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Apropos of nothing: the dairy industry is so dependent on straight-up human trafficking, farmers have figured out the only way to avoid prosecution is constantly cry about how hard they have it.
That way everyone's too busy going "Shh there, there" to look at what they're doing.
That way everyone's too busy going "Shh there, there" to look at what they're doing.
There's not a huge amount of reporting in the news about it, thanks to how successful the tearjerker campaign has been.
But let me tell you, the farmworker whisper networks are LIT UP will all the bullshit dairy farmers are up to.
But let me tell you, the farmworker whisper networks are LIT UP will all the bullshit dairy farmers are up to.
I mean, there's a reason Ben & Jerry's got a look at what was going on in the dairy industry & said "Oh shit, we've got to get the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in here stat."
CIW is the nuclear option of farm labor orgs. Nobody calls them in lightly.
https://ciw-online.org/blog/2017/10/its-a-new-day-in-dairy/
CIW is the nuclear option of farm labor orgs. Nobody calls them in lightly.
https://ciw-online.org/blog/2017/10/its-a-new-day-in-dairy/
So nope, all the woeful tales coming out of the dairy industry right now are *not* just about low milk prices.
It's also purposeful political messaging.
tw suicide for the rest of the thread.
It's also purposeful political messaging.
tw suicide for the rest of the thread.
For example: most people have heard by now that "farmer suicide rates are catastrophic."
They're not!
When you stack up professions by suicide rate, farmers ain't even in the top 20.
You know who's #1 though? Farm *workers.*
Farmers' employees. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6903a1.htm
They're not!
When you stack up professions by suicide rate, farmers ain't even in the top 20.
You know who's #1 though? Farm *workers.*
Farmers' employees. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6903a1.htm
There are a lot of studies documenting the catastrophic rates of depression, PTSD, etc that farmworkers experience. For example:
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102106?amp%3Bsearc=
https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC4775294&blobtype=pdf
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102106?amp%3Bsearc=
https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC4775294&blobtype=pdf
But it all boils down to "this is how it is when you're working grueling hours far from home, everyone hates you, and you're working under extreme duress up to & often including getting straight-up trafficked."
Despite all of this, the idea that farmers are suffering is a lot higher in most Americans' consciousness than the idea that they're putting their workers through absolute hell- and that it's actually the workers who are doing most of the suffering.
That's because the farm lobby has purposefully latched onto a long-debunked study
that bungled the numbers by counting farmworkers' suicides as farmers'. https://thecounter.org/farmer-suicide-crisis-cdc-study/
that bungled the numbers by counting farmworkers' suicides as farmers'. https://thecounter.org/farmer-suicide-crisis-cdc-study/
In other words, the farm lobby has stolen farmworkers' deaths as their own.
Even years after the error was pointed out to them.
At this point, it's deliberate.
It's a straight-up misinformation campaign.
Even years after the error was pointed out to them.
At this point, it's deliberate.
It's a straight-up misinformation campaign.
And it's not hard to see why.
The myth of a farmer suicide epidemic is a great bloody shirt to wave around when asking for federal pork spending.
It's helped secure the $60 BILLION or so in free money that Trump has sent farmers in the last few years.
The myth of a farmer suicide epidemic is a great bloody shirt to wave around when asking for federal pork spending.
It's helped secure the $60 BILLION or so in free money that Trump has sent farmers in the last few years.
Meanwhile, again, farmers aren't even in the top 20 for vocations most likely to die by suicide.
Farmworkers top the list by a long shot (120 per 100,000).
Next are artists & musicians.
After that, it's a long list of blue-collar trades.
Farmworkers top the list by a long shot (120 per 100,000).
Next are artists & musicians.
After that, it's a long list of blue-collar trades.
Steelworkers, miners, masons, roofers, auto repair techs, construction workers, machinists, millwrights, carpenters, electricians, even the folks who repair computers & office machines.
Every single one of these jobs has a higher suicide rate than farmers.
Every single one of these jobs has a higher suicide rate than farmers.
But you don't hear anything about a suicide epidemic amongst millwrights or auto repair techs, do you?
That's because those jobs don't have a giant-ass powerful lobby whose job is to loudly cast them as the world's biggest victims (so give us $60B pls).
