The primary purpose of GM in the US has been to allow the crops to tolerate the mass spraying of pesticides such as Roundup (which is banned in the EU on grounds of public health). Furthermore farmers are forced to sign contracts with corporations, which lock them in to only receiving seed and pesticide from one particular company. Control of their farm is essentially lost. They are thus reduced to the role of modern day serfs.
Rural America, which voted overwhelmingly for Trump, is under attack from all sides. As this article from the Guardian discusses America’s factory farming system has destroyed rural America, turning many into little more than modern day serfs. Trump’s “tax cut” might actually push up the running costs of many US farmers, as it eliminated various deductions that they benefited from. Quite apart from the economic blowback from his tariff policy and trade wars. And inevitably the rate of suicides is up in rural America.
US agriculture is now heading in completely the wrong direction, as such intensive farming methods are not only bad for rural communities, reducing the number of well paid jobs (in favour of low paid jobs filled by recently arrive immigrants) but they are also terrible for the environment. Carbon emissions are higher (there’s been some efforts to claim…
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
Thanks for this article and your intro. Your excellent intro shows just how much a third world country the US really is. The article is one of the most thoughtful and comprehensive that I’ve seen.
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My pleasure. Good articles like this need to be shared around.
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dumn clucks. Trumps has aggresively stated his intention, to cut of all farm subsidies. Their profit margins are very tenuous based on weather and markets.. Trump then totally screwed corn and soy farmers in asia markets, with tariffs that have backfired and are ruining them… Talk about cutting off yur nose to spite yur face. We know trump and its ild is in bed w monsanto
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All I can say, Gloria, is that it makes me incredibly sad how easy it is to persuade people to vote against their own interests.
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THIS is the story but you can’t find it anywhere on MSM. We’re dying here!
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Things are really bad here in NZ, as well, Trace. Large numbers of our young people have to go overseas to find work and we have the largest per capita rate of homeless and the second largest per capita incarceration rate (with a large proportion Maori). At least we’ve been able to hold off GMOs and factory farmed cows – though our battery chicken farms are pretty disgusting (and full of campylobacter – NZ is the campylobacter capitol of the world.
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The world is crumbling down and when it’s over, we can build the world we deserve.
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What a depressing state of affairs!
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Indeed, Rosaliene. With the state of US farms, it won’t take very much to push Americans into total food insecurity.
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