• Vanderdeckenscopilot@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    These are just simple farmers. People of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know…

    Seriously though. Alot of farming is essentially “tribal” knowledge. You really dont have to be that smart.

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      As an expert on the subject who has spent my life working with farmers around the globe.

      70% of them are fucking superstitious idiots who believe the craziest shit.

      25% of them are of average intelligence who do their best and work hard.

      5% of the are intelligent wonderful people who are highly technical and skilled.

      The socio-economic reasons for why this occurs is interesting (at least to me). Remember farming has had centuries of pressure for migration for rural living to urban. Rural populations are isolated and historically have lacked access to higher education, healthcare, mental health, etc. So you have a constant brain drain, combined with lower relative mental and physical health.

      So how the fuck do these morons manage to grow a crop? They outsource the decision making to “trusted advisors”. Government agents, agronomist, fieldman, etc. these are the people who are actually making the day to day decisions on most of the these farms. What to fertilize with, what to spray, when to harvest, when to plant etc… they do it all the thinking while the idiots ride around in the luxury tractor cabins letting the GPS stear as they listen to talk radio or watch videos.

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      Oklahoma, 1936: “I’m going to ignore centuries of established dry farming techniques here on this semi-arid plain. What could possible go wrong?”

      Oklahoma, 2024: “I’m going to vote to re-elect the guy whose economic policies nearly bankrupted me the first time. What could possibly go wrong?”

      • pyrinix@kbin.melroy.org
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        14 days ago

        That’s the kicker of it all.

        Okay, so you don’t want to research candidates, follow the news and all that.

        But wouldn’t you fucking think to vote against the guy or guys that fucked you over? At least? I think I would. Fool me once and all that?

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Never actually met farmers, let alone driven hundreds of miles of back country highways, observed how it plays. I’m not asking, I’m declaring.

        “Doctors don’t know shit! They’re just doing what big pharma tells 'em! Fuck them poison vaccines!”

        Same. Exact. Ignorance.

        And just as I wished a gang of nurses would magically appear to beat their ass, so I wish a gang of farmers upon you.

        I’ll give you a crisp $100 bill to announce that “farming isn’t farming anymore” in the rural bar. Entertainment money well spent.

        • resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          A lifted F150 doesn’t make you a farmer.

          Though I notice you never said you were a farmer.

          Maybe study history? The population of US farmers was more than 50% a hundred years ago. Now it’s under 3%. How did that happen?

          All hat and no cattle.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            Who said I had a lifted F150? Mine’s 22-years old and looks like dogshit, runs great though.

            No, I’m not a farmer, but I’ve been growing for 35-years, majored in horticulture and agriculture at Oklahoma State University, so I guess I know more than your average bear. Fair enough? Let’s hear your credentials.

            As to history, easy one: Machines and the Great Depression foreclosing family farms. Hell, you don’t even need a history book, just read The Grapes of Wrath for a primer. As to history education, I scored 6 free college credits testing on the subject. You score any?

            Were you around for the 1980s Farm Crisis? I was. There’s another piece of what happened. John Cougar sing ya all about it if you don’t care to read.

            None the less, I roll 2,800 miles through the South every year. I observe what’s what and who’s doing it, talk to people. Those are shitloads of struggling family farms I’m seeing. In all those miles, I see exactly one farm that is truly a monster acreage. (TBF: Many of those miles are in Alabama, which is forestry vs. agriculture, another subject altogether. Another subject I’m educated in.)

            Again, you want to tell these boys in person they ain’t actually farming, mindlessly running machines in the employ of big ag, you go right ahead.

            BTW, you ever figure how the quadratic equation works for real-life problems? I know. Farmers know.

            • resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world
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              14 days ago

              No, I didn’t score six free history credits. I scored three by passing my AP US history exam.

              I did test out of two calculus classes since I aced the more difficult AP calculus exam. Those were worth at least six credits.

              You seem to agree with me that machinery has turned 50% of farmers into 3% and then ramble on as if you’d made a winning point.

              Since you’re so smart maybe you can tell what the fuck any of the rest of what you said had to do with what I said?

              Or I can say “just read Of Mice And Men” in a condescending way and take a victory lap and hurt my arm patting myself on the back.

              Your choice.

        • edible_funk@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          Naw monoculture farming is incredibly harmful to the environment and farmers know it but do it anyway to suck that government welfare teat while voting to take away other people’s safety nets. Fuck farmers, bitch ass welfare queens ain’t feeding shit, throw most of it away and make corn gas to fuck the environment even more.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Know how I finally understood what the quadratic equation was used for IRL? Ag class. Bet you couldn’t handle a single simple acre of monoculture, given all the time in the world to make it happen. Money says you’d fail to harvest a single bushel of tomatoes.

      BTW, you’ll be living in the country, so you’ll need shitloads of self-sufficiency skills, both for the home and field.