Trump Ag Sec thinks farm workers are overpaid

So many despicable assholes, in the federal government, these days. You've undoubtedly noticed that as well.

In other words, to appease “people who are anti-immigrant” while also increasing the supply of farm labor, (Agriculture Secretary Sonny) Perdue wants to give farm owners increased access to a program that grants foreign workers temporary resident status without a path to citizenship. 

But there’s a problem, Perdue added. Under the federal guest-worker program that has supplied US farms with labor for decades, known as H2A, there’s a mechanism that prevents farmers from paying guest workers wages below the prevailing rate in the surrounding area, which would undermine wages for other nearby workers well.

This “adverse effect wage rate,” calculated for each state by the US Department of Labor using USDA surveys, is just too high, Perdue insisted. - Mother Jones

Trump Ag Sec tells exploited, desperate farmers to get a job

My first thought was that, even for a Trump Cabinet member, this guy really is something else. But that’s wrong. They all have this same mindset. Sec. Perdue is just more willing to be explicit about it.

Dykshorn is exactly the generation of farmer Armstrong asked Perdue about on the taxpayer-funded Sonnyside of the Street podcast: one who entered the business amid a “long, dark tunnel” of low prices. “What kind of words of encouragement do you offer?” Armstrong wondered.

“What we see happening is what farmers have done over the years—many of them have to have off-farm jobs in order to survive during this period of time,” Perdue advised. In other words: get a job. In early October, Perdue delivered a similar lecture to struggling dairy farmers at an industry expo: “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out…I don’t think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.” - Mother Jones

Farmers seething over Trump betrayal

Seething enough to change their voting habits, in numbers big enough to make a substantial difference in 2020 and beyond? That remains to be seen. But at this time it certainly seems to be a viable hypothesis.

As the Trump administration fights political fires raging in Washington, another one is smoldering on the prairie. Farmers in the corn belt, the cluster of states centered on Iowa that produce the great bulk of corn and soybeans, supported Trump overwhelmingly in 2016, helping swing battleground states like Iowa and Wisconsin. But now many of them are furious, because the administration has been messing with one of the pillars of the region’s economy: the government-created market for corn-based ethanol. And that’s on top of a long-running trade war with China that has cut demand for the region’s two other main farm products, soybeans and pork. - Mother Jones 

Trump’s Ag Secretary, Sonny Perdue, told traditional, small dairy farmers, in so many words, that they’re obsolete and have no future.

Trump Ag Sec calls Minnesota farmers whiners, to their faces

It just never stops.

At a Farmfest listening session with farmers in Minnesota, (U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny) Perdue hit back at the complaints with his joke: “What do you call two farmers in a basement? A whine cellar.”

As he pounded the table in mirth, some of the thousands of farmers at the event laughed nervously — which was followed by boos.

“It was definitely not an appropriate thing to say,” Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish told HuffPost. “It was very insensitive. It took everyone by surprise. He doesn’t understand what farmers are dealing with, and he’s the head of the Department of Agriculture. He’s supposed to be working for farmers.” - Huffington Post

This article, from Zero Hedge, summarizes what farmers and equipment manufacturers are facing right now.