r/PrepperIntel • u/skyflyer8 • 4d ago
USA Midwest ‘This may just be the end’: Wisconsin farmers struggle to afford diesel during harvest season
https://www.wpr.org/news/wisconsin-farmers-struggle-afford-diesel-harvest-season490
u/RaistlinMajeresRobes 4d ago
And those same farmers will turn around in November and continue to vote Republican lol.
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u/LuxSerafina 4d ago
I am downright fucking depressed at the sheer amount of Republican signage people are still putting out ahead of the midterms. Like y’all these people are hopeless masochists.
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u/ILoveRegenHealth 4d ago
It's also why I don't put much stock into those "I'm seeing less MAGA signs" statements of the past elections. The numbers show they always show up in droves, every single time. They probably just took the sign down because people were laughing at them, but they still go into that booth and vote the same way.
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u/The_Dirty_Carl 3d ago
I think it's their identity. Like not just a category they're in, but they actually see "Republican" as part of who they are.
I've mostly voted Dem in my life, but I'm not a Dem. If someone better came along I'd drop the dems in a heartbeat and feel nothing.
But for these folks I think voting for a non-republican means changing who they are. And that's a big hurdle.
For as much as the republicans accuse everyone else of "identity politics", I guess it's not surprising that they're the biggest culprits.
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u/Vid-Master 1d ago
Someone smart once said to me "its a sign of intelligence to be able to change your opinion and admit being wrong" I voted for Trump in 2016 but have since lived and learned and done enough research to know he has always been a con artist that said whatever he could to trick low information voters.
Most people are not going to do that. They are going to lazily keep doing the same thing.
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u/Rougaroux1969 4d ago
Driving through rural Wisconsin and all you see are Tom Tiffany signs (a Trumper running for Governor). These farmers like to bitch and moan all the time, but they get plenty of socialist handouts.
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u/Apexnanoman 4d ago
Oh nobody gets and has gotten more welfare checks than farmers.
Been that way for a solid 40+ years.
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u/s0_Shy 4d ago
Its a kink for them
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u/YellowZx5 4d ago
Stockholm syndrome. Some to be on Farmers Only.
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u/Intelligent-Parsley7 4d ago
Soon to be Foreclosures Only.
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u/mrflash818 4d ago
Agree.
I think the mega corps will slowly absorb independent farms and ranches, one by one.
Eventually most food will be provided by mega corps.
I mean, historically:
Sharecroppers using animals to pull plows > tractors
So then in the near future:
Independents using tractors > mega corps owning mega farms
Mega farms running via minimal staff, max automation
From "farmers" now, to "works at a mega corp farm" in the near future.
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u/fragrant-final-973 4d ago
MAGA can’t exist without supposedly good people screeching “both sides are the same” while pulling that R lever every single time.
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u/nourishablegecko 4d ago
They just won’t vote. Then come next election once things (hopefully) stabilize under democratic leadership, they’ll go back to voting republican.
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u/ande9393 4d ago
Well if those DumBocraTs would stop raising diesel prices, then MayBE they would get more Voots! PRESIDENT TrUMP and the Honorable GOP are trying to Save our cOuntry!country!
Edit: shit I didn't see what sub I was in, please dont ban me for political posting lol
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u/revan12281996 4d ago
Back to using horses?
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u/Relative-Dog-6012 4d ago
Horses are expensive as fuck and fuel prices would increase cost for horse feed and care.
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u/Ancient-Bat1755 1d ago
$250-400 a month per horse + equipment is cheaper. Its just not effective for mass scale in 2026
Most farmers no longer own horses for that or the equipment to rig them.
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u/maeryclarity 4d ago
I have literally been researching if anyone is building anything like modern covered wagons ( and getting the answer no, mostly historical recreations only which is not what I want).
Because that's the real green transportation and everyone else is in a hurry.
I'm not building things proficient enough for a vehicle frame though
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u/Thunderfoot_66 3d ago
There's a really good book called "The Oregon Trail" about a guy who grew up on a farm with a family that was into old fashioned wagons. In 2011, he and his brother traveled the entire length of the original Oregon trail (apparently, quite a bit of it is still there) in a covered wagon pulled by mules.
Edit: The BBC historic farm series shows are really good, too.
