In interviews with the Washington Post, multiple farmers expressed their dismay with the loss of farm workers under Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies and his administration's waffling on subsidies.In a deep dive focusing on one farmer who voted for Trump, 36-year-old J.J. Ficke of Kirk, Colo...
I wouldn’t mind being a crop worker…provided I get at least minimum wage, breaks, healthcare, and reasonable quotas that ensure my wellbeing.
…crickets…
I’ve done a lot of seasonal field scale farm work, mostly in Europe - it can be extremely hard work. Couldn’t do it now, you have to be pretty fit.
Which probably means that it would have to pay significantly above minimum wage. But, farmers were getting that labour for below minimum wage because they had the luck to be able to use workers who had no other options.
Federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour.
Good luck with that.
I would assume they were joking. Why you would do anything for minimum wage is beyond me
Wasn’t joking. Still, I would much prefer a living wage, like what we see from old-timey videos, where a single person can support a household and feel happy about their fiscals.
If only people would be willing to pay for that at the market…
Something like 80% of the prices you pay at a grocery store go to middle men. Farmer is only about 11%, IIRC.
Might be even less depending on your produce, also keep in mind that farmers don’t have the same costs every year nor the same yields. A bad year can totally finish them in a bad economy.
I swear I said “market”…
If only the parasitic middlemen were willing to reduce their ridiculous profit margins…
Nowadays you can circumvent middlemen in a lot of cases (if you live in the center of a big metropolis probably not, but the you -need the middlemen). Farmers market, bulk orders or weekly markets are all decent options.
Good point
Here’s one of San Francisco’s :) just wonderful when the sun is shining
That’s why governments subsidize agriculture, to keep the price down.
So Walmart strategy, the government should subsidize my company so I can pocket the profit!