The majority of these comments are very disturbing. I understand the urge to pile on Trump voters and states that went for Trump, however, these people are our fellow citizens and they deserve all of the support that we can give them. This is the state that we have devolved to with this wretched President. Makes removing him from office at any cost seem cheap.
54
@indiana_jones_i
While I understand your sentiment, I don't feel any sympathy for those who voted for Trump.
They make me want to leave a country I'm beginning to feel is inhabited by more uncaring people than I could ever imagine.
People with daughters who voted for the man on the Access Hollywood tape . . .
54
@indiana_jones_i
Well said.
9
@indiana_jones_i
I'm sorry, I do feel sorry for those who voted for Trump in the hopes that he would be something new and different. Unfortunately, the sympathy ends when I see that they still support him when it has been demonstrated that he has failed in every regard and has nothing but disdain for his base.
31
I find upset about the vast amount of politically-centered comments about this situation. It is an unexpected infrastructure issue that arose after a century of service.
Do you really believe any of the recent past administrations have contributed to this failure? If so, you are quite mistaken.
1
A word to the wise... these farmers are smart, well-educated people and they are reading your comments. You are ruining your chances of them ever voting blue.
15
Besides all the hate and sarcasm shown here in the comments - I don't read one thing in this article about any emergency measures being taken to fix this problem ... Fast.
10
I don't think things will get better any time in the near future. No one running for president that has a chance of being elected understands what is happening in rural America. To go to small towns and spend large amounts of time there to get a better understanding of the issues addressing farmers and small farmer coops., would result is smaller vote counts. We need to take a long hard look at where we are and realize that big cities can not feed themselves, farmers are important and vote for someone who has the interests of hard working Americans coming first, ahead of big business and money. But that is the problem - big business does not care about us and money equals free speech now. I am afraid the smaller farmers are on their own, don't think for a minute anyone running has your back. Amy Klobuchar is from the mid west and might be the best for farmers, but she will never get elected. My grandparents were farmers, I worked on the farm, went to a 1 room school house, closest town with 200 people was 11 miles away. That town was Pound WI. I understand, but you are on your own.
3
It will be of interest what trump & his fellow minion say and do about this, or is financial aid needed only when it's a result of trump's policies? Building and maintaining infrastructure to benefit Americans: THIS is what government is about: making citizen's lives better (or in trump's case, worse), not trying to bribe people to go along with his mounting failures for America.
20
Reading the comments just demonstrates our hopelessly partisan times. People of good will are sick and tired of politics of venom and scorekeeping. This is not the fault of Americans but our political leaders. The most fundamental responsibility of the political class is to maintain peace and tranquility. If our politicians cannot govern professionally and insulate the population from having to put on boxing gloves ourselves and go into the ring, what good are the politicians? I for one am no longer looking for politicians who are claiming to FIGHT for me. I'm sick and tired of self-proclaimed pugilist politicians foaming at the mouth whose only skill seem to be turning one type of Americans against another. Just do your job, please. Engage in politics of virtue and civility. If fighting is indeed called for, take it to a back alley behind a bar in DC, but do it quietly. We don't need to know. How much longer can our democracy survive when the electorate's instinct is to squeal in delight when Nebraskan farmers lose their livelihood or chant "Send them back" to four duly elected American congresswomen? Lord knows that American politicians can do better: but so can the rest of us.
33
@UC Graduate
People of good will require other people of good will to work with.
I look forward to any Trump voter or elected representative providing evidence of their open mind, even handedness or preparedness to negotiate.
17
@UC Graduate
Just one small point; we do not live in a democracy! Remember the electoral college, the Senate, the courts, voter suppression, gerrymandering, Citizens United, dark money? Does any of this ring a bell? Why do people still talk about American democracy, when when all of our institutions are antithetical to very concept of majority rule and self governance? Something that doesn't exist cannot survive.
13
These kind of issues is where the Dem candidates should be focusing their plans, not on impeachment.
Trump is hugely vulnerable in fly-over America, the farm belt. He has spectacularly failed them, except to throw a few billions in aid. the trade war; climate change denial; infrastructure - nothing. Farmers hate "aid." They are independent.
Dems: why not focus on investigating and repairing the levee system for farms; how about many other agriculture initiatives? Why leave this to the other side?
32
@Jamyang
Why? Because McConnell will bury any helpful legislation that comes from the House, that’s why.
15
@Kathleen I am not talking about legislation. I am talking about campaign ideas for 2020. I thought that was obvious when I said "candidates." So let me be clearer. In presidential debates, raise issues that will address trump's failures in mid-west farming states.
6
This is red-state Nebraska and red-state Wyoming. It doesn't matter. Those of us in blue states, where we express concern for immigrants, for people falling through the social safety net, should now be expressing concern for these farmers and for their livelihood, just the same as we do for anyone else who falls on hard times.
It's way too easy to say to these farmers, "Hey, you voted for Trump, you see if you can get some money out of him." We should be better than that.
Just remember, if you live in a northeast urban city, you too probably rely on tunnels to transport your drinking water. You certainly do if you live in New York or Boston, where we transport a lot more water a lot farther, and we spend a lot more on those tunnels. So, support those farmers, because it's right and because it's pragmatic.
50
@Aram Hollman
I hope the Democrats run on these issues in rural states. And since we all eat, we ARE all affected to some extent by the loss of crops.
14
Throughout this nation there is crumbling infrastructure and what is our president doing? He keeps trying to build a wall along the southern border.
Sadly, I have a hard time feeling sympathy for American farmers. Though not all of them voted for Trump, as a group they did and they support the Republican party.
Elections have consequences. They voted for the party and president who is cutting them off at the knees. Trade wars are not easy to win and the American farmers are being hit hard by the trade war. Not only have they lost market share in China, they may have a difficult time retaking that market share once the trade war is over.
Some of it might be lost forever.
When Trump took office, he asked that governors give him a list of "shovel ready" infrastructure projects. That is the last I've heard about it. Nothing has been done.
There are bridges, dams, roads and now this tunnel that need rebuilding. Farmers need to rethink how they vote. A wall will not repair any of our infrastructure.
160
More than the canal breach, the collapsed tunnel is a very worrisome development because it seemed to have been maintained. There are thousands of these structures across the West, built decades to more than a century ago to create a vast distribution system buttressed by trans-mountain diversions and interstate water compacts. If that system is beginning to age out, then our collective "infrastructure spending" projects will grow immensely. Same holds for above-ground electrical transmission lines, a problem that is already turning parts of rural California into a third-world country with periodic brownouts so PG&E doesn't burn down more of the state.
18
Our tunnels are collapsing too. Thousands of people depend on the structural integrity of these tunnels feeding into NYC, one of the world's largest financial and economic hubs. Commuters wake up in the morning wondering if the rail lines will be running on time each day. So, what's stopping our tunnels and your water tunnels, Nebraska farmers, from getting a much needed upgrade? You need go no further than Mitch cConnell and Donald Trump to discover where the problem lies. You need to think about the party that seems impervious to evidence of dramatic climatic change and its impact on our infrastructure. Think about that each morning when you wake up, Nebraska farmers, hoping for some much needed rain to keep those crops growing.
39
As a passionate organic home gardener, I would like to support these farmers,but I cannot.They drench the land with herbicides and pesticides,they hate "government",yet have all their subsidies and handouts.They deride "socialism", yet as a population get more money handed to them than us "coastal elite socialists",paid for by the Blue States taxes.Sending thoughts and prayers,MAGA!
52
@Nora spot on-
3
@Nora as a farm wife I understand your thoughts. We don't all use high rates of pesticides and chemicals. We raised our sons here, not one of them became a farmer. We understood that they'd have to have a job in town too pay the bills. Subsidies only help the big corporations,, we can't afford to grow the vast acres. Farming ain't what it used to be, its where your heart is.
1
I feel bad for these farmers, they’re at the mercy of Mother Nature and can lose their crops in a few seconds and there’s nothing they can do about it. But they have been subsidized handsomely by federal government, even though they point fingers at other folks who get much needed help from government. They need to realize that they have harder times ahead as a result of climate change, and the sooner they accept this fact and stand with those who can begin to change things, the better off they are. Trump won’t always be in the White House.
48
It is so disheartening to sit here and read these comments. I’m a young farmer from the area this story is about, although I am lucky enough to be on a a different canal system. I am SICK of the continual bashing of agriculture. Especially because it comes from people who understand nothing about it. Here’s a few points to challenge your most popular bullets.
This area consists of mostly small, family owned farms.
You all think we get rich on government subsidies. I have received one payment that was actually anything significant (more than $1000) in the last 6 years. These subsidies exist to keep us from going broke. The government actively works to keep food produced as cheaply as possible, and to keep the majority of farmers just barely in business.
Crop insurance is subsidized because it has to be! I operate a 650 acre farm. My share of crop insurance bill is $15000 annually with the subsidy. No one can afford to pay full price. It’s designed to keep us in business. It’s based on our past production history and it usually pays 70% or less. On a year when we claim insurance we still lose money.
You people that say farmers deserve it because they’re Trump voters sound exactly like Trump.
Farmers care about our environment. Our air is clean, our water is clean. It appalls me that we get criticized for our practices by people who live in urban filth.
Science says the Climate is changing and I accept that. Science also says GMOs and our pesticides are safe. Accept that.
36
@Trevor Thank you for what you do and trying to hang in there. Whether I care for Trump or not is not important. Farmers have always had a challenge but that challenge with the weather and climate continue to change is even more evident now. Growing up in Southern Alabama around farmers gave me an appreciation for what you all do to feed the world. It's something that becomes a passion for the farmers that continue to farm and that just so happens to be your business. Some leave to find other careers if they can't see how to balance their passion and be able to afford to take care of their families. Keep your head up and just plan ahead just in case the climate doesn't balance out in your area.
I keep up with the weather patterns and we all don't know where this is going in the long run but I do know from my gut that we all need to adapt much more than we have been. The Federal government needs to take this more serious as well and that includes finally getting infrastructure done. The Military is already preparing and that says a lot to me since I'm a Army Veteran and know they try to see a potential threat or issue ahead of time. If they are preparing we need to do the same the best we can. I pray it all works out for you and the many other farming families. 😊
18
@Trevor
Science says Roundup (glyphosate) is a dangerous toxin. GMOs are part of that system. Industrialised farming is ruining the soil and producing nutrient poor food. We need to change. Farming used to be a mixture of husbandry and vegetables, with regular cycling of crops, use of compost and manure (which retain moisture in the soil) and a relationship with the microbes and worms that are vital to good soil. Farming needs to be small and local, and organic. Industrialised farming with tractors, ploughs and chemicals is anathema to peoples health. Crops are grown with GMOs to feed cattle. Soy and corn (GMO!) are not what cows eat, they eat grass. Its all about money and not anything to do with good nutritious food. It is possible to earn a six figure income on one acre growing organic vegetables sold to local market. We need much more of that and less country wide fields of water sucking corn and soy.
8
@Trevor
I was feeling sympathetic toward you until you turned around and used the term 'urban filth.' Many of us live in congested areas of the country and grind away in office buildings all day long so our national GDP keeps rising. Then we pay tons in taxes hoping the federal government will keep up our aging infrastructure--like irrigation tunnels/reservoirs/dams to move water around so people like you can raise your crops and cattle. We also don't begrudge you your subsidies--we understand there are good times and bad times and things need to be evened out. We know you're not getting rich off subsidies--whoever tells you that is lying to you. Big Ag, well, that's a different story. But farmers like you struggle like many Americans. We know that.
In return for caring about you, we'd like you to consider that poor people need help also, that the minimum wage people are paid to flip hamburgers in Montana is just too low, and to wrap your brains around the fact that Mitt Romney's 47% are actually mostly our working poor and old people. Do you do that? Nooooo...they're all moochers expecting a handout. But, when you get your handout, you're a hero, right?
You seem to have little respect for us, so don't expect any in return. Look into your own heart.
11
Really farmers, infrastructure falling apart? Come to my little town where streets are torn apart daily to replace utilities that are ancient. I'm 28 minutes from Grand Central so you know I'm in the burbs and every town and city near me is facing the same dire conditions of streets, utilities, schools needing lots of dollars.And we tax ourselves at a level you would scream bloody murder and we see our tax dollars going to states that don't too.
So farmers my empathy for you has been dulled as your representatives for the most part have not pushed for that big infrastructure fix they and the president promised. What we have are tariff wars, walls, and wild charges against men and women of color.
Instead of ranting against Baltimore, cutting taxes for rich corporation and elitists by increasing our staggering debt level how bout our president help fix our infrastructure- both rural and urban. How bout aiding rural hospitals and urban schools? No, instead we have walls. slurs. and deficits.
279
@Sly4Alan . . . I'm right up the road from you and yes, parts falling off cars because of the road conditions. Tires; rims; struts. And yet, money for the endless wars. . . and slurs. . . picking fights with true Americans, from the squad to Maryland. It's sickening.
42
And in the long term? Climate change and failing infrastructure are now bed mates. It would be helpful to have a government that was willing to help.
Acts of postponing and/or ignoring are not signs of positive leadership.
A start of the cure comes in 2020.
32
Please, New York Times commenters, don't belittle farmers. They grow our food. Their land is not besmirched by row upon row, of electricity and water guzzling apartments or homes. The farmers I know are educated and use techniques to preserve soil. Finally, farmers may be a key, in the near future, to carbon sequestration, that will help us with climate change. Farmers are talented and they work hard. They use technology, mechanical know-how, business acumen, and courage to do the job. They deserve commendation for their efforts.