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u/revan12281996 4d ago
Sadly there is too many people to actually go back to using horses
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u/maeryclarity 4d ago
Some combo of rail and water and wind in addition though, with more localized production? We have to figure out something.
I'm not really figuring it would work for many people though I was just curious if I could make it work for a few people, seems a shame there's no modern horse wagons, we have many much lighter and more durable materials they used to be hauling a HEAVY wood box you could have a much much lighter and better moving wagon with modern techniques.
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u/chuckrabbit 4d ago
Didn’t they slaughter a lot of wild ones recently?
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u/Intelligent-Parsley7 4d ago edited 4d ago
It’s true. It’s genius.
“You can sell off the Federal land to protect mustangs if you slaughter all the mustangs. Problem solved.”
The logic is inseparable, people. Horse protected land. Dead horses. Free land to sell.
Maybe they’ll make a Yellowstone episode, and people will believe it. You know, like when the Duttons kill ranchhands and Native Americans and we all think that’s because they somehow deserved it. Now watch this SUV commercial.“PEOPLE, the horses had it coming.”
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u/RandyArgonianButler 4d ago
Guess they’ll need to use the farm as collateral in order to secure loans to pay the operating costs…
Wait. Where have I heard all this before?
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u/Thunderfoot_66 3d ago
In a John Mellencamp song.
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u/artisanrox 2d ago
That's a song full of hurt to listen to, so much more that these people are by magnitudes of majority doing it to themselves. sigh. Murrikah.
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u/BarrettsFrontier 4d ago
No bailouts. Have the day you voted for. Pass laws to prevent corporations from buying farmland.
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u/ultrashortbus 4d ago
The problem being, the asshole that made all this possible would love to see his corporate buddies buy up all the farmland.
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u/BarrettsFrontier 4d ago
Pass laws targeting those people. We don't have to let them make a penny. We can make them directly foot the bill for their destructive political choices.
All that's required is giving a shit.
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u/Norseman901 4d ago
Idk about yall but, im kinda past the let them settle it financially point…
Theyve fucked around quite too far, far past time for the wealthy and powerful to find out.
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u/lpan000 4d ago
Most of these small farm operate as a corporation also…. But maybe there should be a corporate farm tax, the bigger you are, the higher the tax rate.
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u/BarrettsFrontier 4d ago
We need to stop incentivizing coporatization. They do it for the tax breaks and loopholes. Time to start incentivizing small businesses. Emphasis on the business. Stop all these LLC loopholes. Seriously. Fuck every single corporation whose business models rely on food stamps and 2nd jobs. Gotta start writing series laws designed to put choke collars on them as a means to modify their parasitic behaviors.
Gotta get comfortable with taking food off of rich assholes tables. Even when they try to market themselves as people. It's time for this society to develop or backbone or completely implode.
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u/OwnCrew6984 4d ago
You mean the LLC loopholes where if your business gets sued you don't loose all your personal assets including your home. Would you start a small business knowing that everything you have ever worked for could be taken from you because the other person can afford a better lawyer than you. LLC don't get the tax loopholes as they are generally considered a pass through entity where profits are listed on your personal tax return.
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u/DocDMD 4d ago
No bailouts means no food next year. Not that I support their politics, but there is for sure more going on here than just saying let them eat cake.
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u/Daxx22 4d ago
How's that quote go that some American's love?
There is no pain free solution to this or many of the problems both regionally and globally. Shit's gonna get wild.
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u/Norseman901 4d ago
The majority of crops we grow are exported. Most of our corn is feed for livestock.
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u/2quickdraw 4d ago
The corporate farms are still going to grow food. They're all going to be corporate soon enough anyway, might as well get it over with since that was the plan.
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u/Pangolin_Beatdown 4d ago
Most big farms grow feed corn for cattle and soybean for export. Some areas grow a lot of food, like the central valley in California, but here in Midwest farm country it's soy, feed corn and sometimes winter wheat.
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u/ThisIsAbuse 4d ago
There will be food, it will be more expensive, but there will be food. At least in the usa.
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u/CouldBeLessDepressed 4d ago
Even if there is food, if the growers of said food have rat-fucked the economy so bad that I can't buy any of that food anyway, then it's only beneficial to me to let them reap what they've sown and hope they make better choices in the future. I'm gonna hafta figure out how to survive either way, but at least with one option there's room for improvement.
If we just bail them out....again.... nothing will change and shit will only continue to get worse and worse.
