| This was written in 2019. There is another thread, but this is my first time reading. So I understand; - Milk prices are going down due to a decrease in the cost of production + overproduction. - Farmland availability is decreasing because CAFOs are incentivized (required?) to buy more land. Property value is also decreasing for farmers near CAFOs. - Small farmers operate on decreasing margins. - Small farmers lack protection against rising overhead costs, this was historically done through co-ops, however these co-ops have grown to be massive conglomerates and fail to serve the underlying communities. - CAFOs are the leading pollutants of water sources. They are also the leading consumers of ground water. - There has been a dramatic decrease in the number of small farming operations. Bad economic policies lead to public health and cultural crises. I can't help but draw some parallels to what has been happening in the Rust Belt (Hillbilly Elegy is a great read for this topic). It's insane how little I know about food economics and scary how much of an impact it has on communities, especially impoverished ones. |
America mostly stopped caring about the welfare of rural Americans sometime around WWII. There have been some brief blips (Appalachia 68, farms 78) but generally - concern for Americans to sustain themselves ends at the edge of metro areas. Neither pols, nor press nor most of us are interested in a meaningful way.
To be clear, my assertion isn't an invitation to pit the rural poor against the urban poor. It's to highlight how Americans tend to be particular about which Americans merit their concern. For schlubs like me, that might be understandable. But for those folks who's actual job it is to look out for everyone - rarely caring about the welfare of some Americans (who are in real and sustained trouble) is just systemic neglect.