Current Events > Overall, why aren't most Americans interested in farm work?

(+) Yeah! (+)

especially in places where there are little to no jobs except for farm work

what do you think it would take to get more Americans to be willing to do farm work for a living? outside of being the owners of the farms of course

It's hard work

Get rid of super markets

It's grueling work and generally doesn't pay well.

Why are you making this topic when you could be out farming?

Looks hard. No thanks

Low pay, hard work, bad hours, etc

Oh, I forgot to mention drug tests

What could it be about backbreaking hard work, grossly abusive employers and completely inadequate compensation that could possibly be unappealing?

HashtagSEP posted...

Why are you making this topic when you could be out farming?

They would never accept me. Im not big and tall enough to survive the work and I have no experience

people all like "why da eggs so expensive" when you can buy a hen for like $15

Atrocious pay, bad working conditions, long hours

Most Americans don't live near farms?

wackyteen posted...

Atrocious pay, bad working conditions, long hours

Ok, check this out

If you go back to medieval fiefdoms and look at the amount of farmland any given serf had to deal with.. it's not that much.

Modern farms have gigantic fields cuz they have to feed millions of people; but with modern technology it would be trivial for people to manage a couple hundred acres

Physially demanding with not great pay. I'd rather do work that doesn't wear my body down and give me sunburn.

Also many farms are in areas away fron other oppurtunities or population centers.

Lokarin posted...

Ok, check this out

If you go back to medieval fiefdoms and look at the amount of farmland any given serf had to deal with.. it's not that much.

Modern farms have gigantic fields cuz they have to feed millions of people; but with modern technology it would be trivial for people to manage a couple hundred acres

I don't think so

emblem-man posted...

I don't think so

I just don't know how big an acre is!

I used to work on a farm and I hated it lol. I worked like 60 hours a week, got paid poorly and did tons of labor. There were some tearing aspects of it though.

I would love to work on a farm, beats working in a warehouse and retail

That equipment is horrendously expensive seriously, google how much a mid size combine costs

unless you are only talking about picking fruit

You ever play Harvest Moon? Shit's boring

It pays decently to my knowledge, but is exceptionally hard and monotonous work. Plus its oftentimes seasonal work at that depending on the location.

xAzNPimP4LiFex posted...

especially in places where there are little to no jobs except for farm work

what do you think it would take to get more Americans to be willing to do farm work for a living? outside of being the owners of the farms of course

I assume you by willing, you mean not under duress, or no other options.

Not trying to be disrespectful, but lol.

It's a thankless manual labor job, outside in the elements that definitely won't be paid well. Likely around minimum wage or how they do illegal immigrants (a form of commission based to incentives productivity.)

A much higher salary with nice benefits is the only incentive I see, and even then it's still a hard sell.

My grandmother's first job in California was picking cotton. Being out in the fields nearly broke her so she lied to get a job in a seamstress factory. This is what ultimately led my mom to march with Cesar Chavez back when she was still in high school.

Turbam posted...

It's hard work

This. Most of the time I did not employ anybody. It was done by hand or with a tractor. Need to build a fence 80 posts long? That requires putting posts on either end usually a crosstie. Need to run the line to both then measure out 10 feet not including brace posts. Drop those by hand before nightfall. Next day build guide wires for the brace posts ( I have scars from that). Next measure out wire spacing. 12in-20-28-36-42-50. Start running wire. This requires multiple trips to make sure nothing gets twisted. Tie one end off. Start stretching. Start nailing fence staples. Oh then the fun part tie the other end off. Another scaring part. Do this 5 more times in 95F heat in Florida. Thats is just 1 job 1 fence. Then you get to repair it years down the road. Use rough cut 4x4s. Some people can't handle that kind of work day in day out. This is not even the store part.

Because it's hard lmao
I volunteered at a farm for a bit. Couldn't imagine doing that for 50 years.

Not quite farm work, but close enough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUgHDXOdUos

xAzNPimP4LiFex posted...

They would never accept me. Im not big and tall enough to survive the work and I have no experience

Sounds like you should fix that

probably because they aren't interested in doing hard physical labor for minimum wage?

A lot of farms in rural areas in the Midwest also aren't the 'right' kind of farms to have a bunch of workers. You're probably thinking more like vegetable farms.

My state is all about farming. Iowa is the most farm state culture there is. 67% of the entire state is covered in corn or soybeans. #1 corn producer in the U.S. #2 in Soybeans. #1 in Eggs. #1 in pork production. When you add both dairy and beef cattle together #4 in cattle. The only state that makes more money than us via agriculture is California due to size and much more diversity in what they grow. We dwarf all other states otherwise.

When you add everything together like 90% of the state is dedicated to agriculture. Its big money and a lot of people do it. You wont find a family that doesnt farm or have a relative who does or at least a friend or coworker. Its tied to everybody and it has been for generations. However you are right that you want to be on the owner side of it. Completely different scenario.