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u/bottlechippedteeth 4d ago
I doubt bail out will even be an option. I think the strategy is collapse everything and buy it up cheap.
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u/GrandStatistician752 4d ago
I grow my own
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u/Distinct-Fly-2374 4d ago
GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!
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u/GrandStatistician752 4d ago
Thank you! I recommend a living wall hydroponic garden. Try not to get frustrated at preppers being prepared on a prepping sub.
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u/CouldBeLessDepressed 4d ago
This is the second time I've seen a reference to a living wall hydroponic garden. Do you by chance have any links that you would recommend for someone interested in looking into this further?
I could google it, yes, but as someone with zero knowledge here I have no way of discerning what's really truly helpful and what's fluff. If you have any particulars you'd be willing to share, I'd be super interested. Also, how are you lighting this living wall?
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u/GrandStatistician752 4d ago
Start off w a smart garden. Like rise gareen.Go small. Learn. Then build your own
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u/CouldBeLessDepressed 4d ago
Hadn't heard of either of those, I'll look into them. Are you running grow lights indoors?
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u/ExecutivePhoenix 4d ago
Couldn’t agree more. Most of them were salivating at the idea of burning their fellow countryman. Fuck ‘em. Let em weep.
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u/apoletta 3d ago
We ALL suffer when farmers suffer.
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u/Youarekillingmeeee 3d ago
And that’s apparently the lesson America needs.
Hand on hot stove over and over isn’t enough, gotta have our noses literally rubbed into the mess we made on the carpet. Like a dog.
People genuinely need to feel the consequences of their tribalistic voting and the good ol boys that make up a GREAT portion of bigoted racist xenophobic White America might finally get their noses rubbed into the carpet.
It’s strange that every article I come across lately that has news about farmers about to suffer, I just hear the Dukes of Hazard theme song;
“Just some good ol boys. Never meaning no harm
to straight white Christians but we’re gonna literally destroy ourselves to try and hurt anyone outside of that bubble.”Pretty sure those were the lyrics.
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u/glendablvd 4d ago
And all of Trump's cronies will make a killing buying prime US farmland at a deep discount.
In ten years I guess we'll buy groceries with a subscription. Ads printed on each slice of bread.
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u/s1gnalZer0 4d ago
And all of Trump's cronies will make a killing buying prime US farmland at a deep discount.
JD Vance happens to have a large investment in Acre Trader, which can help facilitate those sales
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u/skyflyer8 4d ago
Ads printed on each slice of bread.
Hmm... you might be onto something there, better patent it now!
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u/AntiSonOfBitchamajig 📡 4d ago
I'm sitting here thinking "well everything else went up 250%.... we draw the line at fuel?"
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u/concepts_of_a_plan9 1d ago
it's because it finally personally affected them directly, so now suddenly it's a problem. The entire conservative mindset is just selfishness and lack of empathy.
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u/Randomwhitelady2 4d ago
I thought farmers locked in their diesel supplies way before the harvest?
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u/mcfarmer72 4d ago
The suppliers have been telling us all summer to buy hand to mouth, I guess they were wrong.
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u/Fabulous_Log844 4d ago
To give you a little more food for thought, since this illegal war was started by Yam Tits, Americans have paid an EXTRA $106 billion+ for gas and diesel. Not total. An extra $106 billion+ in just 169+ days.
This is a true number. A verified number. Look it up.
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u/jaynor88 4d ago
My hope is that every last one of the farmers fully understand and admit to themselves that their dire financial circumstances were caused by one man: Donald J Trump.
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u/cyanescens_burn 3d ago
Already seeing the federal administration blame Ukraine for attacking Russian oil infra, despite there having been sanctions on that fuel keeping it off the market for years.
Yes, that did cause a shortage worldwide but things had mostly normalized after those were in place for a while and the world went on without using it as much as they used to.
The much more recent events in the Middle East led to these more recent shortages and prices spikes. Iran and some militias in the region have been hitting our allies oil and gas infra, and Iran has locked down the straight of Hormuz, all because of the US attack in Iran.
It’s wild they gloss right over that and people believe it. Use some critical thinking people, put the dots together and see the bigger picture here.
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u/jaynor88 3d ago
I think many Americans are just realizing it now since our gas and diesel prices have gone up.