That's because those jobs don't have a giant-ass powerful lobby whose job is to loudly cast them as the world's biggest victims (so give us $60B pls).
They have unions, who have to represent a lot of different vocations. And the unions have been getting carved away by hostile legislation for decades.
Meanwhile the Farm Bureau & other farm orgs have been getting bigger & pearl-clutchier by the year.
Meanwhile the Farm Bureau & other farm orgs have been getting bigger & pearl-clutchier by the year.
In summary: the "farm suicide epidemic" is a misinformation campaign. People who promote it are actively and, at this point knowingly, sowing misinformation. Full stop.
Farm country & conservatives in general aren't nearly as stupid as the center-left likes to think they are.
They're really, really good at messaging.
Acknowledge that & act accordingly. And if you need to, report, block, & move on.
They're really, really good at messaging.
Acknowledge that & act accordingly. And if you need to, report, block, & move on.
Folks who are serious about stopping human trafficking would be going after farmers not PornHub.
It's almost like,,, they're not actually serious about it?
It's almost like,,, they're not actually serious about it?
This article is an absolutely amazing look at what human trafficking actually looks like within the farm community btw. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/
Myth blown: "It's only the giant farms that used trafficked labor!"
Oh honey if ONLY.
If you really think there's some kind of first-class dividing curtain between big & small farms, you have no idea how farm country works.
Oh honey if ONLY.
If you really think there's some kind of first-class dividing curtain between big & small farms, you have no idea how farm country works.
I love that "NATO-like pact" bullshit. ICONIC piece of misinformation.
If you're a bunch of farms swapping around undocumented workers to circumvent immigration laws
then what you're doing is called a "running a human trafficking ring."
If you're a bunch of farms swapping around undocumented workers to circumvent immigration laws
then what you're doing is called a "running a human trafficking ring."
This practice isn't unique to this one corner of Iowa either. I've got reporter colleagues who've found whole networks of upstate New York family dairies "informally" funneling each other workers as well. And it's a hard story to publish bc it freaks news editors out.
The fun thing about "sharing" workers?
It makes it super-duper easy for small farms to get involved! You don't have to have your own personal connections to the Sinaloa cartel anymore!
It makes it super-duper easy for small farms to get involved! You don't have to have your own personal connections to the Sinaloa cartel anymore!
I love how when it comes to family farms, it's all "everyone's just neighborly and knows each other's business" and "bonds of cooperation forged over generations" and "peer-to-peer learning"
until they get caught using all that social capital to do something shady.
until they get caught using all that social capital to do something shady.
Then all the sudden everybody in farm country is total strangers. There's a magical first-class curtain dividing big & small farms. None of them know each other & would CERTAINLY never do something just bc literally everyone else is doing it!
Check the way the dairy farmers in that Nunes article talk about it. There's no "well the big farms do X but the small farms do Y." They're all in the same boat, paddling in the same direction.
The idea that there's a meaningful moral distinction between small & large farms is a fairy tale.
That's a story we tell to dissociate ourselves from the realities of our society: it's built on forced labor & always has been. There ain't no wholesome past to look back to.
That's a story we tell to dissociate ourselves from the realities of our society: it's built on forced labor & always has been. There ain't no wholesome past to look back to.
The only way a dairy of basically any size has a real chance of doing w/o shady labor practices is if they're processing & selling dairy products direct to customers themselves.
And that's pretty size-agnostic. You get small, medium, large, & micro-dairies doing that.
And that's pretty size-agnostic. You get small, medium, large, & micro-dairies doing that.
And no, most small dairy farms do not sell direct to customers.
That's why there are so many going under right now. It's how it goes when you try to pursue a bulk commodity business model and don't have the scale to pull it off.
That's why there are so many going under right now. It's how it goes when you try to pursue a bulk commodity business model and don't have the scale to pull it off.
So again, to review: just because a farm is small doesn't mean they're virtuous.
Small business owner talking here: a lot of the time being small just gives people more financial pressure & less accountability. It's EASIER to behave badly.
Small business owner talking here: a lot of the time being small just gives people more financial pressure & less accountability. It's EASIER to behave badly.
ps. If you're wondering about ways to farm that are built to *not* exploit people, great news, I talk about that sometimes too https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/1303033211661045764
