U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally.
So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom Homan.
Nearly half of the nation’s approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as well as many dairy and meatpacking workers.
Undocumented people who are paid cash don’t pay income tax, social security, or Medicare. That allows them to be paid considerably less money, which keeps food costs down nationwide.
And cheap, plentiful food is absolutely essential to the US. Its political stability has always been tied to the economics of farming.
The Civil War was absolutely about slavery, but it was also about economics and food security. The South depended on slavery to keep prices low. There were millions in the South who didn’t own slaves and knew slavery was wrong, but were so afraid that the economic impact from losing the free labor would prevent them from putting food on the table that they were willing to kill to keep the evil institution alive.
Look at all the most politically turbulent periods in American history (turbulent as in people were at or near to mass violent revolt), and you’ll find food insecurity.
A hungry crowd is an angry mob.
So the US has worked HARD to keep food cheap. While there are people in the US who struggle with proper nutrition and may not know where their next meal will come from, you don’t have many people literally starving to death. Food can always be found somewhere. For now.
Now we have an incoming administration that’s threatening the food supply. And unlike 1861, there’s no “greater good” to justify it. Trump just wants to deport the cheap labor specifically to hurt immigrants because he’s fucking evil.
If he goes through with this insanity, crops will rot in the field and grocery prices will quadruple while the prices of imports also skyrocket from tarrifs. We have some really hard days ahead.
Mostly agree but the Confederate states were more heavily invested in cash crops making slavery a purely economic issue not a good supply issue
I mean if the US will starve unless they suppress wages then… I didnt want to eat this week anyways
It’s not the suppression of wages as much as it is an effective tax break for the poor achieved through hiring undocumented immigrants and paying cash. By not withholding taxes, the workers are effectively being paid 30%+ more for their labor.
The solution, once again, it to tax the wealthy more to provide relief to everyone else.