Summary
California farmers, many of whom supported Trump, face a potential crisis as his immigration policies threaten mass deportations of undocumented workers, who make up at least half of the state’s 162,000 farm labor force.
Deportations could devastate agriculture, leading to labor shortages, unharvested crops, and rising food prices.
Farmers hope for solutions such as workforce legalization or expanded H-2A guest worker programs, though these have been criticized for exploitation risks.
Historical parallels to programs like “Operation Wetback” and the bracero system highlight possible labor and human rights challenges ahead.
You are misinformed and I strongly suspect do not know the technical definition of “hobby farm” but are using that as a term of derision to dismiss small farms so you can maintain your fictional notion that farmers are bad people. Have you thought much about where that prejudice comes from?
The vast majority of farms in California are under 300 acres. In the US 89% of all farms are classified as “small family farms” by the USDA, meaning they have less than $350k of gross income (GFCI, technically). Now you’ll see terms like “production value” mixed in with such reporting. Know that there’s an inherent problem with that - it’s geared only toward commodities, not speciality crops and particularly not those sold retail. That’s an important distinction.
Further, there has been a wave of new organic and sustainable farms popping up in California over the last 10-15 years. Do you think Trump supporters are starting small-scale organic/agroecological/regenerative farms?
I am by no means saying that large-scale industrial farms aren’t dominated by right-leaning people. But to generalize and outright dismiss farmers as a whole displays not only ignorance but prejudice that, critically, is tremendously damaging to small-scale organic/agroecological/regenerative farms as a whole.