Why American farmers are Republican

[Tero]

Other than parts of Minnesota and part of Iowa, farmers and ranchers are Republican.
Reasons:
1 They are little more than puppets, farming by the Farm Bill that is written by Monsanto. Organic farmers do not get crop insurance.
2 Farm bureau

The Farm Bureau: Big Oil’s Unnoticed Ally Fighting Climate Science and Policy
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/2012 ... opposition

The farming of corn for ethanol is included in the grand plan. It in fact does provide protein rich leftovers to feed to livestock, once the ethanol is distilled out.

[Rum]

Farmers seem to be 'naturally' conservative in many places. They are here for example.

I think it is something about being traditionally self-reliant, living off your own efforts and other conservative values. The idea of the lone individual striving against the weather and the worst that mother nature can offer is a strong element too. There's also the family element too - passing on the farm an all that. All very conservative (small 'c')

Which is not to say corporations in the USA don't have a mighty grip on them too.

[rainbow]

Other than parts of Minnesota and part of Iowa, farmers and ranchers are Republican.

Not those Wacky-Backy farmers in Nederland

[Tero]

Farmers seem to be 'naturally' conservative in many places. They are here for example.

I think it is something about being traditionally self-reliant, living off your own efforts and other conservative values. The idea of the lone individual striving against the weather and the worst that mother nature can offer is a strong element too. There's also the family element too - passing on the farm an all that. All very conservative (small 'c')

Which is not to say corporations in the USA don't have a mighty grip on them too.

We currently have an issue with property tax. The farms and ranches out here in the prairie are not as reliable as say in Illinois. So the years with barely a profit are tough as they still have to pay property tax on farms of 160 acres or so. The bigger corporate farms have an easier time manipulating their yearly income by trump type of deals and clever tax forms. The current governor, a mini Trump, is unwilling to lower property tax, as it would require raising all the other taxes (sales, income etc) to keep the state running. By cutting income tax and going to debt (we will follow the Kansas route eventually: kansas republicans were forced to raise taxes! ) he hopes to look like a republican. He appears republican to over half the population that is not of farms.
Also, the "free market" health care has moved clinics from rural area to our two big cities. Most of our state has no public transportation so they have to somehow get to hospitals. In emergencies it is an expensive medical helicopter.

[BarnettNewman]

Farmers seem to be 'naturally' conservative in many places. They are here for example.

In Canada it is because of farmers that we have Universal Health Care.

[Svartalf]

in France, landowning farmers are well to the right, if not, irrationally, all the way to the far right... it's weird, the far right's main talking points is the massive immigration of brown people... and they got rather important support from the rural areas, where those brown people are an utter rarity.

[Rum]

in France, landowning farmers are well to the right, if not, irrationally, all the way to the far right... it's weird, the far right's main talking points is the massive immigration of brown people... and they got rather important support from the rural areas, where those brown people are an utter rarity.

French farming seems to me to be a great big scam. The sheer volume of stuff that is produced (in the south grapes and other fruit is often left at the roadside for anyone to take for free), the amount of subsidy they get and so on - it is no wonder they want to protect their interests!

[Svartalf]

an d yet we frequently get agriculturists demonstrate that they don't make enough money to live on because the marketing branch just won"t even pay them what the produce cost to grow, let alone enough to pay themselves.

so next time you see produce by the roadside, think that maybe it was simply not worth the gas to transport it to a storage place to sell off later.

[Tero]

It's a game. The food industry here encourages farmers to farm more and more acerage. The more the small rural population grows, the cheaper the bulk food. Yet there is a limit. No matter how much machinery you give the farmer, he can only operate one machine at a time. Sprinklers here are automated and if you have a phone signal, you can run them off a smart phone.