But there are still tons of other guys who work farms that arent their own. Usually younger people though. But if you are going to do the work its much better to be working for yourself. No doubt. But legitimately every kid from my generation grew up detasseling and it was hard as hell but crazy good money for a 13 or 14 year old in the 80s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detasseling

Dunno, you planning on working on a farm, TC?

Right now. Go find a farm job.

Living in the middle of nowhere doing hard labor for next to nothing? Sign me up!

Sure its been mentioned a ton, but its hard labor that (as far as Im aware) doesnt pay nearly as well as it should. And if the majority of people are like me, theyre sick of not being compensated well for their work.

archizzy posted...

My state is all about farming. Iowa is the most farm state culture there is. 67% of the entire state is covered in corn or soybeans. #1 corn producer in the U.S. #2 in Soybeans. #1 in Eggs. #1 in pork production. When you add both dairy and beef cattle together #4 in cattle. The only state that makes more money than us via agriculture is California due to size and much more diversity in what they grow. We dwarf all other states otherwise.

When you add everything together like 90% of the state is dedicated to agriculture. Its big money and a lot of people do it. You wont find a family that doesnt farm or have a relative who does or at least a friend or coworker. Its tied to everybody and it has been for generations. However you are right that you want to be on the owner side of it. Completely different scenario.

But there are still tons of other guys who work farms that arent their own. Usually younger people though. But if you are going to do the work its much better to be working for yourself. No doubt. But legitimately every kid from my generation grew up detasseling and it was hard as hell but crazy good money for a 13 or 14 year old in the 80s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detasseling

I ran nursery operations for an ag company in Iowa, the kids crews got to the point it wasn't worth the hassle so we hired migrant crews instead.

Have you done any of it?

growing up, corn detassling was the job every desperate teen took and it rippped through every single one of them.

Every single job on a farm will either destroy your back or just risk your immediate death. And youll be paid awful for it.

Blbmbr666 posted...

I ran nursery operations for an ag company in Iowa, the kids crews got to the point it wasn't worth the hassle so we hired migrant crews instead.

Yeah Ive seen a lot of migrant workers the last 20 years or so. But when I was a kid it was pretty much the singular go to job for big money in a small amount of time. Well big money as in it was a lot to us as teenagers. Making a couple thousand dollars in a few weeks was huge as a kid in the 80s. Most of our crews were pretty solid but we would always lose a lot of first timers in that first couple days.

Payzmaykr posted...

Oh, I forgot to mention drug tests

Eh why is this a big deal I'm not going to share any with the animals

because manual labor fuckin blows

Because farm owners have increasingly offered less and less over the decades and the only ones willing to work are those with literally no other option, which then incentivizes the farm owners to offer even less, etc etc etc

Dynedux posted...

Because farm owners have increasingly offered less and less over the decades and the only ones willing to work are those with literally no other option, which then incentivizes the farm owners to offer even less, etc etc etc

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2393ed12.jpg

Dynedux posted...

Because farm owners have increasingly offered less and less over the decades and the only ones willing to work are those with literally no other option, which then incentivizes the farm owners to offer even less, etc etc etc

Lol

ultimate_reaver posted...

Living in the middle of nowhere doing hard labor for next to nothing? Sign me up!

Dont knock it till you try it. I hate being around people mostb9f the time. It fit my lifestyle. 5am-8pm workdays (summer) when you are done eat dinner, watch tv/play a game, get a shower, got to bed 11 or 12. Then do it all again. You get excatly 2 days off and there is still work to do. Thanksgiving and Christmas

Hard work and little pay

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


what, don't we have robots and AI for farming yet?

Lokarin posted...

what, don't we have robots and AI for farming yet?

we barely invest in anything that would make life better

thronedfire2 posted...

we barely invest in anything that would make life better

but mostly I was referring to the fact that the modern tractor alone increases farmpower by about 1000x what ancient serfs had

I don't wanna get paid in carrots lmfao hagahahaha

Lokarin posted...

what, don't we have robots and AI for farming yet?

Not everything. Not things like strawberries and other tender fruits

So... as a person who grew up on a farm and did farm work for a while, it's essentially one thing: Big Agriculture. They set high standards, low margins, pit neighbors against each other, drive uncovered dump trucks full of proprietary seed past farms so there's a chance that they'll have a legal claim to your produce even if you didn't buy seed from them. All this makes it near impossible to pay people well enough to do farm work.

xAzNPimP4LiFex posted...

They would never accept me. Im not big and tall enough to survive the work and I have no experience

No one cares how big or tall you are. I'm 5'8" and last time I was working on a farm I was 150lbs. No experience just means you'll be doing shit work.