1
As a farmer it really is discouraging to read through these comments. We are all so happy to pass judgment on other people. Unless you are actively engaged in subsistence farming you are currently reaping the vast rewards of our current agricultural system (even if you are buying your kale at a farmers market). The ignorance that is on display with these comments is astounding. The fact that we all are not spending the majority of our time trying to eat is a very recent development historically. Be glad that this allows you to enjoy your current lifestyle and not spend all your time digging in the dirt to survive. We all have progress to make in our industries, no doubt. I have sympathy for these people. What an unfortunate event.
3
People who pride themselves on their independence and self-reliance often don't realize how much they count on government help until it's too late.
2
Remember for the 2020 election do not vote for Trump who has denied Climate Change, reneged on his promise to improve infrastructure, put us in a useless trade war that has harmed America's farmers and denies the existence of science. Please vote Democratic this time out there in farm country and keep up the all-important work of feeding America and the world.
1
Here's a novel idea. Instead of attacking people of color and the city of Baltimore, maybe Trump could put his "big, beautiful brain" to work solving climate change problems and other critical issues like infrastructure. He claims to understand building, but he has done nothing useful.
1
I understand the political absurdity of farmers voting against their own interest for pseudo Christians like Trump or Pence.
But the hostility in many comments here is disconcerting.
You do not know if the farmer quoted here voted Republican or Democrat.
You should not sink to the same level of nastiness as Reps or Fox.
You will not convince a 'swing voter' with this behavior.
Yes, we need new water-right legislation + new sustainable infrastructure (and that could be paid with the 'Wall' money).
But go the 'high road' with MIchelle Obama.
4
Well at least the farmers have the Trump billion-dollar bailout, so all is not lost.
1
So much of our great infrastructure was built in the late 1800s or early 1900s, and has not been properly maintained, especially during the 1970s when "deferred maintenance" became the euphemism for "wait until it breaks". Our greatest economic expansions were standing on top of foundations built two generations earlier, without giving them proper credit or proper care. Instead of building walls in the wilderness with foreign steel, HIRE WORKERS HERE to rebuild America's roads and bridges and tunnels.
17
While I have some sympathy for these farmers and their families, simply put, this type of farming, even ignoring completely climate change is not now and never has been sustainable.
The aquifers beneath these states containing ancient water (>10,000 years old) have been drawn down at precipitous rates for irrigation. Dams have been built, rivers diverted and still the so-called farmlands are perched on a knife edge between fertilkity and drought.
The canals and irrigation ditches throughout the west lose millions of acre-feet of water annually through leakage and evaporation.
Sadly this was all predicted for many years by Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corp of Engineers hydrologists and expanded upon in the seminal book "Cadillac Desert".
And yes, these are socialist programs that perhaps don't completely benefit the 1% but certainly the top 5%.
Unfortunately the way we select leaders is more like buying a car or a house. Emotion and what's in it for me rule.
Now what?
22
I come from several generations of farmers and am very sympathetic to their plight. Maybe it is time to diversify their crops and adapt to a changing climate. If crops are so dependent on water that has to be trucked over 100 miles of canals, it is time to find an alternative crop.
25
@Jennifer That would be hemp.
1
@Jennifer
It's not that simple to be honest. Our climits are weird, our soil isn't that great, and moisture during the summer is a hit and miss. Your from Brooklyn so it's easy for you to say things like "find alternative crop" but in reality we can't.
2
Where’s the Army Corps of Engineers? Seems like a good job for them.
5
@Crescentavenue-
The Corps doesn’t build. It surveys, evaluates, administers, project-manages, contracting out the work like any civilian developer would.
Also, if it’s a state or bi-state tunnel responsibility for it remains at the state/bi-state level. The Corps is federal.
1
I suggest the farmers ask trump if he would be willing to divert some of the money he diverted from the military for his wall. Where, oh where, is all that fantastic infrastructure work trump and the Republicans have been promising?
26
@Chris
What continues to amaze me is that these people will vote again for Trump. It is just a fact that Republicans vote against their own interest because of their prejudices. What happened to all that wonderful infrastructure that he promised? Don’t worry though, his big contributors got a huge tax break!
4
Fun exercise for you blue state folks who don’t need these red state farmers and will happily eat the produce from your nice blue state.
Go to the map below and really zoom in on your state. Make sure you zoom in enough to separate population centers from rural areas. Scroll around a bit. Hint: It’s not the monolithic blue you see on TV.
In fact, the agricultural areas of your state are almost certainly pink, if not deep red.
We don’t have red states and blue states. We have blue cities and red rural areas. The red and blue states are an accident of where you draw the state lines.
Some of those rural folks are waking up this morning and reading this article. Some are reading the comments. Hint #2: If you call people deplorable, they won’t vote for you.
Democrats need to articulate specific plans to deal with infrastructure. We need to articulate how healthcare reform can save rural hospitals. But none of that matters if rural voters think Democrats hold them in contempt.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html#7.12/43.24/-122.30
13
@James Williams Maybe there should be more of a dialogue between city and rural people; it would produce more sympathy on either side. I see this happening at my farmers' market, for instance, where many city dwellers like me now understand more of the challenges facing farmers, small ones in my case. I don't want to know how any of them vote. Politics is in the way in your country.
3
@James Williams
Is this what is in Trump's playbook now? Divide us by states as if a farmer doesn't need health care and urban dwellers don't need to eat? Trump's motto is certainly "divide and conquer" and we are all the losers. While we are fighting each other the only ones who win are the 1% who never have to worry that their spigots will turn dry.
5
@James Williams: Gee thanks for all the advice. One, you need my tax money to fix your problem. Two, you want socialism for your stuff but not so much for anything else. Three, keep voting for republicans because that's working out so well. Four, why do you want us to actually take you seriously when you ignore everything science is telling you?
6
I have no sympathy for them. They voted for Trump, and for racism, trade wars, trillion-dollar tax breaks for the rich and not one penny for infrastructure. You reap what you sow.
14
Cut taxes for corporations and the rich. Then do nothing to fix our crumbling infrastructure. If you vote for Republicans the national debt will continue to increase and we will continue to crumble as a nation. I bought into trickle down economics when I was younger. As I get older I feel trickled on!
23
@Keith The taxes required for infrastructure are a fraction of what current total taxes are. Please understand what makes up the Federal budget, it is largely consumed by entitlements (60%) and interest on debt (10%). That leaves 30% for everything else.
We could double spending on infrastructure and still cut taxes in half if so many people weren't on the dole.
@ John Edelman To clarify: my post was not to justify Trump votes, it was to point out that government is there to help everybody regardless of their tax-paying ability(wealth) or their political affiliation. By your logic, which sounds a lot like Romney’s gaffe, anyone who doesn’t make enough to pay federal income tax can go pound sand.
3
@Thomas Anyone that doesn't make enough to pay federal income tax needs a RAISE....
It is time to stop pitting American wages against those in Asia.
But they’ve got the world’s greatest military —by a factor of 7 — to protect our ongoing deterioration from those who threaten to take it over. And do what with it ? Wise choice farmers. Just who are your enemies ?
7
It's time to do what the Romans did, build aqueducts. When the rivers are over flowing in the spring, these aqueducts would channel the over flow water to selected reservoirs.
2
@Tom Grimes Somebody did build an aqueduct - somebody built this tunnel in the first place 100 years ago. Where do we see far-sighted investment like that today? All I hear is "We can't pay for that right now", which means that we are USING UP our inheritance, selling the family silver, and leaving less for the next generations.
4
@HAR Eating our seed corn is what farmers used to call this.
1
These farmers are in danger of losing everything. The mean-spiritedness of these comments is shocking.
13
@Bunk McNulty - They can join the club. Thanks to Trump and company a large portion of the country could end up going bankrupt because of medical bills.
There are people all over the country mourning the loss of friends and families because of gun violence.
Do you think these farmers who vote for Republicans have any sympathy for these people?
1
@Bunk McNulty
I don’t think the comments you mention are meant to be mean spirited They come from frustrated blue voters wondering why farmers and others vote against their own interests. Afraid of immigrants? Why vote to send them back when farmers need them. Worried about socialism? Than don’t take Medicare or Social security. Worried about abortion? Don’t have one. Worried about water and climate change - if you vote for the politicians who say it doesn’t exist, then stop whining about water and arid soil Not meant to be mean spirited - just frustrated and wondering why.
4
I am an American history teacher in high school. I feel like I am reading about what happened to the farmers in the 1890s- tariffs, price fluctuations, drought and water issues, and finally frustrations with banks...the amazing thing is that this turned the farmers into the Populist Party looking for help from the federal government...will it all happen again?
23
@Jersey Mom
Farmers "Looking for help from the federal government"?
Just who do you think is most responsible for their current hopeless situation?
Let them continue supporting that wrecking ball residing in the Whitehouse (and his enablers comprised of 99% of the Republican Party ) and see where that's going to get them!
3
Oh, folks - come on leave politucs out of this.
This has nothing to do with POTUS.
As to some historical anecdotes about not cultivating land etc - please - America would not be where it is today without Americans attempting to master or at least have solutions against Mother Nature.
Some years back - a poll of eminent engineers on ranking of great inventions that helped America - ranked air conditioning as number 1.
The engineers said without air conditioning half of America would be unlivable.
I should know.
I used to live in Houston where even December or for that matter Christmas day - you might need your a/c on.
2
@Neil
Plenty of people lived in the tropics before air conditioning. People can adapt to the heat. Living in the desert is the real problem--having no water makes deserts unlivable.
Availability of water and the methodology to move it around via dams/reservoirs/municipal water systems is far more important than air conditioning. Certainly, air conditioning has turned places like Phoenix, Arizona into metropolises. But, they get their water not from wells but from elsewhere. This is often overlooked when engineers go on and on about how great air conditioning is for this country.
I wish people would appreciate our civil engineers more, those hapless professionals who don't earn gazillions in tech but would rather devote their energies to keeping our nation's infrastructure in tip-top shape. I don't know the full story on this old irrigation tunnel, but if I find out that federal funding for inspections/maintenance has been routinely cut for decades as has been the case for our roads, bridges, and dams--then, yes, I am going to make this about politics.
Air conditioning has made living in areas like yours and others more comfortable, but that's not the same as making an area 'livable.'
13
Trump’s at the heart of this! Where’s the great infrastructure bill promised to aidthe infested American roads eyc?
Another fake promise by Trump for cheap uninformed votes!
8
@Neil, it is all about design Neil. And we stopped paying attention to those things years ago. It's called Design With Nature.
Well, with all of that infrastructure work that Trump championed that is ongoing-oops, that hasn't happened.
13
Predictable results when you vote in Republicans who can always find money for tax cuts but rarely for common good projects such as improving infrastructure. Even though it has been well known for years that much of our infrastructure is in terrible shape.
22
Perhaps the US farmers should look to farming practices in Europe. They produce more food per acre with one tenth of the pesticides and herbicides, and a fraction of the water. It's well documented.
Or, we Americans could stop throwing away 40% of the food we buy. We are wasteful and arrogant and deserve all the agricultural hardship we've brought on ourselves.
19
People, have you become what you hate? Yes, the farm belt supported the Trumpster but winning them back won't happen with these comments.
The comments regarding infrastructure are spot on, the constant harping "hopes and prayers" is getting too much.
This type of thing happens and supporting a long term solution along with support to get this problem fixed will go a long way to bring us together and have these farmers understand how we are in this together.
Maybe you don't realize that Trump and Bannon etc are banking on these comments to solidify the base as an electoral strategy.
11
In The 100th Meridian by W. Stegner in addition to writing about the Powell expedition through the Grand Canyon also discusses the settlement of the American West and how Powelll said it was folly to pursue agriculture beyond the 100th meridian.
But Congressmen from the area pushed for dams and irrigation all built at taxpayer expense to benefit a few farmers growing crops where only irrigation could sustain farming.
Stegner and Powell were correct.
10
And yet these farmers still support Trump because of who knows what, religion? guns? racism? Whatever it is they disregard his tariffs, then taxpayers have to write them checks to offset the tariffs. Then came the floods because of mankind trying to beat Mother Nature & now an infrastructure problem so they can grow crops where certain crops were not meant to be grown.
29
Working for a year at what you love and not getting paid? We have it here in town, too. It's called the gig economy. I look at the young people around me, as well as the not young. How are we all going to survive with our tax and spend GOP senate and the arrogant in chief Mitch M. The house has many new congress people working on ways to help their districts. All their bills are ignored, yes, ignored by Master M. He needs to go, and the senate needs to flip, so we all can get back to work.
37
Now Kendall Busch and his neighbors understand what it is to work for the Federal government during one of Trump's shutdowns. In violation of the 13th Amendment one toils in order to keep one's job and its benefits while receiving no pay and only a promise, not even something tangible and binding like a promissory note, to vouchsafe one's wages. And we can anticipate yet another shutdown when the petulant clown enthroned as 45 pulls this favorite trick yet again at the end of September. Not only civil servants are impacted but a whole cadre of USDA beneficiaries...
16
Climate crisis: everywhere and nowhere in this article.
32
I thought an irrigation tunnel collapsed?
Does everyone get their own facts?
