"Nobody to pick them"... Florida farmers plow their tomatoes under.

[Cirsium]

73. OK

I don't know, here are some things I have posted on the topic before.

On the topic of "bail outs" -

Agriculture in the US has been subsidized for a long time in various ways - the Farm Credit program, Cooperative Extension, the Land Grant college system, farm Service agencies, the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the state and federal departments of agriculture, public health and safety agencies, soil and water conservation districts, etc.

The purpose of those programs is to benefit the general public, and that is most certainly the case. It is the eaters who are "bailed out" not the growers.

On the topic of whether or not the "farm vote" is consequential:

There are 3,000,000 or so workers in Missouri, and there are about 27,000 farm workers, a few of whom are actually owners — “farmers.”

By way of comparison, there are 358,470 people working in office and administrative occupations; 251,150 transportation workers; 200,200 heath care practitioners; 257,610 food service workers; 239,430 work in sales; 197,350 factory workers; 181,350 in financial occupations; 169,240 work in education; 159,960 health care support workers; 120,100 installation and repair workers; 116,510 construction workers; 85,000 computer related jobs; 82,140 maintenance workers; 60,980 law enforcement and emergency services; 58,460 personal care workers; 46,640 social services workers; 35,520 in engineering jobs; 33,440 in arts and entertainment.

https://meric.mo.gov/data/occupation/occupational-employment-wages

The “farm vote” is a myth.

Let’s look at Nebraska where we find the district with the highest concentration of farm owners.

Nebraska has about 22,000 full time farm owners, while 935,000 people in Nebraska voted in 2024. Farmers represent a little over 2% of the potential voters.

By way of comparison, Nebraska has 121,000 office workers, 101,000 healthcare workers, 88,000 restaurant workers, 80,000 sales agents, 72,000 managers and administrators, 59,000 financial agents, 57,000 teachers, 50,000 construction workers, 44,000 equipment installation, maintenance, and repair workers, 33,000 IT workers, 30, 000 truck drivers, 29,000 building and grounds cleaning and maintenance workers, 24,000 personal care and service workers, and so forth.

A lot of innocent people are harmed by FAFO. When food production is negatively impacted, the demographic that suffers is the 342,000,000 eaters. We should not be celebrating “FAFO.” Nor should we be perpetuating myths about agriculture. Included in those who are “getting what they voted for” in Nebraska are 369,995 Democratic voters, close to 40% of the vote, and 500,000 children.

It is not the “farm vote” that matters, it is what I call the “Walter Mitty vote.” That is to say white people who fantasize about being farmers — or soldiers, or pioneers, or lumberjacks, etc. — “real Americans! rugged individualists!” — but who actually live humdrum lives working in cubicles or driving around in traffic, while the glittering promises of the white settler project become farther and farther out of reach. It is easy to see how Republican politicians have played on that fantasy life and exploited it — Reagan on horseback, Bush and his phony ranch, Trump with his YMCA nonsense, Noem and whatever the hell she is doing. Trump promises them he will restore those glittering promises. Yippee-ki-ya-ya.

Don’t buy into the “farm vote” myth, which was created and disseminated by the right wing propagandists. It is nonsense.

Who was Walter Mitty? Walter Mitty is an ordinary, unexceptional man with an exceptional imagination. To escape the mundane world in which he lives he hides in a secret life filled with adventure and excitement. As Walter, a passive, humdrum man, does menial tasks, like driving his wife to a hair appointment or buying necessities from a drug store he imagines himself something far greater than what he is. In one instance he becomes a commander driving a hydroplane through a storm. Another daydream turns Mitty into a brilliant surgeon. In real life he is doing nothing more than sitting in a running car, or leaning against the side of a building. In each instance he finds himself transformed by his imagination into a more successful version of himself.

In real life Walter Mitty is a forgetful husband, cowardly man, and passive individual. But, his imaginations fill him with the qualities he sees as being admirable in a man. As a commander of a hydroplane he is fearless and brave. When he becomes a surgeon he suddenly finds himself calm under pressure, brilliant, and skilled. In each instance Mitty finds respect and reverence from those around him. Masculinity, in one instance, is a social term that gains its meaning from the culture of the time.

https://medium.com/@brktrail/lessons-from-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-dcaecf7cd731