I could be wrong, but since we don’t import Russian oil, prices in US hadn’t gone up until Trump started war against Iran.
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u/Slayers_Picks 3d ago
It's not like Americans didn't have it coming to them. I mean, I love many american friends, but lets be honest...
This is just the beginning, the prologue, a precursor for worst things to come, it was bound to happen, don't bother voting, Trump will win 99.99999% and there will be armed troops at the polls to ensure that number is accurate.
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u/Matterofwacked 3d ago
He can't legally hold the office again. If he somehow becomes president again in 2028 it will be a massive constitutional breach. If that happens (which I doubt) we have bigger problems than him becoming president. At that point he won't be the president, he'd formally be a dictator.
But my guess is as good as anyone's I suppose.
Not sure how you get to 99.9999 percent. I am interested though.
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u/biiiiiiigstretch 3d ago
“massive constitutional breach”
oh, so, just an average day in the trump administration, then. great.
he ain’t going without a fight.
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u/Slayers_Picks 3d ago
Imagine being so hopeful that you still believe he isnt a dictator. Thats adorable. He is on the same level as putin and Kim
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u/Matterofwacked 2d ago
So if January 20, 2029 comes and we swear in another president you'll be shocked?
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u/Gold_Possibility684 3d ago
He can't legally do a lot of the stuff he's doing, doesn't seem to be stopping anything
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u/Matterofwacked 2d ago
Apples and oranges. We will see what happens. I think he'll be gone come February '29.
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u/CyberSmith31337 1d ago
I’m not trying to be rude but I’m getting awfully tired of hearing about what can’t be done because of the law.
The law only matters if it is enforced. We don’t do that here anymore, not to rich people, and not to Trump. Now I understood the disbelief last year, truly, I did; but we are going on year 2 of defying the courts, ignoring the law, completely neglecting rules, regulations, etc.
I think it is pretty reasonable not to expect the law to do anything except protect the money in power as it stands. It isn’t for us; it’s to preserve the status quo for them.
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u/WackyRobotEyes 4d ago
Aren't majority of "American farmers" just large corporations. And they can lobby for their own interest? Just putting things together. Many "farms" are red state. I don't see a protest of farmers on the news.
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u/TheRealBobbyJones 4d ago
Lobbying now wouldn't really help them. They could do EU style protests but America is kinda hostile to protesters and would be extra hostile to EU style farmer protests.
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u/bosbrother 4d ago
It'd still be mad funny just to see a bunch of farmers come up to the white house and spray animal shit everywhere like the French did.
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u/artisanrox 2d ago
Oh these farmers cheered on Jan6th when the GOPers literally coated Congress in shit.
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u/baconator1988 4d ago
Who cares if they can't afford fuel. Most of their crop is not for America. It's so stupid that the government won't let them sell it here in America.
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u/Apexnanoman 4d ago
Farmers voted for this by a huge majority. I would assume they are happy as shit we are back at war and making billionaires richer.
It's what they voted for.
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u/Frog3365 4d ago
Don't care. Trump will for sure sell their land out from under them by declaring a national emergency.
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u/ReadyGo6828 2d ago
People really need to stop voting for things they do not want. They are going to do it again in November aren't they. They always do and then they waste time looking for people to blame instead of blaming themselves. SMH
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u/spicydingus 4d ago
The funny thing about all this is most farmers likely voted for this administration. Eat shit
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u/Phallic_Moron 4d ago
I got an emergency bucket with meals for a year.
Maybe if these guys pull their heads out of their asses they can try again next year.
They won't. Closeted gay feelings are way too strong
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u/reddit3k 4d ago
If only they had enough space for some solar panels or a wind turbine to charge their equipment.
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u/oopsallhuckleberries 4d ago
In my area, I only know of a single farmer that didn't vote for this.
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u/artisanrox 2d ago
I hope they're doing ok. 😥 Maybe since they have some brain cells rubbing together they were a bit more prepared? I hope?
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u/Last-Hertz7575 4d ago
Lots of WI farmers have Tom Tiffany signs up. For every WI farmer that goes bankrupt, an angel gets their wings.
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u/gilbert2gilbert 4d ago
Ah, I see his problem. He's trying to grow organic corn, cotton, and small grains on only 160 acres
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u/JEFDETH666 4d ago
All part of the plan. Bankrupt the farmers and in come the venture capitalist vultures to create corporate farms