The reason is simple: an increase in immigration enforcement, including high-profile ICE raids, shook Texas farm workers to their core. The news filtered fast that workers—regardless of legal status—chose safety over a salary.

Farmers, who had been working with their crews for decades, described the loss as “devastating” and “unprecedented.” This is alarming as most farms are founded upon immigrant labor, both legal and illegal, creating a domino effect for the food system as a whole.

. . . When farm workers vanish, the effects are felt far beyond the fields. Livestock is untended, crops go unpicked, food production declines, and food prices dramatically increase. In Texas alone, where specialty vegetables and fruits must be hand-picked, worker shortages jeopardize entire harvest seasons.

This results in fewer foods on grocery store shelves, higher prices for families nationwide, and a greater reliance on imports. Threads on Reddit and YouTube are already predicting price hikes and empty produce shelves.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Um…who’s “them” in this scenario? Because if the farms shut down, that means EVERYBODY starves. Can’t feed the public if there’s no food supply.

        • IceFoxX@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Sry you Accept the terrorist as Leader. Yep ist 100% US Citizen faults. Both Sides. Happy dying

      • fodor@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        Do you think that the only food available in Texas is that which is grown in Texas?

          • ysjet@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            US citizens do not want this shit.

            More to point, the idiots that voted for this while thinking it would happen are a very, very small minority.

            And even then, it’s looking reaaaal likely that a significant amount of those votes for this shit were faked.

            • IceFoxX@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Hey you there on that gun-loving continent. Who accepts the storming of the capitol without repercussions… Top terrorist on the loose… The biggest election tampering and you all shut up not 1 accusation came… You accept how people and US citizens are being kidnapped instead of finally ridding yourselves of the terrorists… No it’s 100%US Citizens. All but really all of you hypocrites accept that. While because of you in the world no idea how many people are already dying! Fucking US

              As a German who hates Nazis, I am still called a Nazi today. That and exactly that is what you want for your children and their children. So stfu with lies.

      • some_designer_dude@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        My guess is “them” = Americans? This (for now) is largely a “them” problem and it’s unlikely anyone will really push back until most people lose their bread and / or circuses. It makes sense. Most people want to just “be” and live peacefully, and will avoid disruptions until they can’t.

        I hope they find a way to correct their government before things get to starvation though.

  • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Mark my words Republicans will turn to using convict labor to harvest crops before they ever turn on Trump or admit any faults.

    Step1: Round up undocumented immigrants and criminals.

    Step2: Put them in prison for “crimes”.

    Step3: Profit! Lease them to farms for $1 a day. Since slavery is legal if you are incarcerated. Republicans are going to build an entire underclass of criminals who will do these jobs.

    Bonus: None of the brown people or criminals will be able to vote because they are now felons. Farmers will cry and vote Republican if anyone even suggests doing away with the prison industrial system.

    • Openopenopenopen@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It is in our constitution, and we know how they like to cherry pick that.

      13th Amendment, Section 1: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

      • KnitWit@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It always amazes me that the amendment made it exactly five words before it put a gigantic loophole in place that has the ability to negate the whole thing.

    • Xanx@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      That sounds realistic except how do you rent out slaves from Alligator Alcatraz. It’s not exactly commuting distance to any Texan farms?

      • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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        3 months ago

        Maube we should start calling it Alligator Auschwitz and have “Work sets you free!” emblazoned in neon over the entrance.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    It’s too bad that I don’t give a fuck about farmers who voted to arrest their workforce. Put on a cowboy hat and harvest your produce yourself. This is what you wanted.

    If you didn’t notice, I also hate cowboys.

  • rekabis@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    They voted for this.

    Let them figure it out.

    If you own property, start a garden. You’re likely going to need it.

  • halferect@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m sure there are plenty of Republicans willing to take a job for shit pay that is back breaking and dangerous right?

      • halferect@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It really is wonderful, I could only wish to have the government give me my dream job, and these Republicans just get handed a golden opportunity, it’s like Charlie and the golden ticket, I will go down and congrat them on the big winnings and bestest deals while they are knee deep in pig shit

  • spoke0thedevil@lemmy.zip
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    3 months ago

    Did anyone else get ai vibes while reading the article? Idk if it’s just me but the writing seemed so generic like something chat gpt spits out.

  • MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    So MAGA isn’t about the US being self reliant on produce and products after all?

  • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I wonder how many of these farmers in Texas voted for Trump? My guess is the majority of them. You reap what you sow.

  • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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    3 months ago

    Phase 2: Prison labor

    It also carries the side “benefit” of getting farm owners complicit in and supportive of the “person who didn’t do anything wrong -> detention” pipeline, as it ramps up and expands.

    You heard it here first.

    • fartographer@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      No, that’s phase 3. Phase 2 is foreclosures, bankruptcy, and buying at insanely discounted rates. THEN it’s slaveprison labor.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        You’re still off by 1, before you can have prison labor they’re going to have to make disagreeing with the government punishable by forced labor. Then they’re going to farm all of the social media and lock everyone up.

    • ragepaw@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      I have been predicting the return of slavery wide scale via prisoners for years.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Actually, I think I heard it first in the 1200s when Genghis Khan had similar concepts. He also would raze the village, kill the men and children, and rape the women…but give it time. Maybe that’s one of the provisions within “the big beautiful bill”. Maybe it’s coming next year.

      …I don’t know if I should indicate that I’m joking. It’s the kind of joke where you laugh, but also it’s a nervous laugh because you no longer feel safe in your own country, and it REALLY feels like we need a new modern civil war to take out the trash like we did 200 years ago.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Phase 3: Expansion of laws to criminalise any vauge behaviour the govt decides is unacceptable.

      When everyone is guilty, you can extort the funded class to look the other way and exploit the unfunded class by imprisonment and forced Labor. The legal system will be saturated by arrests for ‘disorderly conduct’, ‘resistimg arrest’ and ‘anti-governmemt activities’ faster than the courts can keep up with tossing out bogus charges. If you have money,you post bail and try really hard to behave yourself and not rock the boat. If you don’t have money, it’s off to the work farms for you.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Even “better”, only people with the right connections will have access to this slave labour, so only very wealthy or very Fascist farmers will get their harvests harvested.

      Win, win, win for Fascism in the US.