1
@Susan Duerksen
Because this article isn’t about climate crisis! Did you read the article? This is about a crisis caused by and infrastructure failure. These farmers rely on water to irrigate their crops, without which they will fail and possibly the farmer will as well. While I agree completely that climate change(global warming) is he most important and pressing problem facing the world today, it is not the source of every problem we are facing today. Aging infrastructure all across this great land, bridges, dams, highways and probably most critically our antiquated power grid are problems that we must address on a massive scale and the sooner the better.
Probably in retrospect, there are some agricultural areas of our country that are not suited for the crops being grown there. Here in the Deep South, millions of acres of bottomland forests were cleared during the Soybean “boom” of the 1950’s and 60’s. In the last twenty or so years, a vast amount of that cleared land has been returned to it’s natural state. Why? Because farmers realized that the heavy, poorly drained soil was a risky bet profit wise, and with the high costs it was not worth the risk to the farmer. Here the problem was too much water and poor drainage, the opposite of the one facing the farmers in this article, but ultimately the same result.
3
Will the President call out the Congresswoman from Wyoming for not maintaining crucial agricultural infrastructure for her state? I am guessing not.
40
The US has outsourced manufacturing to the third world. The US has outsourced having children and simply imports them. Only because of their political power agriculture has not been fully outsourced. It needs to happen. We are undercutting farmers throughout the world due to government subsidies. Where were the government subsidies as Bethlehem Steel, for example, went down? Why do the farmers get subsidies and steel workers none?
11
Trump is paying these corporate farmers billions to keep their mouths shut and not criticize him. They deserve him and when 2020 rolls around and Trump is ousted, lets see what they have to say for themselves.
23
I would like to know on what facts do a good many commentators claim that farmers do not believe in climate change.
4
@Mark Shyres - Their voting record. The majority of them vote for climate change denying Republicans.
I have family in that area and just about everyone I meet is a Fox news parrot.
46
@Mark Shyres
The only news they've gotten on the radio since Reagan eliminated the Fairness Doctrine in the '80's is hate-- Limbaugh like lies. If that's all you hear you eventually believe it especially when the colonial corporatism of the world has marginalized every person but those invested in high finance and the markets with neither party doing much about it.
Many of us give life as we know it another 100 years at most while greed producing poisons, war machine spending, etc. continue to rule the planet unabated.
5
@Mark Shyres How they voted!
5
This story sums up my absolute frustration with red state residents. They have relied for decades on infrastructure built and paid for by liberal city dwellers. There are just not enough of them to ever fund these projects themselves but scream socialism when a child receives healthcare. What Trump has done is so divide the country that those liberal city dwellers are now waking up to the fact we fund the rural areas of America yet get nothing but anger back.
I'm very aware I consume the food produced in these areas but possibly in a changing climate the world over some of these areas are just going to have to return to the wild areas they were before science and engineering turned them into productive farm land.
85
thank you dick Cheney. trillions wasted on the Iraq war, now little for infrastructure. or much else.
40
@Paul E-
Cheney was interested in low-cost oil that he could resell. He wasn’t interested in federally subsidized subsistence farming east of the Rockies.
1
Somehow it will be Obama's fault.
23
@R Thomas BERNER:yes, of course! You got to give those guys credit for their laser-focus. Unfortunately, they can't seem to get the right target.
4
We are many who will be sending our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families and loved ones...#sarcasm
13
What was the point of opening this article to comments? Venting? I am solidly an FDR Democrat. My grandpa farmed a quarter section in Wright County Iowa. All four of his children went to state colleges, were solidly middle class, except the lawyer who was wealthy, go figure. 160 acres did that, 160 acres that came free from the government. Fix the infrastructure. Put in high-speed internet and fund the state schools. FDR didn’t check a list before he put through rural electrification, he just did it. Expecting farmers to remember their own history is a big ask, as it is of New Yorkers whose political history is rife with all kinds of horribleness.
14
@Thomas - New Yorkers aren't the ones voting for people like Trump and McConnel. See the difference?
24
@DR Historical context rather than condescension is what is needed.
5
@Thomas New Yorkers have always paid more into the government that received from it. The farm states are the biggest welfare states. And none of us received free land.
8
Will this be the beginning of the Great Famine?
4
Infrastructure is just one of the many serious challenges not being met by our government of chaos.
30
The midwest's industrial agriculture zone has been an ecocidal experiment since it created the Dust Bowl.
They destroyed the tallgrass prairie, major rivers and aquifers, and billions of innocent native animals, while sucking down huge tax subsidies.
They've poisoned the air, land and water with ag chemicals, and their GMO crops are bad for people and the environment.
Their giant machines and aerial spraying have turned rural areas into monocrop wastelands where the air, land and water are thick with ag poisons.
Small-scale family farms using organic and biodynamic farming are what we need, not these subsidized corporate serfs growing Frankenstein crops on 20,000 acre plots.
If there was a God, these floods and other problems would be His punishment for their destruction of native ecosystems, plants and animals.
41
@Steve Davies spot on-
1
@Steve Davies
Great idea Steve, and probably the quickest route to population control yet! If you think that your idea of small family farms feeding this country is reality, then you have been watching way too many reruns of “Green Acres”.
We have people going hungry every day in a country with the lowest food prices in the world. What do you think prices would be like if we were depending on small, very inefficient farms to supply all our food? Here is and example, compare he prices at Whole Foods and your local supermarket? Now double the price of most items because of simple supply and demand. How do you think poor folks could survive if they were buying groceries at Whole Foods plus 25-50% prices? You want to see social unrest in this country, just raise food prices to the point that half the population can’t afford them. Remember what happened to the last person who said “Let them eat cake”.
the current admin’s promise of infrastructure maintenance, lest we forget
8
So many of these farmers voted Trump. Sure they don’t believe climate change could be causing this? Put on a red cap and blame Mexico.
22
We are told these farmers are almost all Trump supporters.
Trump doesn't believe in the climate change that these farmers are experiencing.
Because of ignorant people like Trump, or money grabbers like the Koch brothers, EPS Director Andrew Wheeler and his sponsor Sullivan, the extremes of climate change are escalating.
These farmers are reaping what they sowed. It is hard to feel sorry for them. By now they should know, that everything that Trump touches dies.
24
@Joe Miksis So that is all in the past. Now is the time for the Democratic candidates to propose real infrastructure projects, and win back these farm state voters.
12
I'd like to be sympathetic to these farmers but we all know that all of their losses will be covered by crop insurance or some kind of insurance for farmers. I can't get over how people love to cry knowing full well they will be compensated for their losses by the american taxpayer.
15
@mollie Huh. '..some kind of insurance for farmers'. You mean like the type homeowners carry in the event say, of a hurricane???? If you are referring to insurance, farmers pay for insurance just like the rest of us. -Don't believe those policies are subsidized by the taxpayer.
2
@mac
crop insurance a subsidized multi-peril federal insurance program, administered by the Risk Management Agency,
On average, the federal government subsidizes 62 percent of the premium. In 2014, crop insurance policies covered 294 million acres. Major crops are insurable in most counties where they are grown, and approximately 83% of U.S. crop acreage is insured under the federal crop insurance program. Four crops—corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat— typically account for more than 70% of total enrolled acres. For these major crops, a large share of plantings is covered by crop insurance. In 2014, the portion of total corn acreage covered by federal crop insurance was 87%; cotton, 96%; soybeans, 88%; and wheat, 84%.
The program is authorized by the Federal Crop Insurance Act (which is actually title V of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, P.L. 75-430), as amended..
and that is just a small part of the federal program...ie taxpayer funded
19
@mac
And they will still hate any mother trying to support their children with 2 part time job and a little help from welfare and Medicaid and yes food stamps that help the farmers who sell crops to the government.
Like it or not, everything is connected and we can hate and blame others but we are all in this together and had better find a way to help each other without feeling like we are being victimized and losing while everyone else is winning . Right now the only winners are the rich with their tax cuts that breaking the budget without enough tax money coming in the treasury.
23
Mr. Smith - excellent. Talk to Mark Arax. There's more mileage for you.
Where's that "terrific" infrastructure plan that our "Tweeter" promised? It appears water canals could use some improvements. Seems he's missing in action - too busy tweeting nonsense and hate and division to worry about Nebraska farmers. Maybe some common sense will prevail in the heartland and a bit of a reality check will awaken a new dawn of democracy. We can hope.
27
I’m a producer who farms under this canal system. After reading some of the comments, I’m inclined to apologize for ruining your city lives. However, I will point out that only 2,3% of the population in the US are farmers feeding the other 97.7% of the population as well as a good portion of the rest of the world. Furthermore with only 2.3% of the population and our 4 electoral college votes we did not elect Donald Trump. We are not asking for a handout. It’s just a story worthy of national news. We didn’t ask it to published for sympathy or a handout. It’s a freak deal caused by a tremor or rain shifting the soil. We are not your enemy, just family’s trying to make a living.
28
@Jim
" I will point out that only 2,3% of the population in the US are farmers feeding the other 97.7% of the population as well as a good portion of the rest of the world."
And you get paid for it. Two point three percent having a 97.7 percent share sounds a bit like a monopoly though, and one with generous government (state and national) subsidies.
8
@Jim Well said. The current administration's spending targets, or lack of targets is the problem. Massive spending on a border wall that border states don't want to keep out starving and dying people devastated by climate change south of us?
What about everyone suffering from profit first GOP politicians? We need good government and husbandry of resources at the top. Vote.
6
@Jim
Then let’s work together, we have to start with climate control. We all know we need you and the rest of the farmers for food. We are ready for you to be a part of the over all solution not just you world.
Thank you for reminding us just how much we depend on the farmers in this country.
8
Since there will be more jobs for field pickers, due to lack of immigrants due to the man voted into office as a result of the votes of the citizens of both states mentioned, this problem is already solved. Your welcome!
4
The Trump administration, time and again, has failed the American family farmer, with his costly tariffs, his crackdown on illegal immigrants who have otherwise broken no laws and whose labor is crucial to the farm economy and his neglect of crumbling infrastructure, like the irrigation canal.
Why any farmer, except for the corporate behemoths who will buy at a song the failed farms of those the President betrayed, would support Trump in 2020 is beyond comprehension.
19
We rightly condemn vitriol from the right, but it should also be called out when it comes from the left.
The utter contempt shown for these farmers in many of these comments is disheartening.
We can have compassion for the struggles of other people even when we disagree with their politics.
29
@James Williams
I wish I could recommend this comment more than once. I cannot believe the hate contained in of most of the comments.
It boggles my mind that these people who are so dependent on government aid and spending are the exact ones voting to destroy any and all protections for themselves while also denying climate change. The amount of cognitive dissonance is astounding.
19
Do 100 year old tunnels really need a reason to collapse?
But, in any event, can whatever irrigation district entity in charge borrow the money to cover the repairs? And on what terms?
At least the California cities at the end of our aqueducts have water storage, and the funds to do repairs if necessary. (We hope.) I did read that the California aqueduct crosses the San Andreas fault 30+ times.
One hopes Trump doesn’t treat them like California, where the aid is threatened to be withheld if we misbehave.
10
Dear farmers - please try to forgive the people who are acting just like Trump - lashing out at a group of people based on broad generalizations and pointless dislike and (despite the NYTimes saying comments are monitored for civility) being extremely uncivil.
Many of them are provincial city/suburbanites who don't understand not living in their world. Unfortunately, they feel that by loudly showing outrage at Trump's worst moments, it gives them license to behave like him, using the broad, nuance-free generalizations that our President has popularized.
So I hope there are rains in the area as the irrigation tunnel is fixed, and you manage at least some harvest. The land may eventually go back to desert as climate changes, but in the meantime, we gotta eat, and you have to earn a living even in this extremely difficult last year.
But keep up with deploying wind power. Those who have wind leases are probably glad for a bit of revenue that doesn't depend on seeds bearing crops. Go for solar, too. Keep up the expansion of no-till and other soil-saving methods.
I'm just an independent who grew up in the NYC area, live the carless urban life for decades now, but I've worked with different people around the country, and find it harder to make general, sweeping statements picking on others as I've met them. I'm hoping Democratic candidates hitting your area treat you as people worth listening to and earning the votes of (because we need a new President).
30
@b fagan
Farmers have had to adapt to climate change ever since there have been farmers.
3
@Mark Shyres - very true. And since farming started during the Holocene, the scale of change was globally less than what we're driving ourselves into. Of course, farming is very local, so the Medieval Warm Period included decades-long droughts that collapsed civilizations in parts of Mexico and our own Southwest.
This is something else for farmers to look forward to in areas where irrigation is a requirement. Projections for drought-prone areas is more drought, mixed with more-intense precipitation when there is rain. Odds are going to be getting worse each crop year.
New paper about the mechnisms that caused the past Southwestern megadroughts and notes the risks that greater heating from greenhouse gases can become a stronger driver of the process.
"Oceanic and radiative forcing of medieval megadroughts in the American Southwest"
Steiger et al, Science Advances
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaax0087
1
It’s a sad time for farmers in that region. I personally visited many of my friends who moved from the California infrastructure
that’ required water rationing and conservation ,this past month.
Many farmers of produce and cattle had to conserve and adapt
to climate change in the past years,in California.
Sadly those who have not heeded the actions of farmers and ranchers in California in soil and water conservation in California,
may not be competitive in the future
6
In recent years the state of Wyoming decided to subsidize the production of coal because their elected officials are shortsighted and fail to recognize the negative impacts of climate change particularly on farmers.
For a part of the subsidy they could have maintained the irrigation system and canals and avoided this calamity.
