General Discussion

My father (and his parents) are/were Nebraska farmers. He's retired now - but most of his income still comes from the farm which is rented and/or crop shared with former neighbors.

I'm pretty sure he has voted in every election once he was eligible to vote - certainly every presidential election. He has never voted for a Republican for national office. (Sometimes there aren't party choices in local elections.) He was Nebraska's first conscientious objector, was kicked out of his family because of it, but by the time I was in middle school my grandfather had come around to my father's way of thinking. He has actively campaigned for (and donated to) Democratic candidates for most of his adult life.

Right out of college, he spent 4 years in a peace-corps type program in the Philippines. He has taken more than decade off from full time farming to devote to social justice causes (world hunger, native american issues, and lobbying Congress on behalf of progressive causes - where being a Nebraska farmer opened doors to a lot of conservative offices he might otherwise not have had access to). That was made possible by a business arrangement with his cousin - in significant part so that the farm would be able to support my father's and the cousin's investment in social justice and world hunger issues.

Once he retired, and was no longer dependent on spending ungodly hours actively tending the farm, he devoted considerable time to restoring native grasses to the pasture across from our house, controlled burns to rid two farms of invasive species, and to sectioning the hill pasture so that it could be more productively used in a manner consistent with land conservation for cattle grazing (don't even suggest it should have been turned into food crops - the land cannot sustain direct production of food because of the terrain and the lack of sufficient water to support crops - the myth that it is always better to use land for direct production of food is one made by people who have not actually spent time farming)

I'm just back from a trip back home. The crops this year are healthier - and, in addition to annual health, are generally more productive per acre than any year in my father's memory. Because of the impact of tariffs - and, ironically the increased production - the per acre income will be one of the lowest in decades.

So, yeah, telling my father (and grandfather) that they are getting what they voted for is ignorant. And direct involvement in farming will end with my father. It is an extremely hard life, often surrounded by people with politics which make day-to-day life emotionally draining. None of the kids in my family will be joining the effort to make sure that people in this country have food to eat. I garden, and support a local CSA. But that's the extent of it.

And - if that isn't enough - Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer. Those painting farmers with an indiscriminate brush should think of everyone they are including in that tar and feather job.