I'll say this only once.
I LIVED through what happens when corporations destroy the protection that keeps farmers safe.
During the farmer protests of the 70's and 80's ...
because protection in subsidy and keeping the farmers afloat was being dismantled across the country at the insistence of american interest (though the americans never removed their subsidies ..which are still there...) with our free trade agreements...
The result is this.
We had farmers going bust ...
I went to my neighbours auctions...
selling EVERYTHING they could for what they could get before the banks came in taking everything...
it was bad.
What ensued was now the status quo.
We have few farmers left.
a few holdouts..
and hobby farms...

What we have are production facilities...
Warehouses ...not barns... filled with livestock that never sees the sun ...
fed minimally...poorly cared for... pumped full of god knows what.
a wretched life for both animal and "operational attendant" (the new farmer)

Coupled with this new situation...
we had corporations which came in...
Like McCains ... they prey on farmers...
what they do to farmers is.. offer them good pay for growing produce ...so it appears...
the thing is...
they give the farmer the seed...
the fertiliser...
the pesticide and herbicides...
just grow the food for them...
if there is an excess...it must be destroyed...
if there is a shortfall...
you owe them...
your farm.
then if you are lucky they hire you back to work what once was yours...

Our farm was no different than any other...
we did all we could to keep ours...


Please do not speak to me or blather about what you know nothing about until you've lived it.
Whatever political or social , or philosophy or wikipedia articles or whatever slanted or biased or just as equally ignorant article mean absolutely nothing when dealing with the reality first hand.
As a consequence ...north america now has only 1 ... count them ... 1 canning plant... We produce next to nothing....literally... and we are completely at the mercy of practices and standards which are sketchy at best....
THAT is the result of the undermining of the agricultural base ...for corporate profit and the result of everyone wanting their food cheaper.
Tell me how good that cheap food is from ..wherever....
when your family starts getting sick from it.

Protecting the farmers is protecting your food supply...
protecting and safeguarding what goes into your mouth and your children's mouths

I'm done on this topic.