24
Farmers are some of the smartest people on planet earth;but lately they are ignoring what they already know. Climate change is something farmers know is happening; but the man in the White House denies it and reverses being careful with the environment. Spring floods are often followed by summer draught;; but the US Dept of Ag under Trump has NO initiatives to divert and save the spring abundance of water for the summer shortage of water. Rep Pres Nixon in 1972 started the marketing of soy beans to China and the man in the White House has in 2 short years destroyed this lucrative soybean market. Many many times our Trumpster has promised action on infrastructure and House Speaker Pelosi suggested a 2 Trillion infrastructure package but Trump took no action. Trump tax cuts lowered Trump's annual tax bill by $24 mill; but farmers get false promises. It is very sad to see such smart people bamboozled like this.
45
The evidence keeps mounting that Climate Change is real and for the world an issue of survival. The lands are dry; farmers despair. Promoting dirty air, dirty cars and fossil fuels and dismantling the environmental protections humanity had achieved with the Paris Accord, was a despicable act of madness. The consequences are clear and so are the solutions.
19
We could use less corn. Less ethanol that props up petroleum. Less corn syrup by-products that cause obesity and health crisis. Less large single crop farming that displaces smaller local farms. Maybe food will cost more but at least if will be food. This is not the way to farm and maybe the cracks are just starting to show.
21
They think this is bad?
They've been on Easy Street up until now, lobbying for water and winning, shuttling water around in open desert troughs, losing bazillions of gallons to wind and sun, spraying the stuff around like its, uh, water.
No more.
Farmers don't read The New York Times I'm guessing.
Of course...good old Republican manly men.
So they missed the part where business is realizing water is the next oil, better than gold. Already they've made massive investments, and they won't be letting it go for free any more.
Its gonna cost. And when farmers mange to win, somebody is likely to die.
The only way out of this, the only way, is to put the hardest of hard stops on water investment right now.
Otherwise the intellectually-rotten-to-the-core "The business of business is profit, and that's all" folks will soon be picking and choosing who lives and who does not. Which crops grow and which never will again.
I know farmers will approve of that, take their loses like men, move on to new opportunities without a complaint because its America and its business. But I won't like it.
9
If red state farmers would just wake up and smell the coffee they would stop voting for Republican politicians who work day and night against farmers’ economic interests. Instead, they listen to Limbaugh and imbibe Fox News’ monstrous hatreds like it’s mothers’ milk or manna from Heaven, making them their own. And like some country rubes who just fell off a turnip truck they believe everything those carnival barkers say.
Will they ever wise up?
Will they ever learn?
26
Maybe God is punishing Nebraska for voting Republican which helps the rich and hurts the poor. Or maybe fact are punishing Nebraska for ignoring 97% of climate scientists who say man is causing climate change. Or maybe reality is punishing Nebraska for voting Republican which cuts taxes while at the same time raises defense spending leaving less federal money for infrastructure repair. In any case, Nebraska voters are looking like they have made some mistakes in the voting booth.
32
@Will Hogan
I am sending Nebraska thoughts and prayers.
8
I believe that 70 percent of crops grown in the U.S. go to feed livestock. If we reduce our meat consumption, we could feed everyone, even with the crop losses from climate change.
17
@David:
not just in the US
but the globe over.
3
@David in discussing this current Crisis with a friend, I erred, on the low side. Some global water footprint facts to bolster your excellent point. Shock is reasonable when assimilating these numbers: It takes: to produce ONE POUND OF BEEF; 1,799 Gallons of Water. One pound of pork takes 576 Gallons of Water. The Water footprint of Soybeans is 216 Gallons; Corn 108 Gallons. Meat Myth Crushers states 441 Gallons to produce 1 pound boneless beef. Feeding an ever-growing planet will take much more than prayers and baseball-cap slogans. That is certain.
Play on Online version of 'How much water does it take to grow [paper, eggs, steel, cotton, beef, etc,.] with logical disclaimers & sources yourself at the USGS Website:
"The Water Footprint Netw for a Changing World":
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-watercontent.html
3
The article says ‘Elected irrigation officials in both states oversee management of the canal system, which was built by the federal government’ - what are the ‘irrigation officials’ they voted for doing? Those officials need to step up and explain how they are going to fix this and address these issues going forward because as the planet warms it’s just going to get worse.
17
Do any of these glum farmers want to admit to climate change?
Or the impact of the meat and dairy production on water usage?
39
Don't worry dear Donald will hold a rally in the heartland everyone will cheer him as he decries climate change those pesky Democrats and will praise his tax cuts as good for the economy. Trade wars? Winnable of course according to the king of nothing. The farmers will come with their hands out and vote GOP like they always do. When will they wake up? Or will they wake up?
45
I get the frustration in the comments about red states that depend on government programs.
I would just point out that the food in your grocery store comes from these places and this is everyone’s problem.
21
@James Williams California feeds most of the country. California leads the United States in Environmental protection, regulations and has put in place the most future looking attempts to combat climate change. California has established a model. It is up to other States to deal with Environmental realities and change course.
41
you mean ethanol and high fructose corn syrup?
8
@James Williams
Jim you should do a little research before jumping in.
I'd say little to none of the crops there are raised for human consumption. Except of course the corn which comes to your local supermarket by way of corn syrup.
As someone else said California crops are actually raised for eating. Wyoming and Nebraska make two things for the most part. Beef and Oil.
15
I live in the blue state of Vermont where there is a state tax on your social security income. I don;t really like the idea but I do understand that we need taxes to pay for things like schools, safe bridges, and social services for the elderly to name a few things our taxes pay for. This summer our taxes are going toward fixing our bridges and repairs to the drainage that runs along the mountain roads and when clogged can cause the flooding and damage that Hurricane Irene brought several years ago.
Some commenters are upset about the tone of the majority of the comments here. I agree with the minority. You get what you voted and I'm tired of my tax dollars going to this low-information, bigoted voters, because if you're still with Trump you are a bigot, just like him. I'm glad to see the responses. It gives me hope that if he wins again there will be serious discussions about secession because four more years of Trump is not going to work for many of us. This union will not hold.
46
Bad news farmers; it’s going to get a lot worse. Climate change isn’t going to disappear just because the majority of rural America wants to believe it’s a liberal hoax. And government’s ability to insure against disasters and crop failures will soon disappear as well. No one, even the federal government, has enough money to throw at a problem that will only get worse.
35
Won't crop insurance save the day? Subsidized by the feds (eg, paid for by us tax payers.)
The evangelical Trump supporting right should start praying now.
26
I'm stunned at the hostile comments here. Listen to yourselves, those of you who decry the divisiveness that's tearing our nation apart--and then add a few rips of your own. How are you going to build a winning coalition if you ridicule people who might be ready to reconsider and switch sides? This is why Democrats could have a hard time winning in 2020.
Yes, these farmers are learning a bitter lesson-- one that might convert some minds about whom to support and which policies to embrace. And yet so many commenters in these threads are villifying them, calling them names, telling them they're inferiors who will never be good enough to stand with you.
And so they won't; why would anyone want to ally themselves with people who taunt them with messages that have all the inclusiveness of "nyah, nyah, nyah, I told you so."
There are times to be unforgiving, about racism and migrant camps and such. But hey, people! We're talking about infrastructure here. Water tunnels, pipes, valves (and food). These are relatively apolitical, and an opening for anyone who wants to win. If you want converts to come over to your side, you have to let them in.
35
@DogDad
Sorry, but these farmers have benefited from this FEDERALLY funded infrastructure for years, at the same time they proclaim they want government out of their lives, Finally, as GOP voters, they want to take away women's health funding- they put themselves apart by their own prejudices- how could we possibly be inclusive towards people who hate us so much?
My maternal grandfather farmed in Utah, lost the farm to circumstances out of his control in 1924, and always dreamed he would go back, my paternal great grandfather ranched and dry farmed wheat in Montana until he retired- my parents generation all grew up in California, became educated engineers and teachers- When I traveled to my great grandfather's ranch in 2000, we visited with the current owners. Their hatred of anything and everyone outside of their own small world was astounding, as is their racism towards native people.
15
As someone who's descended from six generations of farmers (but not a farmer myself), this article is pure schadenfreude. For more than a generation family farmers have abandoned the Democratic Party for the Republicans. The Republicans have never supported family farmers, opposed crop subsidies as welfare, removed price supports and gutted crop insurance. Farmers defected to this party in direct opposition to their own personal financial interest in order to embrace niche political issues that have zero effects in their daily lives. And most Republicans seem opposed to infrastructure projects, in general, especially at the 'conservative' state levels in places ike Neraska, Kansas and Wyoming. (Conservative here meaning cheap, white, hater.) No surprise about a critical part of that farming infrastructure collapsing.
So....reap what you sow. With all their free time Mr. Busch, Oliver and Stricker will be able to open carry their assault rifles to anti-abortion rallies where they chant for the imprisonment of their political opponents. But, they won't be farmers for much longer.
50
These farmers believe the worst words that they could ever hear, "I am from the government, and I am here to help."
12
In this story:
Which presidential candidate did all these farmers vote for?
Who wants less government but has accepted hand-outs?
Who believes in climate change and who does not?
41
Before us liberals get all high and mighty, we might remember that Nebraska and Wyoming are both "giver" states, like New York and California. They pay more in federal taxes than they get back.
20
Truly sad. On a human level, feel bad for any fellow human being who is struggling.
But I have to ask-the rest of us need to invest money to rebuild their infrastructure ?
I can recall when red state senators were arguing against providing assistance to New York and New Jersey following hurricane Sandy, likely with the support of these good folks.
Are our fellow citizens from the Nebraska and Wyoming (who are already receiving more in federal tax money than they are contributing) willing to pay to improve the New York City subway system ? Doubt it.
47
@Joe Don’t we need the food they’re growing? Unless they’re selling their entire crop internationally, we all have a vested interest in them succeeding. You can drive on last year’s roads, no matter how bad they all. You can’t eat last year’s harvest.
6
@Joe We all need to eat and our farmers (for the most part) supply that food. So yes, we should help the farmers. And we need to have plans to keep all infrastructure (including the NY subways) maintained and improved. We also need to up the amount of money we are spending on veterans every time we send someone off to war. However, the Republicans seem to think that money will just magically appear.
2
@Joe Nebraska and Wyoming are paying more in federal taxes than they are receiving in return.
2
Why were these farms dependent on a 100-yr old irrigation system? No government oversight? Who built the systems in the first place, and how were/are they monitored?
22
@former MA teacher TheFederal government build the system as flood control from snow melt in the Rockies. Seven dams were build to store this water and slowly release throughout the summer. As an added benefit they build a canal irrigation system to use this water as it was released in the North plate river valley. The Bureau of reclamation is in change of the water release. They lease the canal system to irrigation districts whom is governed by an elected board of landowners within the district. The land owners pay a tax each year to the district to operate and maintain the system. It’s worked for over 100 years very ingenious system. Unfortunately a tremor or water leaked creating a cavity which collapsed a portion of a tunnel. The system will last another 100 years without an earthquake.I hope you are truly trying to understand the system
3
@Jim Yes, I am! Thank you! Sometimes these ingenious systems are not properly maintained, as are many parts of our infrastructure. It's important that they are and that these systems' origins and functions are explained---in pieces found in the NYT for example.
3
This is an amazing, boots on the ground sort of report that illustrates so many ills of our country: how rural voters have been engineered to vote for the urban elites based on fabricated social issues; climate change across a major swathe of the American agricultural lands; the power of big oil; the knock-on effects of under/de-regulated practices like ubiquitous fracking.
This is award winning stuff. Good work. Thank you.
21
After all is said and done, President Trump’s wall would probably cost upwards of $40 Billion. You have to wonder how much better it would be to take that money and use it for urgent infrastructure repairs.
59
@Kenr Let alone the Trillion dollar tax cut to his friends.
4
It could be poor maintenance or construction, but it's also possible that the tunnel collapse was caused by the overly wet winter and spring.
8
Should be not growing either corn or soybeans in the panhandle of Nebraska or in adjacent areas of Wyoming. It is not sustainable. It has been enabled through decades of misguided financial support from the federal government.
That land is best used to grow grasses adapted to the high plains and without irrigation.
79
@PlayOn The USA's been running on borrowed time for a while now. I'm afraid that's coming to an end.
Still, people are beginning to freak out. I figure in 10-20 years, Canada will stop saying, "we're green and amazing up here - will you keep buying our crude oil?" and start saying, "We've shut the pipeline off for everyone's sake"
Much more interesting times than I'd hoped for in my middle/old age
10
@PlayOn "Not sustainable". Grow up. If you want to win elections, don't criticize your target constituents.
@Jamyang.... based on the comment, it is not clear if you understand the meaning of "sustainable" in this context. Have a nice day.
5
God forbid we bail them out - that'd be socialism.
108
This ground was never meant to be put in row crops. It’s native grass land, thus the name “sand” hills.
41
@Tim Fair
Actually, the sand hills are north of this canal and are not affected.
7
This is west of the sandhills, which is not a prerequisite for grasslands.
2
@Tim Fair the land here is has the cash crop of sugar beets, wheat, corn, dry beans, soy beans, sun flowers, and many more. Soon we will be adding hemp. The farmers and ranchers on this canal typically grow wheat and corn. Two easy rotation crops. Nebraska has done so much for land conservation that other states follow after the fact.
