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U.S. Farm Bankruptcies Increased 46% in 2025 (www.agriculture.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Yuritopiaposadism@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
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[-] Revolutionary_Apples@hexbear.net 62 points 2 days ago

Homesteader here, modern farming has become a race to overpower the local monopolies while keeping your licensing under control. It is horrifyingly expensive at every turn. Most embrace copious amounts of debt just to produce enough for one year. We are talking millions of dollars of debt every year. This debt has made it to where farmers are the most likely profession world wide to commit suicide. This is why, when I inherited this land, I did not go into traditional farming but took on a homesteading lifestyle. This alleviates groceries and provides an occasional profit without the overwhelming debt. But I am lucky, many people dont know the traps or inherit too much land for that to be an option.

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 40 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The suicide rate is high compared to general population but most farm owners are dudes with guns which is also just the prime suicide demographic.

[-] kleeon@hexbear.net 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

stalin-shining end the kulak class now!

trump-anguish ogey :) how did I do joe?

josus-stalin thank you mr president this is exactly what I meant

a-little-trolling another day, another banger

[-] BigWeed@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago

Bad time to be a soy bean farmer, great time to be a soy bean smuggler.

[-] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

We must ruthlessly support every scheme which disempowers them, monofacetedly and without mercy. Raise the inheritance tax on farmers until they go bankrupt. Support environmental legislation even if it feels designed to break their businesses, because it should be. We must promote research into lab-grown meat, vertical farming methods, and hydroponic farming. We must encourage the norm to move away from traditional agriculture so we may move beyond this primitive schematic of placing our own sustenance beneath the dubious custodianship of the pettiest fascists in existence. The farmer is at every point a reactionary who hates humanity.

[-] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago

The farmer is at every point a reactionary who hates humanity.

I don't know how accurate this is, but it does fit every farmer I've ever met perfectly, so maybe they were onto something?

[-] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

Peasant farmers are reactionary. Petty bourgeois farmers are reactionary. Collective farming is the only answer.

[-] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago

Leon Trotsky employed a novel solution to this: poison gas.

Lmao

[-] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

Line immediately after that is amazing too

This largely solved the problem and Lenin could get on with the task of getting the rural population of Russia to do anything other than kill Jews, an endeavour which was so stressful it gave him several strokes.

[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago

At least they got a boot on them not whites and queer folk for God and Country /s

Every farm around here is proudly, deeply in the MAGA cult. Never made sense to me except when I see a lone church next to one of their fields of bull shit and human waste.

[-] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 21 points 2 days ago

Die farmer die. Just wish it didn't go to bankers because also die banker die.
Abolish the landowning class and their poisoning of our water reservoirs.

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 24 points 2 days ago

Chapter 12 bankruptcies seem pretty chill. So you keep your property and the remaining debt goes away after 3-5 years. Why would you not go bankrupt?

[-] juniper@hexbear.net 29 points 2 days ago

I know you're joking, but nobody is gonna lend to you anymore and Cargill et all can lowball your stolen land for pennies on the dollar so then you become a wage slave like the rest of us instead of some bootstrappin yeoman farmer pseudo bourgeois, which not only materially sucks but is also massive psychic damage so you jump into the thresher for that sweet escape

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 20 points 2 days ago

I'm not joking and I'm also in favor of stripping the land owning class of their assets.

[-] MoonMelon@lemmy.ml 20 points 2 days ago

They are chill, these headlines are never as devastating as they seem because farmers have a special class of bankruptcy that is designed to allow them to keep farming. Farmers in the USA, even non-corporate "family farms", are much bigger and richer than many people think. The image of the struggling, poor, small family farm being the "norm" is promoted by the industry despite being outdated because it drives subsidies.

I really like Sarah Taber's videos on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xon9A5_4tQw

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The More Perfect Union video has a guy saying that 25-30% of local farmers in that area lost their farm.

And why would so many farmers commit suicide if it wasn't that bad? The More Perfect Union also talks about how they have one of the highest rate of suicides, and in that community 5 farmers out of a few hundred committed suicide in a single year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl02K72QFS0

Maybe it's not as bad as media presents or whatever, but it's not like it's going great for farmers.

[-] MoonMelon@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Taber addresses this in her videos and her sources are linked in the description. I highly recommend watching a few then drawing your own conclusion vis-à-vis something like More Perfect Union.

The TLDW on the suicide rate is that it sounds terrible when comparing occupations, but when compared with the cohort that mostly represents farmers, ie "rural, white men over 40 who own guns", the rate isn't exceptional. It's a terrible statistic but it doesn't say as much about farming as it does about mental health in general in the USA.

Regarding the economics, it's terrible for everyone but farmers get a lot of attention because of how important the image of farmers is to Americans. That said, both personal and farm bankruptcies are still below pre-pandemic levels. Arkansas picked here because of the MPU video, but it's pretty much the same story nationwide.

I agree with the MPU video that the farming economy is super broken, over-consolidated, and warped, but that kind of goes for every industry. Perversely enough, farmers make more income under Democrat administrations, but they make less in subsidies. So they tend to vote R. Taber actually ran for agricultural commissioner for her state as a Democrat but lost to the Republican incumbent.

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

stripping the land owning class of their assets.

It's not like shrinking the number of land owners is good, though?

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

Why not? Fewer class enemies.

[-] happybaby@hexbear.net 15 points 2 days ago

Can't have feudalism without land fully concentrated in the hand of the king.

[-] demeritum@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 day ago

AKSHUALLY feudalism would be dynasties renting (defacto owning) land from the king. Kings historically didnt control a lot of land directly. Absolutism which laid the foundation for the modern nation state, was the consoldation of most land in the hand of the king.

[-] happybaby@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

Ah ok. My understanding was that the land belonged to the King and he let aristocrats manage it based on his favor or personal opinion, where the aristocrats had to come up with the tribute to the king and in turn got to manage the land however they saw fit. I'll have to look into absolutism; never heard of it. I'm sure there was different ways of doing it too though, like Japan vs. England.

[-] demeritum@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Honestly it depends on the country. Many european kingdoms like Germany, Poland or Great Moravia were more like consolidated tribal confederations at first, so the King was more closer to "first among equals" and only firmly controlled "his" tribal base. In cases like England or Castile where there was massive land redistribution (Reconquista & Norman Conquest) it was closer to what you said. Carolingian Feudalism also worked that way, where aristocrats where more like viceroys or mangers with their lands being "easily" revoked if run afoul of the King - back then most peasants were also free farmers and not serfs.

Absolutism was then the transitional state towards modern capitalist nation states. It saw the rise of like the principles of "the states does things" and territorialization with things like border patrol or the idea of a closed space constituting a country.

[-] jack@hexbear.net 14 points 2 days ago

land reform land reform land reform land reform

[-] thlibos@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 day ago

FAFO

this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
110 points (100.0% liked)

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