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Earlier this year, the @nytimes posted a hiring position for an Agribusiness reporter. From what I hear, it wasn't filled and it shows. Random reporters get assigned to cover Ag and they end up copy/paste industry framing.
For example, the real story w/dairy is the collapse of family farms right in front of our eyes. We've lost half of them since the election of President George W. Bush. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/science/dairy-farming-cows-milk.html
What's happening is that dairy production is moving from pasture family farms in New England and the Midwest to massive corporate farms in the Southwest (desert).
3x more dairy comes from NM than VT now.
3x more dairy comes from NM than VT now.
We're replacing happy cows on grass with these massive complexes. The feed is trucked in. Water is pulled from an emptying aquifer. Cow waste concentrated. And undocumented labor does most of the work.
Also. Even worse. Family dairy farms are required to pay a tax into a so-called dairy promotion entity (think Got Milk) that actually works in the interest of the big boys. We're talking $420 million a year. https://www.jsonline.com/in-depth/news/special-reports/dairy-crisis/2019/09/04/dairy-management-inc-pays-execs-salaries-millions-farmer-checkoff-program-got-milk-prices-fall/1884361001/
This space is broken. It's corrupt. And full of so much BS because of that $420m sloshing around.
Everything broken and wrong with the American food system can be seen in cows (I'd argue pigs too). This is why the @nytimes really, really needs a reporter who gets it.
Everything broken and wrong with the American food system can be seen in cows (I'd argue pigs too). This is why the @nytimes really, really needs a reporter who gets it.