6
18 million to repair the irrigation tunnel? Only require Trump to give up a few of his golf weekends and rallies to pay for it. But don't hold your breath!
65
How long have weather extremes per climate change been predicted??? Perhaps farmers should have paid attention. Then, again...with crop subsidies, crop guarantees if planned production fails, and the like, these are very protected people per the rest of us. Yes, we need them, and we have benefited from lower prices, but we have paid in other ways for years. I grew up in farm country; they do just fine financially because they have guarantees most of us do not. So, farmers, deny climate change and deride socialism and the welfare state but, be sure to deposit that check you’ll receive from the rest of us per the man to whom you continue to give your vote, with excuses, of course.
Fewer sugar beets and less corn may result in less corn syrup products and sugar products that must of us would be healthier without. Maybe we could break those addictions while farmers break their addiction to others baling them out, even if they do work hard at least part of the year.
89
I'm all for subsidizing our farmers for US food security. We should not be using US tax dollars to support AG exports.
17
@Karl...great. let me know the next time you munch down a fine meal of corn and soybeans.
8
Its a fought time for them, but like always the government will bail them out.
15
I question that the ditch in the photo was impacted by the canal tunnel collapse. If this drainage had running water last week there wouldn’t be that much young growth vegetation in its bed after a few days of no irrigation water.
I was in that area making photos on irrigated lands the day the tunnel collapsed. I spoke with a father and son farmers about their fields and what the withdrawal of irrigation water would mean. It will be truly devastating. But your photo is not an accurate description of what irrigation or the lack thereof looks like there.
30
Take a little of Trumps 16 billion in public assistance funds (to make up for his failing tariffs) for farmers and fix the infrastructure. 18 million should be easily found.
27
I hope these hard working American farmers can somehow obtain relief before it’s too late but it doesn’t seem likely. This is another piece of proof of how our aging infrastructure is harming us. This incident is no different for urban dwellers when one of their subway lines goes bad.
25
@Bruce Egert … umm. When a subway goes bad, we deal with it. We don't hold our hat in our hand, ask for federal handouts (from Nebraska taxpayers) & whine & vote for someone who hates us.
3
"Once in a hundred years" weather events have become increasingly common. The only differences among climate scientists is in trying to recalibrate their various climate models as one after another occur.
Their baselines from years of data are changing so fast that predictive time lines have become nearly impossible. What they do agree on is that climate catastrophes thought to be coming by 2100 are now 10 to 20 years away. Some are happening now.
Has capitalism become so corrupt and greedy that everyone is out for short term profit and the long term expense of maybe 2-3 billion people?
These droughts and record rainstorms are just the beginning. large sections of the southwest will become uninhabitable. Where will people go?
What will we do about those local economies? Who will bail out insurance companies that go bankrupt?
The questions are easy, but no one seems to be talking about answers. What have we come to?
30
@Drspock
"Has capitalism become so corrupt and greedy that everyone is out for short term profit and the long term expense of maybe 2-3 billion people?"
You really have to ask?
7
I'm hoping that the GOP doesn't put through its draconian food stamp cut - particularly at such a time as this when so many more people are in need of at least a little help to survive. I feel for the farmers - I don't care how they vote. But not so much for the factory farms that care more about the profit margin than feeding America (and the world).
I would like to say to Middle America -- we Dems don't hate you - we are just like you, with a few differences here and there. Please think about how cowardly the House and Senate GOP has been since Trump took office -- it is not acceptable under their oath of office to ignore criminal behavior by the executive because they are scared of not getting re-elected. Being American and a patriot is about putting the country & Constitution before party, not putting the party (GOP) before the interests of most of us. They're lying to America and it isn't acceptable. We must unite against the corruption that has overtaken our government. Please. God bless you and God bless America.
44
@denise brown Very nice to see a positive spin. Politicians need to give up the wedge issues, or punt them off to a special "government for wedge issues" and put the place back together.
4
And which party is it that says we can spend billions on tax cuts, billions more on a Pentagon that can't pass an audit, but no money for infrastructure? America's engineers have been warning for decades that we are in an infrastructure fail zone, and yet Congress is too busy, too divided, and too occupied by lobbyists to get anything done.
66
@Barbara
And tax cuts for billionaires.
30
Guys, quit the sarcastic "lazy farmer" spiel. I know everyone is venting, but it's mean spirited at best and gets taken literally at worst. You want to win in 2020 election, don't you? Ahead, together. And vote!
18
@VR
Together? Ah, yes, those good farmers will link hands with us who are black, brown, and LGTBQ. They are good people, as evidenced by their voting for the good man trump.
9
@Lanier Y Chapman
I'm quite brown. Yes, the good farmers view us collectively as other. But individually, perhaps not...and corny as it might sound, so long as we remain the United States, ahead together is the only way. At any rate, being mean spirited serves no purpose, and that's what Fox news is for!
3
And how many of these people vote for GOP/Trump? They may get some welfare ha fours now but climate change is going to return middle of America to a giant Mississippi again.
18
Nebraska and Wyoming need to find a solution on their own. No government or scientific help. You know, they same way they remind the rest of us to solve things.
78
My thoughts and prayers are with them. May our dear Lord rescue them, just as He did with Newtown.
65
There's always enough money to bail out the banks and the financiers. When these remaining farmers declare bankruptcy, these properties will be sold at bargain prices to corporate farming enterprises. They know how to squeeze tax payer money for those needed repairs.
37
@Eric Jensen
I'm sure THAT is exactly the plan. It always has been before... drive a business into failure through deliberate neglect, then swoop in and buy it up for pennies on the dollar.
Keep in mind though.. this will be wealthy republicans praying on republican farmers.
5
Farmers are among the first getting hit by climate change.
A little background: For the last 2 million years of multiple glaciations and interglacials the carbon cycle was doing 180-280ppm atmospheric CO2 over 10,000 years and we’ve done more change than that in 100 years.
When CO2 went up by that 100ppm temperature went up 5-6 degrees C and sea level rose around 130 meters. (graph of the last 400,000 years of global temperature, CO2 and sea level http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/images/impacts/slr-co2-temp-400000yrs.jpg)
It takes time for temperature and sea level to respond to the current 410ppm and we're on track for tripling preindustrial CO2 this century--to over 800ppm--which would be a slate wiper for humans.
We don’t need to go that high to get into real trouble. Raising temperature just 1.5-2 degrees C above preindustrial temperature commits the system to 6-9 meters of sea level rise, a large fraction of which could arrive in the next 100 years.
29
@Erik Frederiksen At a time when human population is set to approach 11b. It used to make me sad I didn't have kids. Not anymore - this is shaping up to be a real nightmare.
7
I'm a novice vegetable gardener. And I look at this picture and think- where's the MULCH!? I'm sorry for the hardships and wouldn't wish this on anyone, but this practice is clearly unsustainable.
18
@Kte Small garden methods don't scale to large fields. You can't mulch thousands of acres. If you could figure out a way to physically do it, where is all that mulch going to come from? How far away would it have to be transported? And then it would be impossible to plant crops the following year.
15
@Kte where do you get mulch for millions of acres under cultivation? Youd have to cut down a billion trees a year. Fix one crisis , create another?
5
@B
While you are correct here... the fact remains that proper "land management" can be done, does scale and does require thought, planning, and commitment to actually do it. Crop rotations being one important aspect of maintaining crop fields over entire generations.
10
From the article: "For farmers battered by floods and blizzards"
Only 4 degrees centigrade separates preindustrial temperature from that of the glaciations when mile thick ice sheets carved out places like Cape Cod and Yosemite Valley.
And we're on track to make as big, or bigger change, this century. We're in the process of creating a world unrecognizable to current generations and we won't like it.
As we watch farmers starting to struggle consider that a population of a few million human hunter-gatherers was apparently beyond the carrying capacity of the planet as many places where we showed up the megafauna disappeared.
Around 10-12,000 years ago, when large climate oscillations settled down, we developed agriculture which allowed us to double our population many times into the billions.
But agriculture faces big challenges if we don’t change our ways soon (1), as do our fisheries, and if they both decline significantly, forcing us back to being largely hunter-gatherers, history tells us that out of every 1,000 people you see maybe one survives.
Except this time it won’t be meat on the hoof with Mastadons and large, flightless birds and picking up lobsters off of New England beaches.
Going back to hunting and gathering during the current 6th mass extinction is poor timing, so the one in a thousand could prove wildly optimistic.
1 IPCC Western N America drought 1900-2100
http://icons.wxug.com/hurricane/2013/drought-western-us-1900-2100.png
18
Democratic candidates need to join Republicans in farm country and do bipartisan funding of a new canal and other infrastructure for farmers. Democrats could win some votes if they were getting down into the weeds of agriculture and finding ways to help farmers. In my state, Democrats win elections except in farm country. We need to be there for farmers and get their support in exchange. It has happened before and could again.
20
Not gonna happen. These farmers will never vote blue.
36
@Jim We have. As a Democrat who lives in Nebraska, I am tired of fighting for people who won't even fight for their own interests. It's exhausting. They'd rather have a trade war and an anti-abortion, anti-labor, anti-LGBTQ judge on the supreme court than infrastructure.
They can ignore the truth and call everything that goes against their beliefs 'fake news', but global warming is real and wreaking havoc with frigid winters, flooding springs, and scorching summers. Infrastructure is failing. Boyd County Nebraska hasn't had water since the flooding in May. But we have a President who hates immigrants and is going to keep their communities white and homogeneous. And they're taking federal handouts like welfare kings. So go farmers. I can't help people who won't help themselves.
55
@Jim, and, IMHO, the Dems need to introduce the legislation and loudly call out any Republicans (who will say this is all a shameful political move by the Dems), especially from farm country, who balk at spending the money.
2
Give the people what they want. Vote for decades against the environment and get the result. Life is a series of coincidences but it you give it a chance they will coincide and sometimes this type of thing just may be the result. This can't all be blamed on Trump but his continuing refusal to deal with it can be a real lesson to those who for whatever reason trust him.
31
@Mike AZ (former NJ)
You don't get it.
It's not necessarily that his backers support HIM, but that they despise what the Democrats have come to represent.
2
@Raz
I suspect you're referring to the old adage of tax-and-spend and/or the new adage of "socialist" Democrats. Please enlighten me. How is that different/worse than the Republican support for farm subsidies, corporate welfare and tax cuts for the top 1%? Ask yourself, on a gut level, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"
And, if you're just talking about ethics and/or morals, and you have children or know children, or have a friend, co-worker, significant other, neighbor, mail person. acquaintance, and down and down the social interaction ladder, are you saying you're OK with them lying to you 60+% of the time?
4
@Raz
Oh I get it. I knew things would blow up election night 2008. I just did not think it would be this bad.
I don't think farmers in general are racist, but they believe everything Fox News, Russia and Trump who is a racist, tells them. The Democrats must send do a better job educating and explain the problems to them. People of color and liberals and the coastal 'elites' are not the problem. Why surrender to Fox News?
28
@wyatt
The adults are a lost cause, it is the children that need to be protected from repeating their parents' deficiencies through better education. That is what Democrats should advocate in their platform, but include all American children.
11
@wyatt You would be wrong if you thought that.
A large percentage of the crops grown in "the heartland" strip the soil of nutrients, are blasted with pesticides, are used to feed not people but livestock, and are farmed by folks who don't believe in climate change, nor in government subsidies-- unless they are the recipients. None of this is sustainable.
130
@Julie
One third of the corn in Iowa goes to making ethanol, one third to high fructose corn syrup (obesity problem much?) and the other third feeds pigs which are then shipped to Russia.
41
@Julie
Over population is the real unsustainable practice.
7
@Julie-
That semi-arid prairie on the east side of the Rockies should be returned to the Buffalo Commons, to native flora and fauna and to large buffalo herds that grazed on it and ran across it, churning it up, tilling the prairie soil with their hooves, fertilizing it with their dung.
Of course, those farmers are utterly opposed to anything so bold, anything remotely ecological. They prefer keeping things the way they are, keep their Ag. Dept. subsidies, their price supports, and their welfare checks; while denouncing “socialism”.
3
@travelingdoctor It is political. We’ve prioritized exactly the wrong things for the people and the planet. Most of these hard-working folks probably voted their prejudices rather than their commin sense. On the bright side, in the long run, the collapse of mono-culture-pesticide laden commodity farming ( corn, soy ) might allow us to look at more sustainable options ( peraculture, food forests ) and might destroy the meat industry, one of the biggest contributors to global warming and mindless cruelty. Yes, we would still eat. Not just the same body & planet destroying “food”.
45
There should be a series of canals and reservoirs that channel flood waters from the hurricane states to the Midwest and West. Both flood and drought will be with us for a long time and letting that precious water empty into the ocean and gulf is a wasteful tragedy.
9
@RonRich Then let corporations buy the right-of-way and dig the canals and charge the farmers appropriately.
5
@RonRich
Thank you Dewitt Clinton.
Or, maybe we can channel all that melting Arctic Ice through Canada to the USA.
Can't wait until the RED western and southwestern states want to tap into the Great Lakes.
10
Floods, droughts, crumbling infrastructure, pointless trade wars, and taxpayer funded subsidies and bailouts of farm country will only accelerate so long as Trump occupies the White House and McConnell controls the senate.
Please vote in 2020.
72
Let's see. Trade wars. Because of Trump. Floods with ice chunks. (Weather extremes from global warming which will only get worse.) Because of Trump. Collapsed irrigation system. (Why spend money on infrastructure when you can give tax breaks to corporations?) Because of Trump. Trump's do-nothing policies are infesting the country.
