Fun fact: in the US, farmworkers have always equalled or outnumbered farmers, including today! https://twitter.com/UrOrientalist/status/1378673871944040454">https://twitter.com/UrOrienta...
For those asking "but aren& #39;t farmworkers the REAL farmers??"

That& #39;s one of those things that ~feels~ woke and is actually one of the best tools US respectability politics has for erasing & controlling farm labor.

It& #39;s a fucking trap. Don& #39;t fall into it.
In American socioeconomic realities, "being a farmer" is synonymous with owning land.

The Jeffersonian idyll is about having your own piece of land. Nobody homesteaded and "became a farmer" with the goal of working someone else& #39;s land.
Farmworkers self-identify as labor.

UFW is for United Farm WORKERS.

CIW is for Coalition of Immokalee WORKERS.

They& #39;re not running around calling themselves farmers.

So why are you?
American culture tends to treat "farmer" as an honorific.

They& #39;re the "real" people who are worthy of "real" respect.

That& #39;s why people are so bent on declaring farmworkers the "real" farmers.

Because deep down y& #39;all think being a worker isn& #39;t as good.
That plays right into wealthy landowners& #39; hand.

As long as people don& #39;t realize there& #39;s actually a HUGE difference between being a farmer & being a farmworker

then farmers (landowners) can appropriate their own workers& #39; struggle & use it to get more federal money.
That& #39;s not an abstract theoretical.

The farm lobby& #39;s been actively using that confusion to fan anxieties about a "farmer suicide epidemic."

It& #39;s fake. Farm owners& #39; suicide rates are par for their demographic (~40 per 100K, the US norm for older white men.)
It& #39;s farm WORKERS who are experiencing a suicide epidemic- ~120 per 100K, the highest occupational suicide rate in the entire US.

If you& #39;ve ever seen reporting about a US farm suicide epidemic, congrats: you& #39;ve seen farmworker erasure in action.
In case it& #39;s not clear from the statistics

"farmer" and "farmworker" are very literally different jobs.

They& #39;re in different DOL categories. "Farmers" are in the owner/manager category.

"Farmworkers" are in the wage labor category.
"Farmers are capital, not labor" isn& #39;t a theoretical axe I& #39;m grinding.

It& #39;s the publicly acknowledged economic & statistical reality.

Most people just never heard that before.

That& #39;s bc farmers really, really want you to think they& #39;re labor! Even though they& #39;re management!
And now we get to the part where someone says

"But but but I WORK on my family farm, and I& #39;m overworked, and my dad/grandpa/uncle doesn& #39;t pay me shit! How dare you suggest I& #39;m not an oppressed worker"!
Here& #39;s the deal.

Your struggle is real.

And it& #39;s not because you& #39;re an oppressed worker.

It& #39;s because your rich daddy/grandpa/uncle is a dick.

Give credit where it& #39;s due.
Game theory wise, farm family members who work a lot & don& #39;t get paid enough

tend to be incentivized AGAINST voting or agitating for farm worker protections.
Why? Because most of them are doing it in hope of inheriting at least a piece the farm someday.

They don& #39;t want to be obligated to pay better wages when that happens.

They like to complain about their situation, but when push comes to shove they don& #39;t wanna fix it.
people haaaaaate it when you point that one out lmao

Anyway, that& #39;s why farm family members- even when they& #39;re in one of the many shitty farm families that push all their work onto a few relatives & don& #39;t pay them- are in a completely different boat than non-family farm labor.
Again, shitty farm family labor situations are REAL.

If you& #39;re in that situation, you should be mad!

You should NOT waltz into political situations claiming that you "are a farmworker."
You represent family labor& #39;s ugly underbelly. That& #39;s a related but whole different animal. Your situation has a lot more to do with in-family financial manipulation, domestic violence, & bizarre rich people* palace politics than it does the actual economics of labor.
*Yes, farmers are rich

that& #39;s a whole nother thread but farm households make more take-home pay than non-farmers

and the median farm family& #39;s net worth- aka wealth AFTER subtracting debts- is over $1M.

#Farm%20Household%20Financial%20Indicators">https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/farm-household-income-and-characteristics/farm-household-income-and-characteristics/ #Farm%20Household%20Financial%20Indicators">https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-prod...
Your family isn& #39;t treating you like shit because they& #39;re "forced" to by economics.

They& #39;re doing that because they& #39;re a shitty family.

Let them have the dignity of their choice, & make your own choices accordingly.
In conclusion: No, farmers are not farmworkers.

That& #39;s not an opinion. It& #39;s a fact: farmer & farmworker are concretely different jobs that are counted separately in DOL, USDA, and other demographic statistics.
Tenant farming is a weird liminal space where you don& #39;t own the land- but you DO own your own equipment & client list, & often hire labor yourself.

Esp in today& #39;s farming where it takes a lot of capital to be a tenant farmer, it& #39;s mostly like any other contracting business.
Tenant farming pre-1980 is a whole other animal. If we& #39;re talking historical farm labor, tenant farming & esp sharecropping fall into the farmworker category.

But when we& #39;re talking modern farmworker activism, there& #39;s a big clear dividing line btwn who& #39;s labor & who& #39;s capital.
In conclusion, "farmworkers are the real farmers!" is some grade-A capitalist respectability politics bullshit.

Farmers are capital. That& #39;s concretely reflected in US farm policy, lending policy, & labor statistics.
Farm workers are labor. They self-identify, organize, & call themselves workers. They DO NOT call themselves farmers.

It& #39;s farm *owners* who are pushing that "farmers & farmworkers are the same" narrative. It& #39;s capital.

Don& #39;t fall for it.
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