• Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    Been wondering how this would play out, farmers planted the same amount as usual even without buyers lined up assuming the guard rails would hold. Now they don’t have anybody to harvest or sell to. Deffinitly gonna be some grapes of wrath ripe for the picking soon.

    • djsaskdja@reddthat.com
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      4 days ago

      I talked to my farming buddy about this. He said it’s definitely a real thing especially for soybeans. But he’ll probably just end up storing more from his harvest this year and ride it out. I know every situation is different, but just thought I’d throw that out there.

      • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        But he’ll probably just end up storing more from his harvest this year and ride it out.

        Then your buddy is better prepared than like 90% of farmers, who hsve overleveraged the hell out of their holdings and have debts they counted on selling this year’s harvest to service. The (immediate) problem isn’t so much that farmers have a glut of product to sell, it’s that the farming sector, like almost every other productive sector in the global north is finsncialized to hell and back, getting strapped to the global financial system like a suicide vest that starves you to death instead of blowing you up.

        Hell, even if you don’t have large operational debt, the capacity for storage you need to ride out these kinds of things requires large capital investments: money most farmers don’t have at hand, and get loans for. I’m sure it was a genius move to plug the food system to part of the economy that’s been the cause the past 3 or 4 times there was a recession. No problems there.

      • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        What does “store more and ride it out” look like. I don’t know the shelf life of soybeans even in ideal conditions but I don’t see China changing course and suddenly buying more next year.

        Difference in a society that makes plans on a 10, 50 and 100 year time frame and a society that would let you pay them $100 to burn your house down because hey, it’s $100 they didn’t have before.

        • djsaskdja@reddthat.com
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          3 days ago

          Monitor the markets and haul when they spike. Don’t know how long they stay good but probably a couple years maybe. You’ll lose some to rot over time but it’s better than selling low. He mostly grows corn and has pigs too so it’s not like that’s his only source of income.