64
Keep voting for Trump, Nebraska. I'm sure he feels your pain and is eager to help.
141
@Jay Why I'm sure he is sending "thoughts and prayers".
11
Practicing intensive agriculture in steppe climates isn’t a fool-proof strategy? Who knew?
43
@Jeremy
They can always change to a pastoral economy with cattle and sheep.
Oh, but no one wants to eat meat anymore.
3
Thanks Obama, over $900 billion. And it’s all gone.
3
@Shamrock what did he do with it? Don't leave us hanging!
3
Century old pipes. What happened to that multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment we heard about during the campaign?
120
@Andy
It's on the way - just waiting for that check from Mexico.
18
@Andy
It went away with the multi-trillion tax cut for the 1%!
6
Why are so many irrigation canals in our country not lined?
Don't tell me they are still using flood irrigation?
What version of center pivot do they use?
What time of day do they irrigate?
At what wind speed do they stop irrigation?
The first use rule needs to change.
Yes, where I live KY Bluegrass is so silly in Utah but Ag by far is the biggest waster of water.
14
@K Hunt
Because they were built 100 years ago or more.
Yes, they are still using flood irrigation.
8
@K Hunt yes flood irrigation. Center pivots cost over $1000 per month in electric cost to operate. Then multiply that by 15 or 20 pivots. Yeah I’ll pay a kid $15/hr to flood irrigate.
Waste water? Surface Water is impossible to waste unless it flows unused to the ocean.. This water is used and reused over and over as it makes it way down hill to the gulf.
1
Lower taxes vs. infrastructure. Lower taxes vs. infrastructure.
They chose lower taxes.
137
@The Poet McTeagl
War vs Infrastructure, War vs Infrastructure and we reliably head off to war with somebody, anybody. Reliably.
Look at China’s infrastructure! They know better than to have endless wars.
33
What’s with the criticism and lack of empathy that I see in the comments here? An irrigation tunnel collapse is not a political event. Many of the people mentioned in the article are hardworking, small-scale farmers who live on a thin margin of profit if any. I work in the Panhandle near Gering, and people are just trying to survive and make a better life for themselves and their families, like all the rest of us. And they are growing the food that we all eat. We should support them even if their political views are different from our own.
24
@Traveling Doctor
Their political views in not wanting to pay taxes is what leads to decaying infrastructure. In a sense they are getting exactly what they pay for.
117
@Traveling Doctor:
Unfortunately, infrastructure upgrades have become political. When we hand ~ $2 trillion in the form of tax breaks to those who don't need it, and will in no way enhance the economy, and neglect the well-being of all, (while promoting policy that runs counter to the well-founded science climate change is based upon), politics is at the forefront.
Red states vote for lower taxes, and take federal supplements from those that are blue. Although it's tragic, those who vote "red" may want to take a step back and prescribe themselves with a little introspection.
123
@Traveling Doctor
The problem is that their political views, and votes, support politicians and a president who prefer tax cuts for billionaires, millionaires, and multi-national corporations to investments in our country's infrastructure. Those same elected officials would also rather deny the scientific consensus around climate change and the resulting chaos, eliminating regulations that might actually stave off the worst of the outcomes. So while I do feel for the small to medium size farms that have to deal with this devastation, I cannot help but believe those political views have contributed to the crisis they now face.
74
Your groceries are relatively cheap because our government has supported farming for decades. Farming is difficult. It's a huge gamble against Mother Nature. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Haveca little empathy, please. It's not an easy life, and it feeds your family.
17
@TrueKansan I give them credit and realize it is terribly difficult. But I do wonder how all these rows of crops have not one shred of mulch. That's what you do in low water situations to retain moisture and soil, and I'm just a gardener. Their system needs improvement- why can't they see this?
12
@TrueKansan - Democrats are the ones who vote to protect their health care, air and water, education for their children etc. and those of us in blue states are subsidizing them. Isn't that empathy enough?
31
@TrueKansan
They chose that life. They made their bed. Let them lie in it.
14
Infrastructure. which the repubs scotched in talk about twoor so months ago 'cause it was too much money. Food is an important issue. Water for farming. And we have lady tweeter fingers and his all-star cast of indolents. Farmers, this is bad and that ain't good.
14
Well those farmers can be thankful that the same federal government that built that irrigation system in the same spirit of socialism that built the TVA , Hover dam and the interstate system, has infrastructure at such a high priority that infrastructure week comes around a couple times a year. The common good . . .
Oh wait a minute, never mind.
42
I spent two decades on a small family farm in Texas. One of the overriding sentiments expressed by everyone around me was hatred of the government. Illogical at best, delusional at worst but that was it. There was no discussion about anything, except when it came to the farm bureau. Now some people decided to use the farm programs for their own enrichment. They were paid a million dollars or more a year in subsidies. They had new tractors, cars and nice homes. They wanted a piece of the federal government farm pie and they figured out how to get it. Others simply refused to fill out the necessary forms, do the reporting, and they didn't get any money. Yet they all voted Republican. Always. And some even hired illegals to work their farms! Go figure.
While I respect the work ethic of farmers, their myopic vision will simply have them going over the cliff, as they fail to understand the radical changes hitting planet earth. The rise in global temperatures is going to flood them, cook them, and take away a way of life they hold dear. For urban dwellers, your food supply is going to be at risk. Forget higher prices. Think food shortages. The climate unraveling is just getting started. There is hope, plant a trillion trees to become a great big green heat sink. And yes by all means, install solar panels, get an electric car, do whatever you can because I would like my grandchildren to have a future. Is that too much to ask?
184
@Lawyers, Guns And Mone Stated well, but read the other article in the Times about the vanishing rain forest in the Amazon (the Earth's lungs). And what of China and India's massive ecological impacts and pressures? These and other countries deservedly want to improve their economies and population and follow America's lead. The damage caused by our gluttonous appetite for material goods and indiscriminate use of resources over the past generation cannot be changed by driving an electric car or eating soybeans. Even in the face of undeniable climate change, clearly stated by scientists for the past 50 or so years, there has been no unified political will and action in this country. There is a thin line separating civilization from anarchy, and when political leadership fails the interests of the country at large: when there is so much division and animus as has erupted in our society, when lethal weapons are in the hands of angry, crazed extremists, when our religious and social institutions are found to be historically rife with abuse, with violating the flock they profess to love and protect, when mankind has soiled his nest and devastated and decimaged the animals, fish, and birds, when the media has gone crazy with sensationalism and the prurient focus on death, destruction, catastrophe, and collapse, then the Life Spirit, Mother Nature, will rise up and smite our pathetic, selfish and self-centered breed. And no amount of mulch is going to help.
7
They should have not voted for the GOP which doesn't care about our planet.
You lie down with dogs, the fleas throw a fiesta.
71
Many of these acres in the arid west should never have been farmed in the first place. And the federal money that goes to support growing corn, watering corn, and feeding cattle is astonishing. I wonder how many of the Nebraska and Wyoming folks believe in climate change and will begin to think of alternative methods of agriculture; particularly in places where it is sustainable.
66
Trade wars and tax cuts are not the solution to our economic problems. This is yet another example of what is: investment in infrastructure.
42
Farmers have long looked to the past to help them plan their crops.
But things like shifting climatic zones, disappearing alpine glaciers and saltwater infiltration of productive agricultural lands is leaving them rather clueless.
And due to the momentum in Earth’s energy system and climate we’re just seeing the beginning of much larger changes.
Those who get their food from grocery stores should be concerned.
30
My heart goes out to these farmers. And I want to remind them (and everyone) to vote. Vote for people who take global warming seriously, because things are going to get much worse before they get better. Vote for people who don't plan on starting trade wars. For people who will invest in public infrastructure.
131
If we forget the canal and pay the farmers for their land we could have a 100,00 acre wildlife preserve which would aid the environment and help fight climate change.
77
@ejpisko
And who would grow the food the federal government subsidizes to keep prices low for all consumers?
In 1950 groceries accounted for nearly 30% of the average Americans weekly expenses. Today that number is 20%. Where will poor and working class people get the additional money to pay?
The "welfare" that sustains American farmers also sustains consumers. Unless EJPisco you can afford organic and don't care what groceries cost you may wish to rethink your strategy.
Yes, the agri-business model is broken and needs a fix but suggesting we eliminate subsidies to small and medium size farmers or turn farms into wildlife preserves is sheer inanity.
8
@Laurence Bachmann Sheer insanity is burning up 46% of the corn crop a year in Iowa to turn it into ethanol wasting ground water and not helping feed US residents let alone the world.
65
@ejpisko
Please explain.
1
Sure, go ahead, spend billions on a worthless southern border fence. We don't need no stinkin' pipeline (and roads and bridges and highways and rail lines).
139
From David Griggs recently, former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientific assessment unit, in a short video of four climate scientists discussing what it is like to live with their knowledge, and where they are moving their families in order to minimize exposure to coming impacts.
“I think we are heading to a future with considerably greater warming than 2 degrees centigrade, and when the world doesn’t do something about it it brings a whole range of emotions into play, depression is clearly something.
You get days you are down, because what you know, and what you can see coming, is not good.”
https://youtu.be/jIy0t5P0CUQ?t=213
17
NE and WY farmers have absolutely no need to worry because their president will simply write them a cheque to (again) buy their loyalty. Sadly, this money will not come from his mulit-billion dollar bank account; instead from the pockets of those suffering from many problems Trump-Pence came into office facing (e.g. expensive healthcare, opioid addiction) and promised cures for within 100 days, and have yet to deliver on their promises.
44
These farmers are Americans that have the same rights under our Constitution, to time after time vote against their own very best interest, so I have no sympathy for them in the current plight that they find themselves in, thanks to their President Donald J. Trump. There is a climate change problem and the fact that he has done everything, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris Accords, speaks volumes that now there is a shortage of water. America will suffer as a whole, because the food supply is now in danger. Guess they didn’t anticipate that, but what else is new. It’s the blind leading the blind who have fail to see the whole big picture, except for widespread greed and the almighty dollar.
Republicans are against Socialism, until they are for it, to bailout their red state base from Trumps disastrous policies to the tune of $44 billion and counting with no end in sight. So much for the deficit hawks!
It’s the new Washington D.C. swamp, don’t you know?
110
@Woosa09 The Trump administration pulled the new science report on climate put out by the USDA to help farmers. So, keep voting for Trump and watch your land dry up
46
@Woosa09 Actually we will not suffer as most of our veggies and fruits are imported, what is grown here is mostly used in car engines, or exported.
24
I'm out here in farm country right now, about 60 miles east of Mitchell, Nebraska. I assure you that the farmers around here would rather work than take handouts. They're not lazy. Actually, the wheat farmers are in the middle of a long string of 14-hour days harvesting. We shouldn't vilify farmers because they voted for Trump--they were taken in by a con artist, and I think many of them know it. The good news is that while they used to talk about him in the coffee shops here, you don't hear it much any more. Most of them still support him, but not nearly as enthusiastically as a couple years ago. Hopefully some of them will figure out that there's a better way to do America.
52
@Mark
Most Nebraska farmers will still support Trump. After all they probably believe his latest Tweet since they can't see a con man when he is right in front of them.
Trump tweets American farmers 'starting to do great again'
35
@Mark - Half an hour of internet research would have helped them make an informed choice. I have no respect for someone who won't educate themselves on something as important as their vote.
27
@Mark
-they were taken in by a con artist...
You're telling me they are adults and didn't know any better, with all the resources available to find out things about the man?
18
I'm shocked at the nastiness of some of the comments. Sure, many farmers supported Trump; so what? That does not change the fact that, like the rest of us, they depend on the federal government for public works projects that are very beneficial but too large, complicated, and expensive to be provided through private markets. Do you like your interstate highways? Your national defense? Your Medicare and Social Security? Your food safety? I do. And I like a government that helps stabilize the production and prices of our most important output: food.
I hope the appropriate federal agency will quickly fix this tunnel and make sure that the rest of the system is functioning properly. Perhaps it's a job for the Army Corp of Engineers.
25
@Koyote
The comments you mention are mainly coming from people who agree with your comments about the fact that the federal government can help maintain and update infrastructure projects. Yes we like our Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, and social security.
What you seem to be missing is that these comments are coming from people who are bitter that a majority of farmers voted for for the current administration. An administration which is adamantly opposed to these projects. So they are pointing out the irony and comeuppance. For example, if we mentioned that we hope farmers have to take a drug test before they get their welfare checks....
At this point many of us realize that some people will not learn until they are forced to, like a child who touches the stove even she has been repeatedly been told she will get burned.
52
I do get the point. But those farmers are still our fellow countrymen and women, and they produce our food. Mocking them now, because they voted for the guy who’s kicking them, is pointless at best and childishly vindictive at worst.
9
@Warren
Exactly. We want justice for their actions that put all our lives at risk while deriding us. I’m sick of their attacks against socialism shooting down discussion.
If they don’t want socialism start living it. Government doesn’t need to help them period. No more welfare, no infrastructure, nothing. I don’t want to support such people with my taxes from my blue state period.
39
Some years ago the USA approached Canada to renegotiate a water treaty where a river flowed through both countries. The USA wanted to take a larger percentage of the water than the treaty allowed.
