I could imitate on a smaller scale their processes and make a smaller but livable living off my farm. It didn't work that way. And yes many, many people live off those grain commodities, from Monsanto to Bayer to fertilizer distributors to agriculture equipment sales, to immigrant labor and grain processors. It's amazing how so many people are so intimately tied to growing huge amounts of chemical laden crap.

I now live in the Southeast and huge amounts of arsenic in the soil of former cotton farms is a big problem. I got my soil tested, just to make sure it was ok. But since I'm in the mountains it was a pretty good bet no cotton was grown there. But arsenic was also used in excessive amounts in fruit and nut farms. But if you are lucky enough to have kept your farm in your family for hundreds of years, and have records, then you probobly don't have to worry about it.

Best of luck to you. Glad to hear there are some concerned farmer types left in the commodity crop business. The world needs more of them.

[Blue_true]

32. What do you grow in the mountains?

Do you look at value added products? For example, if a farmer is a berry farmer, a value added product would be his or her farm branded Jam or Jelly.

[Farmer-Rick]

33. I raise sheep mostly

But Believe it or not I was doing a good business in radishes too. I grew everything from daikon to D'Avignon to round little radishes in 4 different colors to black Spanish and icicle radishes. Oh and my saffron was starting to take off when I had to stop due to health issues. I've cut back to supplying just a few restaurants now. I still grow a garden but not for sales.

The requirements for value added products in TN were pretty stringent when we started. Now they have loosen up the regs and costs a little. But they use to have some very weird regs about value added products requiring hundreds of dollars in fees, licenses and training.

[Blue_true]

35. Thanks. Didn't know people were growing Saffron in the US.

Guess I learned something else beside the first things you mentioned.

[Farmer-Rick]

36. Yes, as a young child I lived in PA among the Amish

We were not Amish but their farms were our neighbors. All the kids would grow saffron and the families cooked with it. They were once called the yellow dutch. Anyway, I learned to grow saffron from them as a kid of about 8. The temps and climate here are very similar to that part of PA. My biggest problem is that the cold in the fall sometimes comes so late that the flowers bloom after the market has closed for the season. But restaurants are happy to get local fresh saffron.

OK, more than you ever wanted to know about saffron.

[Tumbulu]

21. Yes, soybeans are a very important rotation crop for building nitrogen

And these shanaigan created trade wars will hurt everyone, and I'm sorry that these people voted for T, hopefully they will realize their mistake.

But with the nonstop hate media pounding out the propaganda, it will be blamed on the liberals, as usual.

[Demsrule86]

13. That is not really true...local farmers do sell overseas here in Ohio

and elsewhere I am sure. No matter what it means a loss of a job.

[Farmer-Rick]

17. I didn't say local farmers, I said small farmers

[Demsrule86]

22. Farmers have done quite well here because of overseas sales.

[Tumbulu]

19. A small commodity farm these days is 500-1000 acres

Operated by a single family.

Commodity row crops like soybeans, corn and milo/sorghum/wheat are all harvested by combines that are a huge capital investment. So people have to plant large acreages to make the investment pay for itself.

These guys are not rich, average farm income in the US in 25K/ year which means that most farm families have one member working a steady job while the other tries to keep the farm going.

This is not something to joke about.

It's painful and horrible.

[Achilleaze]

26. Painful & horrible indeed on a downward spiral since the 1980s

America's farm families - millions of them now living in cities - are unwitting & unwilling victims of degenerate republican "values"

[Farmer-Rick]

34. Yup that sounds like the "farmers" I knew and worked for.

[Blue_true]

10. China has been quietly investing in South American commodities production for close to ten years.

My guess is if the business leaves the Midwest, it isn't coming back, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela will take it for good.

[still_one]

31. Brazil is te second largest producer of Soybeans, and I suspect they would love to have more

business relations with China

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. Yes and the check is in the mail

and I won't *&^ in your mouth.

[gratuitous]

23. Some of you farmers will lose your business

But that's a risk Trump is willing to take.

[Achilleaze]

24. the republican White House is lying again

It won't be worth it.

[Orsino]

25. Great things are always just about to happen....

...and never do. This is Trump's life.

[Freethinker65]

29. The farmer's pain will enrich Trump. What's wrong with that? Enriching Trump was what they voted for

[still_one]

30. The WH may also not understand that countries like Brazil produce a lot of soybeans, and the U.S. is

not the only producer of Airlines, Autos, etc.

In other words, there are alternatives for China, and since trump has occupied the WH, he has not endeared himself to our European and South American allies, so I suspect they would have no problem welcoming any business China chooses to give tem if push comes to shove

[spanone]

38. I bet they are breathing a sigh of relief