In interviews with the Washington Post, multiple farmers expressed their dismay with the loss of farm workers under Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies and his administration's waffling on subsidies.In a deep dive focusing on one farmer who voted for Trump, 36-year-old J.J. Ficke of Kirk, Colo...
  • squaresinger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    9 days ago

    I thought that Covid would have been enough of a trial run for that.

    At least in my country it was that. You know, it was Covid, with the highest unemployment rate since quite a long time, and farmers ran nation-wide ads looking for workers. They increased the pay sometimes up to 2-3x. They promised housing in nice hotels. And still, nobody wanted to do the job and that year there was just no strawberries on the shelves.

    The only way working as a farm hand makes sense is if:

    • The workers have no decent other option
    • Working on a farm is safer than working at home
    • Money is worth a lot more where they are from, so that the meagre salary they make in the target country is worth multiple times of that back home, so that the €1000-1200 they make over here turn into the equivalent purchasing power of €4000-6000 back home.