The Canadian negotiators suggested comparing the infrastructure between the two countries. In Canada it was maintained. In the USA the infrastructure was not maintained, valves were rusty and leaked water, canals leaked water and the banks were collapsing. The polite suggestion from the Canadian negotiators was to come back when you have cleaned up and repaired your infrastructure.
Apparently you haven't.
If you are reliant on canals, etc. for irrigation it makes a great deal of sense to take care of those canals. Of course the same thing applies to roads, bridges, airports, public buildings...
146
Conservative Farmers: “Climate change is a liberal hoax to distract us from the child labor camps on Mars! Follow the Q breadcrumbs, people!”
Also conservative farmers: “Hey, where’d all this hail, flooding, and drought come from?”
43
I guess the Midwestern farmers couldn’t stand of their financial success under the Obama administration and they couldn’t bear the thought of Hillary Clinton who actually had the intelligence, demeanor, experience and interest in making investments in infrastructure. And who knew how to deal with China and all of our allies. You know, all that boring stuff that actually makes the country worK so that we can do business and prosper.
But, instead they voted for the chaos of a “trade wars are easy to win” and climate denying GOP candidate in Donald Trump.
But his Twitter Feed triggering overreacting progressives sure is “amusing”. At least you got that to hold onto. Right?
83
And to think, Hillary actually lived in Arkansas. Her husband lived there, was born there and was governor. Instead of Hillary, the farmers bet on Trump, who has never left the comfort triangle of (973) 912-4439, Bedminster and Palm Beach. Low info voters. Change your GOP Senators, Governors and Representatives...and pay higher taxes. Then we can discuss.
12
The population of Nebraska is about 2 million while the population of Wyoming is about half a million. Each of these states gets the same number of senators as California with its 40 million residents and my state, NY, with its 20 million residents. That means that each resident of Wyoming has 80 times as much political power as each resident of California and 40 times as much political power as me. Both of these states voted for Trump. Why don't these farmers use their enormous and disproportionate political power to solve their problems? What have the residents of these privileged "taker states" ever done for the residents of my state? Life is hard for these elitist, well-connected farmers? Cry me a river.
242
@David
no farms, no food !
3
@David Thank you for stating the truth about disproportionate political power.
40
@David
Have you ever read the Constitution of the United States, David? If you had you would realize it is in Article One that Framers give each state proportional representation in only ONE chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives.
Have you ever read American History? If you had David you would understand that it was divided this way because small states (Delaware, New Hampshire, Georgia, New Jersey) would not have ratified the constitution without such a provision. Nor would most of the Plains states and many of the Rocky Mountain states without such a proviso petitioned to become states.
A rather awkward state of affairs if you ever intended to connect California with New York, Florida to Texas. Finally, if you ever do get to reading about American History you will discover those Founding Fathers we were taught to revere with knee jerk enthusiasm absolutely despised and feared democracy. They considered it government by mob.
Therefore, they created a Republic--a government that checks and limits democracy, intentionally. With a Senate that give disproportional votes to minor states; with judges who are appointed, not voted for and an Electoral College that has stolen the presidency from the democratically elected candidate twice already since the year 2000.
You live in a Republic, Dave. That's the problem. Farmers are not your enemy, and hopefully, you are not theirs.
7
We know that Trump doesn't believe in Climate Change as a viable solution to this type of a problem. The only other solution available to Trump, that he knows will work, is a $12 to $16B farm aid bill. After all, Trump has to maintain he core voters. But this isn't socialism, its capitalism. Fortunately, the middle, and poor, can use the savings from the Trump tax bill to offset the rising cost of food. The Trump presidency has all of the answers money can buy.
9
@Dan O What savings from the Trump tax bill? I had to pay an additional tax payment equivalent to a month's mortgage payment this year. And also decrease my withholding allowance so now I take home less than I did in 2017. Any meager tax savings people might have had are swallowed up in increased costs for food, appliances, housing and cars, due to the Trump tariffs and trade wars. Trump is laughing with his corporate fat cat buddies as they continue to the middle and poor Americans.
11
Lord knows I come from dirt
I'm gonna sell my farm before I lose my shirt.
Heading out for the city
You know I don't mind getting gritty.
I'll just tell them where I come from
Hard working till the day I'm done.
Show 'um all I have for the U.S.A.
Where I wouldn't have it any other way.
Lord knows I come from dirt
I'm gonna sell my farm before I lose my shirt.
Never forgetting where I'm from.
With a song or two to fill my heart
You know I've been blessed from the start
10
Seems like these farmers are more vulnerable than many others, perhaps they should have wind farms and not beans and corn.
17
Here is NASA’s former lead climate scientist James Hansen, from a 2012 TED Talk
“An important impact, if global warming continues, will be on the breadbasket of our nation and the world, the Midwest and Great Plains, which are expected to become prone to extreme droughts, worse than the Dust Bowl, within just a few decades, if we let global warming continue. . . causing massive famines and economic decline.”
https://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change/transcript?language=en
37
Here's the effect of years and years of Republican mismanagement of our nation's critical infrastructure. Trickle down is literally not going to trickle down. Get used to it, especially if you live in states like Nebraska and Wyoming where Republicans have been dominant for decades.
40
@Perry Brown
So Clinton and Obama and Tom Daschle and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are in no way responsible for this fiasco?
I'm a Democrat but let's not pretend this is created by Republicans alone.
1
Here we go again! The federal government stepping in to save the red states who hate the federal government, and hate any taxes. Of course Wyoming and Nebraska can't afford to fix the problem themselves (sounds like Puerto Rico?), so the taxes from the those blue states will fix it for them.
65
I will absolutely vote for a Democratic primary candidate that calls these people out for the hypocritical, ignorant failures that they are. It's high time that their gravy train has run it's course, and they have to line up jobs in businesses that are actually viable. And for crying out loud- I never want to hear this region referred to as the "heartland" ever again.
These people have been pandered to enough. Basta.
56
Farmers have to know that climate change is real. They're already living with the consequences of it.
So why did they vote for Trump?
Farmers- Trump is incompetent and doesn't give a hoot about you (as you probably have noticed by now). If you want to preserve your livelihood and the planet, please do not vote for Trump in 2020.
33
Can we please have a pipeline network for water throughout this country? It's always raining far too much in one place, and not enough in another. All that upper midwestern flooding has killed the beaches of Mississippi this summer and is terribly damaging to the oyster industry at the delta as well.
But what if we could capture that water? Send it where it was needed instead of letting it cause more destruction? The problem is, no one will make money off this deal, but it's the kind of infrastructure that would add stability to all of our water problems.
13
@Tallulah The problem is climate changed caused by global disregard and waste. The energy costs to make such a system, as measured by emissions, would be enormous. Because we in USA and the world have done little to prevent this problem, we are left with this approach - learn to live with the consequences of our inactions.
5
Farming is a risky business. For years farmers have benefited from actions by the Federal government while electing politicians who try to trash it. Here's an example of reality catching up to their politics and biting them. They'll make out one way or another. No time for tears for them. Either they'll leave the farm or more likely, in a self-serving gesture, Trump will find funds for them to survive temporarily, taking money from somewhere. Maybe there's a poor children's health fund he could raid.
41
@blgreenie
"Maybe"?
You can bet the farm that he will find a way to raid whatever he wants.
3
A shortage of water will be compounded by a poisoned Ogallala Aquifer from fracking. Frackers pump poisons deep into the ground. It has to go somewhere.
47
I have a difficult time understanding why Farmers are not leading the fight, against Climate Change. After all, they will be among the first, and worst, affected. Please help me to understand, I am on your side, and from a long line of small farmers on both sides of my Family. I am grateful for the back-breaking, all consuming work Farmers do, to feed us all.
Thank you.
100
Now we'll see whether Trump has your back.
For myself, I expect great posturing:
Chin out and up, thumbs up. Lights, camera!
But serious action? Not so much.
21
I bet Trump’s buddies, who own private farm corporations, are giving each other high-fives’s, as they will soon get to scoop these century-old-family farms up for cheap; paid for with their new tax-cuts!
69
I would like to understand this better.
It is not black and white- a term I hate btw.
What happens to our country when we lack these particular
goods ?
Why do they plant water hungry crops when this area is a desert ?
Can you tell the story through the eyes of the farmer ? Really look at why these fixed models of operation continue to exist when we have so much knowledge ?
Can we have a columnist or two who is a farmer ?
Surely these types of short essays inform but for me they lack understanding. I welcome more information and conversation.
11
I hope the Wyomingites and Nebraskans who voted in great numbers for the hateful and pitiless man who occupies the White House think twice in 2020.
He dismisses out of hand and mocks any suggestion that there's a human role in the degradation of their lifeblood- the climate. Then their overwhelming choice for President starts a trade war with Wyomingites and Nebraskans as cannon fodder.
Sure, he cut the taxes, but they're awfully hard to pay when your livelihood is destroyed while he and his friends sit on piles of cash.
Question: do they actually think he cares about them?
38
@Jack Haggerty
Many of these farmers were prone to take the easy way out in the past; poisonous chemicals, lack of proper soil conservation. It worked for them over the decades. It is now coming for them. I hope they understand that Trump is hoping that they will bite again and vote for him because he is telling them that he knows how to make them rich again, the easy way.
3
I feel bad for the farmers personally; I feel bad about the hike in food prices that is ahead of us.
But I feel irate that no one ever seems to vote for the people who'd fix the infrastructure, raise the taxes to do so. While the farmers are waiting to find a solution for the centuries old infrastructure the government once built, the folks in Washington are cutting spending, eliminating oversight in departments like Agriculture, and just basically letting things collapse.
The state votes 58% GOP and if you add in the Libertarians (motto: you made your bed, you lie in it) it is over 60%. You drown government in a bathtub and some things are gonna go away. Like your land and livelihood.
Washington needs to wise up, and fix our failing systems. But for all that, voters need to wise up and demand it.
39
Remember the Dust Bowl? Environmental mismanagement on a grand scale, no water, hubris? Back again.
23
Reagan said the worst thing people can ever hear is 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help' and they believe it out there in the heartland. People in that part of our country will always vote low-tax/small government while cashing their subsidy checks and scoffing at us in California, where we move massive rivers of water everyday from Mt Shasta to Los Angeles. Watch them vote Republican again. They're incorrigible and will never change, but the levees and tunnels FDR built back in the 'socialist' New Deal era won't last forever. The Germans have a word for my feelings about this but I don't know how to spell it.
33
@george Schadenfreude? Joy at another's sorrow.
13
They don't need water or to even bother growing crops this year. Trump is buying farmers with a welfare check. Let's see, first they get taxpayer paid crop insurance, taxpayer paid subsidies on the crops they grow and now tariff welfare checks. Mr. Busch says he can't survive with no salary. Try working off the farm and you will quickly see there are no welfare checks when things go bad.
23
I'm astonished to read all of the derisive and even gloating comments here, especially the ones which exhort these hard working farmers 'to pack up, & get a real job.' If they did so, I wonder how the commenters would feel when their grocery bills skyrocketed. I suppose that what would really suit them is more & more factory farms owned by foreign multi-nationals, & worked by undocumented migrants. Food, like clean water, is not only necessary to support life, but is a national security issue. During the two great wars of the last century, America's fertile farmland
& relative geographic isolation at the time helped save it from the widespread starvation & food shortages found elsewhere. Hanging on to the ability to produce food is pretty essential to the survival of any country.
7
@C.H.
After three straight years of Nuremberg-like political rallies, racial insults directed towards cities and after two years of punitive tax measures directed towards Blue States, I'm surprised there is any pity at all given to red states. Personally, I feel bad for any American let down by his or her government, be it state, local or federal. There is, however, a place for reminding people of their extreme foolishness in rejecting science, in espousing smaller and smaller government in the face of an increasingly complex world and for electing divisive, insulting, corrupt and irrational political leaders.
61
Too much hate and snarkiness in this comment section. I hope these farmers and their families get the relief they need. I also hope that upon receiving aid some families start to ask critical questions about their circumstances and vulnerabilities. I’m sending good vibes to the Midwest and you too.
12
Pray tell how do you send ‘good vibes’?
5
@Bob Kavanagh Thoughts and prayers. That's the standard GOP response. Apparently to the GOP, that's all that is needed.
12
Instead of abortion, race, or wars in the Middle East, the Midwest should be looking for competent leadership who will address their drainage issues and infrastructure failings.
15
18 million to fix the canal? Is that all? That is what Trump wants to spend every two days to build a useless wall. Or what GW Bush spent every 4 hours on his calamity in Iraq.
47
It doesn't matter to farmers. Their hero Trump will just hand them more money.
18
Why does every issue have to become so politically charged? Read the article, and then read these polarizing comments. Only our enemies benefit from us constantly being at each other’s throats in this country.
“Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now”- Chet Powers
Think about that the next time you are about to rant about one of your fellow countryman… everybody.
3
@Scott Forbes - I'm sorry but I don't know how to love someone who poisons my air and water, jeopardizes my health care and retirement and demonizes my gay friends and my bi-racial grandchildren.
12
I'd be happy for this news if it didn't mean we'd just shuttle some more subsidies their way anyways. Because the only Americans that deserve welfare are the ones in rural areas of red states for this administration.
14
@Andrew
Possibly require the farm recipients of socialistic welfare should stand in line at the welfare office and their checks should so state.
4
Washington cares nothing for these farmers yet the majority blindly follow them because they can stop one abortion. You know what, I don’t care if your crops die. You voted to follow a
man who thinks Central Park is the great outdoors.
