'The whole thing is screwed up': Farmers in deep-red Pennsylvania struggle to find workers

[hunter]

70. I wonder how I'd have ended up if my grandma and her sister had decided to sell yogurt.

They were born to a California Dairy family and interestingly learned to speak Spanish as children because most of the family's hired help were Mexican immigrants or the children of Mexican immigrants.

My grandma's university degree was Spanish Literature and she celebrated the myth and romance of Old Mexico, just as her husband and my mom's family celebrated the myths of their Wild West heritage.

My grandma and her sister did not like cows or dairymen so they ran off to Hollywood. Their Hollywood dreams didn't turn out quite the way they expected but they did have some successes and never became disillusioned with the movie industry.

My parents met working in Hollywood so I suppose my upbringing was Hollywood Liberal.

I carry on my grandmother's distaste for the dairy industry. It's not good for the natural environment, it's not good for the workers, and it's not good for the cows, especially in the modern "factory farm" dairy industry.

I don't believe cheap hamburger and dairy products are any kind of necessity and will shed no tears if Trump supporting dairy farmers go out of business.

That doesn't mean I'm some kind of vegan radical. Humans are omnivores and meat has been part of our diet throughout our history. But it's an inescapable reality that meat and dairy products would be expensive if they were were produced ethically with minimal environmental impacts, comfortable living wages for the workers, and humane treatment of the animals. That would require strict government regulation, regulation Trump supporters would oppose.