Has the author ever spoken to an actual farmer? Almost universally they’ll tell you that if they were solely in it for profit they wouldn’t be farmers. We support farmers with large subsidies and market barriers because they’re so unprofitable otherwise.
Farmers’ produce goes for a pittance because of supply and demand clashing with growing seasons. For example, when peaches are in season the market gets flooded with peaches because all the peach farmers are harvesting and shipping peaches at the same time. Thus peaches are dirt cheap during peach season. Farmers would get a lot more for their peaches if they could spread them evenly throughout the year but nature doesn’t work that way.
As for the “layer above” farmers (distribution and retail), that all depends on what country you’re in and how agriculture is managed. So you’ll need to give a specific example if you want to discuss further. Under capitalism (at least in my country), farmers are free to sell their produce directly to consumers at farmer’s markets or even beside the road outside their farm.
I’m certain that the area you live in is absolutely wonderful and just, but that is not the case for every area. There are companies that do profit from the starvation of others, which is exactly what this post is about.
So you gushing over your area and its markets does not mean that everyone is so lucky, nor that starvation for profit does not exist.
There are always going to be pockets of the market that aren’t completely consolidated under exploitation, but those pockets are usually in places where the COL is much lower than the average income.
But even in that scenario, local farmers selling produce at a market will still compete against commercialized distributions that push the price lower and limit the market to the privileged bourgeois who have the money to shop for their produce at a market with higher prices and have the labor to spare on themselves and their own needs.
And yet the tins and jars are on the shelves year round, because somewhere that produce is getting made used or shipped to generate a profit for the food corporations.
Farmers get as raw a deal as any other worker, they are not the target of this meme in any way shape or form.
Has the author ever spoken to an actual farmer? Almost universally they’ll tell you that if they were solely in it for profit they wouldn’t be farmers. We support farmers with large subsidies and market barriers because they’re so unprofitable otherwise.
This meme is so wrong it’s downright laughable!
This isn’t about the farmers bucko.
It’s about the layer above them that the farmers give the produce to for a pittance.
Farmers’ produce goes for a pittance because of supply and demand clashing with growing seasons. For example, when peaches are in season the market gets flooded with peaches because all the peach farmers are harvesting and shipping peaches at the same time. Thus peaches are dirt cheap during peach season. Farmers would get a lot more for their peaches if they could spread them evenly throughout the year but nature doesn’t work that way.
As for the “layer above” farmers (distribution and retail), that all depends on what country you’re in and how agriculture is managed. So you’ll need to give a specific example if you want to discuss further. Under capitalism (at least in my country), farmers are free to sell their produce directly to consumers at farmer’s markets or even beside the road outside their farm.
i.e. Nestlé
Is that specific enough?
When I go down to the farmer’s market, none of the produce there is being sold by Nestlé, yet I live in a capitalist country. How is that possible?
I’m certain that the area you live in is absolutely wonderful and just, but that is not the case for every area. There are companies that do profit from the starvation of others, which is exactly what this post is about.
So you gushing over your area and its markets does not mean that everyone is so lucky, nor that starvation for profit does not exist.
Or perhaps those areas have other problems not mentioned here?
They do have a lot of problems which are not mentioned here, but they definitely have the mentioned one as well.
Which is not described or explained, it’s merely alluded to with a vague mention of everyone’s favourite bogeyman, Nestlé.
There are always going to be pockets of the market that aren’t completely consolidated under exploitation, but those pockets are usually in places where the COL is much lower than the average income.
But even in that scenario, local farmers selling produce at a market will still compete against commercialized distributions that push the price lower and limit the market to the privileged bourgeois who have the money to shop for their produce at a market with higher prices and have the labor to spare on themselves and their own needs.
And yet the tins and jars are on the shelves year round, because somewhere that produce is getting made used or shipped to generate a profit for the food corporations.
Farmers get as raw a deal as any other worker, they are not the target of this meme in any way shape or form.
I guess you’d prefer to continue speaking in vague generalities. Carry on!