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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 02:41 PM Oct 2019

Trump Agriculture Secretary: No guarantee small farms will survive

President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, said Tuesday during a stop in Wisconsin that it’s getting harder for farmers to get by ... “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out,” Perdue said. “I don’t think in America ... we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.”

Perdue’s visit comes as Wisconsin dairy farmers are wrestling with a host of problems,
including declining milk prices, rising suicide rates, the transition from family farms to large corporate farms with thousands of animals, and Trump’s international trade wars.

Wisconsin, which touts itself as America’s Dairyland on its license plates, has lost 551 dairy farms in 2019
after losing 638 in 2018
and 465 in 2017,
according to data from the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Jerry Volenec, a fifth generation Wisconsin dairy farmer with 330 cows, left the Perdue event feeling discouraged about his future. “What I heard today from the secretary of agriculture is there’s no place for me,” Volenec told reporters.

Perdue held a town hall meeting with farmers to kick off the farm expo. The former Georgia governor tried to charm the crowd with his southern accent and jokes about getting swiped in the face by a cow’s tail.



https://www.apnews.com/5045af6cf4a24626aad0e406a965f86e

21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Trump Agriculture Secretary: No guarantee small farms will survive (Original Post) left-of-center2012 Oct 2019 OP
Damn. What a miserable sum' bitch Perdue is. alwaysinasnit Oct 2019 #1
This message was self-deleted by its author exboyfil Oct 2019 #2
Jerry supports the farmers union a liberal group 33taw Oct 2019 #9
I deleted post exboyfil Oct 2019 #13
Thank you. 33taw Oct 2019 #21
Thanks to Trump big Ag can buy small farms for pennies on the dollar. dem4decades Oct 2019 #3
You get what you vote for. Bleacher Creature Oct 2019 #4
They can't reconcile their belief that trump is doing the right thing yet they are going down the wasupaloopa Oct 2019 #6
Cognitive dissonance suxs! MFGsunny Oct 2019 #12
Imbecile. Mike 03 Oct 2019 #5
Then after you lose your farm, wait till you see what this devil incarnate Tanuki Oct 2019 #7
To point out... Newest Reality Oct 2019 #8
Sonny Purdue showed up. Dems don't in this area. 33taw Oct 2019 #10
One farm to rule them all. Production Processing Profit IADEMO2004 Oct 2019 #11
I pulled the pin on Wellstone ruled Oct 2019 #14
"...there's no place for me." - Jerry Volenec. Grins Oct 2019 #15
Well wasn't that the plan all along? Andy823 Oct 2019 #16
Not going to feel the least bit sorry for a demographic that voted Trump. Kaleva Oct 2019 #17
Q:"What do you call two farmers in a basement?" oasis Oct 2019 #18
K&R Jeffersons Ghost Oct 2019 #19
Yeah, we've destroyed your markets and next we are going to steal your farms. ooky Oct 2019 #20

Response to left-of-center2012 (Original post)

33taw

(2,443 posts)
9. Jerry supports the farmers union a liberal group
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 03:00 PM
Oct 2019

Who try to help small farmers and organic farmers. Don’t judge him.

33taw

(2,443 posts)
21. Thank you.
Wed Oct 2, 2019, 01:30 PM
Oct 2019

I live in rural WI and much of the farming community frustrates me. They mostly support Trump, but there are some farmers that are very opposed to trump. I would like to see the national Dems visit this area a few times to combat Trump.

dem4decades

(11,296 posts)
3. Thanks to Trump big Ag can buy small farms for pennies on the dollar.
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 02:49 PM
Oct 2019

They should be happy to help Trump thin the herd so to speak.

Bleacher Creature

(11,257 posts)
4. You get what you vote for.
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 02:50 PM
Oct 2019

I hate to be harsh, but I'm pretty sure that the small farmer demographic voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

Mike 03

(16,616 posts)
5. Imbecile.
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 02:50 PM
Oct 2019

It's really easy to be casual and matter-of-fact about somebody else's personal catastrophe. I think he got his feelings hurt a month or two ago when a bunch of farmers refused to allow him to use them in a photo op (maybe in Iowa?).

Purdue is ignorance personified.

EDIT: Keep alienating those former Trump voters!

Tanuki

(14,918 posts)
7. Then after you lose your farm, wait till you see what this devil incarnate
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 02:57 PM
Oct 2019

did to the SNAP (food stamp) program. They are driving people to hopelessness and suicide.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/01/707681965/more-than-750-000-could-lose-food-stamps-under-trump-administration-proposal

"Three-quarters of a million people would likely lose their food stamps later this year under a new proposal by the Trump administration. The goal is to encourage able-bodied adults to go to work and get off government aid. But opponents predict people would go hungry instead, if the rule goes into effect.
.....

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says the administration thinks these people should be able to get jobs, especially now that the nation's unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in years.

"We believe the purpose of our welfare system should help people to become independent rather than permanent dependency," he recently told the House Agriculture Committee. "We think we are helping people to, again, move into the dignity of work and the respect of providing for their families."
....(more)

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)
8. To point out...
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 02:57 PM
Oct 2019

Another malignant, combative, Trump appointment. He is rationalizing the losses rather than looking out for the smaller members of the agricultural community. Too bad for them because, capitalism.

Well, that could be called voting yourself into an expedited bankruptcy, so keep on following the GOPs trail of breadcrumbs like that, but pay no attention to how the game they play works and where it leads, you proud Republicans! Now, let's see, who can you blame? Do the Republican Shuffle and come up with something ridiculous as you pack up and leave the farm.

Oligarchs win again! Democracy takes a another, big hit thanks to ambitious, self-centered, low-information voters who see something of themselves in their captors and cooperate in their screwing by identifying with people who would easily toss them in a combine, given the chance.

 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
14. I pulled the pin on
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 03:10 PM
Oct 2019

Dairy in 1962,the hand writing was right in front of us. Everyone was expanding their operations thinking there would never be a end to the Birth Rate and there would be bazillions of Kids to drink all that milk. BTW,the Banks at the time were lending money like Halloween treats. Five years later,my hunch was right,that was the start of the Dairy Industry decline. Remember it takes three to five years for Farmers to expand their herds via reproductive means.

With each passing year,and with herd sizes doubling each five years,well,it is simple economics. To much production,to little consumption. Way to many operators are just trading dollars.

Grins

(7,217 posts)
15. "...there's no place for me." - Jerry Volenec.
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 03:20 PM
Oct 2019

“...there’s no place for me.” - Jerry Volenec.

Well, you shoulda' voted Democratic, Jerry. The party that gives a damn about farmers, their families, their health care, their schools, their retirement.

Name one thing in those categories that Republicans have done for farmers. Just one.

Andy823

(11,495 posts)
16. Well wasn't that the plan all along?
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 03:25 PM
Oct 2019

Help the corporate big company farmers get all the "cheap" land when the little guy goes under!

oasis

(49,389 posts)
18. Q:"What do you call two farmers in a basement?"
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 03:28 PM
Oct 2019

A: "A whine cellar". ha ha ha

That's a "joke"Sonny Perdue thought was funny when he told it to an audience not to long ago.

ooky

(8,924 posts)
20. Yeah, we've destroyed your markets and next we are going to steal your farms.
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 06:46 PM
Oct 2019

But you were concerned about "border security".

Fools.

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