43
That communist inspired co-op tunnel and taxes will ruin the country. See?
24
trump will give you more of our tax money. do any of these people ever think ahead? the last thing you should do is pray for rain, god is busy creating all this havoc. how about getting a bunch of native americans to do a rain dance.
7
Whiskey's for drinking, water's for fighting.
5
Hmmm... infrastructure requires a substantial tax investment. For the past couple of decades, our taxes have been funding foreign wars instead. How is China able to fund all of their foreign wars yet still continue to expand their infrastructure? Oh, wait....
31
Welcome to the climate change present. We can only expect more of the same in the future.
23
@Nathan
Due to the momentum in Earth’s energy system and climate the ride has barely begun.
4
Let me guess, there’s a history of deferred maintenance on the tunnel because, drum roll, it would require taxes.
92
@Patrick - why guess when the article said: "The tunnels and canals, though old, were maintained regularly and had performed for generations with few major problems. Elected irrigation officials in both states oversee management of the canal system, which was built by the federal government."
7
@b fagan
There is maintenance and there is supposed maintenance. Obviously some problems were developing and were missed.
3
This is sad. Let's be honest, we are being let down by our governments priorities. No matter whether left or right, we all know that. We need to make this country work for all. I hope these poor folks contact their representatives in the state and federal government.
10
Climate change? What climate change says the man who has his house or fields under water? “I’ll stick with Trump” they repeat over and over again. And why not? He pays them. Talk about socialism....seems to me they are the poster child for it.These people don’t worry about the country, least of all do they worry about their children or grandchildren. I don’t want to see these people on tv or read about them.
48
100 year old irrigation tunnel? We don't need no stinkin infrastructure. We need tax cuts for the 0.1% and a wall on the southern border.
349
The irony of it all.
The trade war was started by the guy most popular in these states- Donald J Trump.
The altered climate that ravages their farming business has been denied by a generation of Republican politicians sent to D.C. from these very states and their guy in the White House.
The price supports, FEMA money and other government aid they clamor for is the very government socialism that their favored Republican Party howls against.
Out in that part of the world is the myth of the self-made man but they often get their electricity from rural electric cooperatives set up under FDR, get price supports created under the Agriculture policy of FDR, have landline and cell phone service because of universal service funds that are a form of socialism. The guy in the picture is wearing the shirt of the socialist institution called the University of Nebraska- owned and subsidized by the public via the state government.
I could sit back and enjoy the schadenfreude, but these are our fellow citizens. Hopefully, they will wake up and elect people to the House, Senate and White House that take these issues seriously.
197
@David Gregory
David, do you by any chance grow your own food.
Perhaps you would like to try doing so sometime. The American farmer has for decades helped feed the world, in addition to his own people, and these vicious remarks are all he gets for it?
You should try farming. It is the toughest and riskiest job in the world.
7
Mexican day labor feeds the world. American farmers once did that, but recently all they seem to do is collect federal subsidies, complain about poor 4G reception as they sit in their air-conditioned Deere cabs, and buy a lot of F150s and MAGA hats.
And if you think being a farmer in the good ol' USA is the toughest and riskiest job in the world, you must not have seen much of the world.
43
@Ron Howell
There are many kinds of "American Farmer".
One kind just owns the land and sublets it to others who plant, tend and harvest.
Another uses unwise chemical agriculture that is destroying the soil, depleting the groundwater and introducing gene-modified plants into nature.
Another uses old fashioned methods in smaller boutique farms producing niche products.
Still others have adopted forms based upon best practices and respect for the soil like Singing Frogs Farm in California. The productivity of the farm and condition of the soil compared to the industrial agricultural methods speaks for itself.
I do not disrespect those who farm but wonder about how so many of them could be so shortsighted and support the GOP and Trump.
In case you did not notice, at the end I made the comment that these are our fellow citizens- implying sympathy for their plight and hoping they wake up politically.
23
Too bad, maybe they’ll stop voting for ignorant Republic candidates that refuse to acknowledge science AND facts.
39
The best part is they won’t need immigrants to pick their crops. Trump delivered.
107
Trump voters.
27
We move a giant river of water from Mt. Shasta to Los Angeles everyday in California. But we pay the high taxes every year to maintain a world class water system . Americans in that part of the country scoff at us. Ronald Reagan told them that the worst thing they could ever hear is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help". And they believed every word. They still do. Watch them vote straight Republican again. The sad thing is that all of the problems documented in this article can only by solved either by smart government trade policies or by massive infrastructure like what was built during the depression and is now decaying. It was all built by FDR's hated 'socialist' government.
318
@george
The Reclamation Act - and the big Federal water projects it created - predated FDR by decades. It was signed into law by Teddy Roosevelt, not FDR.
6
This tunnel collapse affects the paltry agricultural output of the Nebraska panhandle, a pretty barren place even when the canal flows. How many other weak links like this exist? E.g., what if the tunnels bringing water to Denver or Albuquerque collapsed?
10
It might finally be time to build that pipeline. Except, instead of filthy, disgusting, crude oil, this pipeline will take water from the places with too much of it to the places with not enough of it. And in coming years we will have plenty of both of those to worry about. The good news? If and when my pipeline breaks (because they ALL do), you don't need to clean a thing. Just let it dry.
18
I was going to comment, but all of you good, forward-thinking people with a sense of history said it all.
Now, if only we can get our stupid kids to pull out their earbuds and go to the polls.....
38
I wonder if Democrats could target specific infrastructure to help farmers, we might win a few votes in 2020, perhaps winning the Senate. Beats complaining about how we don't agree with their views about climate changes and politics!
20
@Kim
Democrats are in the Minority in the Senate so they cannot put forward any legislation.
15
Some pretty harsh words for these folks. Yes, they are dependent on government built infrastructure, government crop support and they may have voted for Trump. But, they're still human beings with a problem to be solved.
16
@Peter Tobias
Lots of human beings have problems to be solved. Some of those human beings support racism and hatred. Some don't. I'm happy to support those who don't.
26
As a fellow human being trying to make it in this world I typically have empathy for others. However, my patience with Trump supporters has run dry. Good luck to you but not one cent to bail you out.
Maybe someday when you decide the climate is something we should address and that perhaps the ultra wealthy don't have a "god given right" to amass fortunes beyond comprehension, we can talk.
26
@Peter Tobias
They could vote blue in 2020 but I doubt they will.
11
These farmers need help and yet Washington has no time for anything except tax breaks for themselves and rounding up immigrants. We will rue the day we let American farms go under.
26
These are climate and infrastructure problems that farmers are facing and which Republicans have done nothing but deny and un-fund on a national level. If they don't change their thinking, things will only get worse.
27
Meanwhile, on the southern border we are using DOD budget money to build A Wall, solely for political purposes.
40
Maybe it's time for these farmers to move, and join the economic migration to places where there are more/better jobs. And reliable sources of water.
17
@MH - so how many acres of wheat will they grow in your home? We're the third most-populated country in the world and all our three squares don't grow themselves.
7
@MH
Then they'd have to pay taxes instead of cashing government subsidy checks
16
And they don't pick themselves either, but you and yours scream to get rid of the people doing the work.
11
they need to pull up their bootstraps and deal with it.....no handouts...these people are the first to condem government...and take all the credit for themselves.....that government financed tunnel is funded by taxes...but these people cry about any such tax let alone a tax increase....these farmers get to do what they do because the rest of the country and other nations buy these products......but they want no responsibility for the infrastructure that supports them......deal with it......
34
And what do you eat? How will you live without butter, bread, corn, sugar, wheat, beans, fruits and vegetables? Without agriculture in the US you will starve
2
@Cathy Odom - I have relatives in Nebraska. They're growing corn and soybeans down there not fruit and vegetables.
10
Sorry to say I'm gratified that these misadventures are at least falling on those who voted for those who caused them or refuse to acknowledge the cause and fight them.
Chickens roosting at home, they say.
93
"The Democrats all pay for our direct farmers subsidies and our states (via federal funding), and I'm sure they'll pay again to bail us out from this, but hey, MAGA!"
34
There has to be a way to reclaim flood water from one river then replenish the aquifers in drier parts of the country.
We really need a national, transcontinental water train. Pick up water at point A and bring it to point B...
8
@Aaron And a national electrical grid that maximizes the use of renewables so we can stop fighting wars in places that have oil but hate America. Imagine that. But none of that will happen because the representatives who have these ideas are socialists and should "go back to their country."
11
So, a federally built irrigation canal collapses, which is over 100 years old and no one is fixing it? A temporary repair is being done but that is it? What has happened to the U.S.'s infrastructure? It continues to fall apart and the U.S. federal government continues to ignore the problem. Oh, yet these farmers probably voted for Trump who has made their lives incredibly hard due to the tariff war between the U.S. and China. And, chances are, they would vote for him again. I feel for them, but they have voted for someone who could care less about them, will let them sink financially instead of keeping his promise, one of many, to rebuild America's infrastructure.
58
Before the great American water project of the American Depression, the area between the Missouri River and the Rockies was (and still is) a desert. It was only the FDR Water project that turned that are into a lush agricultural area. The collapse of the irrigation canal should be a loud warning to those farmers that they can't fight nature forever. Kendall Bush would not be in business growing his waterhog crops except for two things 1) virtually free government water and 2 Government price support payments. They are mostly rich "welfare farmers" who would be bankrupt without government payments. They are mostly conservative Republican who survive only because of what amount to welfare.
360
@Jeff Now, now. These guys are white. It's not "welfare". It's "subsidies", "price supports", and plenty of other bland euphemisms.
378
@Jeff
Not only that, but the federally-funded interstate highway system (much fought against by fiscal conservatives before it was built) gets crops to vendors quickly and efficiently.
104
@Jeff Yup, govt definitely has had a huge hand in making industrial success... and while many recipients hate the hands that feed them (and their businesses) as "socialism." Anyone explain the origins of their biz models? Like land grants key to their hardworking (yes) legacies?
15
Keep voting for global climate change because since it doesn't exist, might as well support a candidate who says he supports you: Except for tariffs, lifting environmental laws, limiting workers who can come, helping to dumb down education.....yep, you just go and do what you're doing - after all, it's all worth it because of them darned migrants and people of color, although you're not racists and neither is the president.
48
The other day the Times published an op-Ed asking why anyone would still admire Theodore Roosevelt.
THIS is why we still admire great (but flawed) people like TR. Our current president is more interested in stoking twitter wars with black people and ignorantly posing in front of fake presidential seals than in doing anything useful.
TR would be fixing our infrastructure. He'd be out in the West, taking names, getting things done. He'd be the smartest guy in the room, the one laying out the plans to make things better AND getting the right people to go along. Our nation is in decline precisely because people like him are in short supply in the positions where they're needed.
136
Dear farmers: I promise that no matter how much you are hurting, Donald Trump doesnt actually care about you and he never will. Stop being his suckers, turn off Fox News, and vote for the only party that cares about working people and sustainability. I promise it wont hurt you as bad as four more years of corporate hegemony in Washington.
407
@AJ
Many are 2nd and 3rd generation farmers who know better (most have degrees in Ag-business, crop science, water management...)but the culture is so ingrained they refuse to believe differently. They know their state representatives and congressional representatives can't bring them "more water" even though that is the tried-and-true campaign promise; They rant against socialism while taking crop insurance and water subsidies and hate 'liberals'.
How-do-I-know? I live in Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy territory and hear it every two years.
118
Climate change doesn't exist, and slashes to all government funding for everything, including infrastructure.
It's always hard to watch communities to lose their livelihoods, but Republicans "don't believe on picking winners & losers."
Watch Trump allocate more billions in bailouts for his base.
67
@Citizen60
On top of the $28 billion he shipped off to BIG AG to off-set his tariff war losses....?
Nice that $100’s of millions of those Tax dollars are going to Brazilian billionaires.
13
@Blank
Gives them the money they need to go in and cut down those rain forests, right?
3
I did read that this particular tunnel had been maintained. And we will see, eventually, what's up, why it went bye-bye. But the general concept remains: we neglect our infrastructures at our own peril. It's easy to delay or ignore infrastructure for a while, but the reality is: that which is physical ages. We take so very much for granted. We will pay, in the end, in every case.
37
@bill (Stating the obvious can be tiresome, I appreciate that!)
3
This is a problem created by Republicans who couldn’t be bothered to fund critical infrastructure projects. We have been told for decades that we need to drop roads, bridges, pipes, etc.
109
@Rojo: These poor abused farmers always vote for the most conservative Republicans. They don't expect that when they demand reduction of federal welfare that they mean themselves.
100
Mr Trump: Whatever happened to that promised infrastructure bill? Most of Nebraska is white. I thought that would at least get you moving....
251
@Pb of DC He would rather build the wall on the Southern Border instead of help actual Americans.
32
We get what we vote for - locally and nationally.
156
Just remember: Trade wars are easy to win, climate change is fake news, and infrastructure isn't nearly as important as racism.
Trump 20/20
556
@bob
No people on Earth have ever built better canals, dams and walls longer than the Chinese.
Making America great again leads straight to letting China do it.
The Trump Organization builds golf courses, vacation resorts, hotels and office buildings that are of little use in Wyoming and Nebraska.
25
@bob
' Behold I am against thee sayeth the Lord of Hosts. And the sword shall devour thy young lions. And thy messengers shall no longer be heard'.
' And God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water the fire next time.'
5
This should be no surprise to anyone.
61
@Sherarae
Time for another Infrastructure Week
27