• atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    “In the last 14 months, five of my customers have committed suicide. That’s how serious this is,” said another Arkansas farmer who also works as an ag equipment financier.

    Jesus Christ.

    • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I’ll send some thoughts and prayers (since I can’t afford much else these days)

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      9 days ago

      Hmm, when Trump’s treason and corruption can no longer be denied, maybe we’ll have an epidemic of MAGA suicides. Too bad they ended funding for suicide hotlines.

      • Blooper@lemmynsfw.com
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        20 hours ago

        Pretty sure that was just the lgbtq hotline - I believe the regular one and military vet one are still funded.

        But everybody knows there’s no such thing as a gay farmer in Arkansas. /s

      • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Too bad they ended funding for suicide hotlines.

        I forgot about that. IIRC, Canada had setup some new hotline to help Americans or something along those lines.

    • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      It’s already a very poor area, I can’t imagine anything looking more bleak than an entire lifetime of work slip away. What is your purpose after that?

  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Hope they don’t get a fucking dime. Cant vote to fuck the country then ask for handouts from the blue states when it does.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      9 days ago

      I haven’t been wanting to say it, but it’s crossed my mind several times over summer.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
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          8 days ago

          With tariffs and aluminum, plus the rotting food on farms, that’s all the more reasons to do this. I bought eight cans of tomatoes recently and probably as many beans, with the intention of more

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    They watered their crops with librul tears and are now complaining that someone salted the earth. May they learn to actually think about what their vote will accomplish.

    • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      They’ll shove a fork in their eye while chanting “Let’s go Brandon”.

      They’re fucking idiots.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      What, are they going to vote for the people with Blah candidates or allow the purple-haired trans people to use public toilets?! Are you kidding me? What choice do they even have?

  • HowAbt2day@futurology.today
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    9 days ago

    “Struggling Arkansas farmers” or MAGA bootlickers that fucked up and voted to shifty, no-good, greasy, New York sidewinder because of some-dick complex? #fuckaroundandfinout #youdonefoundoit #gofuckyourself

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Didn’t Trump say he was shutting down FEMA because the states could do a better job on their own? So let Arkansas figure out how to bail them out this time.

  • Godort@lemmy.ca
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    9 days ago

    What’s the over/under that Arkansas farmers actually learn from this and stop voting Republican?

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      9 days ago

      Zero, that level of rational thought makes them understand how fucked they are, at which point they kill themselves. Or sell the farm to a megacorp while they’re still above water on their loans

      And I’m not joking about the suicide thing. There’s suicide hotline programs specifically for farmers realizing they’re going to lose everything, which of course have been cut

      • FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
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        9 days ago

        In the 00s my uncle was in a position where Monsanto was suing him for not holding up his end of the contract, because he had a bad crop year. Anyway, my grandparents bailed him out by financing a lawyer who settled for him, and it really didn’t fix the problem at all. He still lost his farm, my grandparents were no longer wealthy because they kept trying to help him, and the uncle died a couple years later to cancer (probably driven by stress). They bailed him out because they were afraid he’d kill himself over the farm, and it took him out anyway

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          9 days ago

          Damn, that’s rough. Monsanto are fucking demons, honestly? Solid chance they were making him use some product that causes cancer. Either way, the whole industry is horrible, sorry your family went through that

          • FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
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            8 days ago

            I have no idea if he used protective gear when applying it, which certainly could have increased his exposure. I would love to blame Monsanto, but most of the family carry the risk genes for this cancer too, and as yet his children are cancer free. Their babies though, not so much

            • vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              8 days ago

              Fuck :/

              Yeah… I would also love to blame Monsanto but from what I understand it’s basically impossible to definitively say what caused someone’s cancer specifically.

              It’s just the first instinct when I hear their name and “cancer” in the same sentence.

              One thing we can be sure of is cancer sucks and anything we can do as a species to understand it better is more than worth the effort.

  • BoloMKXXVIII@piefed.social
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    9 days ago

    This is a tragedy! Monsanto won’t be able to squeeze them for more money if they go out of business! Think of the large corporations!

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Monsanto was bought out by Bayer a whole back. It no longer exists.

      Since Bayer is a larger company with more leverage against farmers, they are squeezing them harder than Monsanto ever dreamed of.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 days ago

    from the video: “it’s hard not to be moved by the cries of those who put food on your table”

    do not forget that most of them are huge mega-corporations that own vast areas of land and don’t operate based on small-families, but rather economies of scale

    and also do not forget that most of these farmers probably voted republican and also that they would decry the exact support measures they’re now asking for as “communism” if these support dollars would benefit somebody else.

    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip
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      6 days ago

      The vast bulk of crops grown in Arkansas are comprised of the top three: rice, soybeans, and corn. The rice and soybeans are mostly grown for export. The corn is heavily subsidized and most of it is turned into food additives like HFCS, corn starch, ethanol, etc.

      These people aren’t putting food on our tables, they’re lining their pockets at our expense.

    • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      those who put food on your table

      They can fuck right off.

      They’re doing a job and running a business just like everyone else. I don’t care if I eat their product or not. It’s a commodity.

      They’ve spent years voting and acting against their own interests. Maybe they shouldn’t have been so fucking stupid.

      Farmers are such cry babies and think they’re special. They aren’t. The only thing farmers have done in the US is let mega corps beat them into a ditch. If they can’t do the job, someone else will.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Amen to this. I am so tired of the sanctimony from those that happen to live in rural areas.

        “Well, we grow your food”.

        What, you are doing it for charity or something?

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      from the video: “it’s hard not to be moved by the cries of those who put food on your table”

      FFS, I’m so tired of hearing this kind of thing, as if people are doing this for some kind of altruistic reasons.