UGH!!! This article goes on forever!
But basically this article is about the result of Trump backing out of the TPP on the Agriculture market and its many facets.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/07/trump-tpp-deal-withdrawal-trade-effects-215459
I'm on the fence about that one...
On one hand, already oversubsidized farmers complaining about not being able to sell their over subsidized crops for a tax free profit overseas... on the other hand I know full well those subsidies don't apply to every farmer and food producer so it could hit some specific sectors fairly hard.
I'm also pretty harsh on farms that work the land too hard and overproduce just for the sort of profit they're looking for here. Gets into the cycle of having to over fertilize, over spray, and basically do a bunch of other shit that drains into the waterways and ruins the environment.
At the same time, we've driven down food prices (largely through those subsidies and free trade agreements) that farmers have a hard time making a living on the prices they can get. But low food prices are good because it means less people go hungry... and...
argh....
Basically, fuck the farmers in this case, fuck the farmers in some other cases, but I also have empathy for the plight of farmers, especially with regards to the ones who aren't owns by million+ acre agricorps.
We've reached an economic balance that we've been standing on for a while, but that's changing, and whether we like or or not, that balance is going to shift, and we're going to have to shift with it or fall. The agricultural side of TPP was just an effort to keep ahold of that balance point a little longer, but it's simply not sustainable. We may be looking at more expensive food in the future. Farmers may be looking at it being unprofitable to push all their land and methods to the absolute limits. I don't know the answer to all of this, it's a complex problem for something that starts as simple as "throw some seed on the ground and wait for it to grow." But the simple fact is, things are changing, and you either adapt, or you die (and hurt a lot of other people in the process of) trying to hold onto the old ways.
Author
Topic: AmeriPol thread (Read 4255133 times)