Texas Farmers in Panic as Workers Vanish Overnight Now Trump Voters Are Losing Their Farms

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Just read this morning that Texas farmers are closing down because they can't find laborers to work their fields. Are you telling me white people can't sorry, excuse me, won't work in the fields? Hey, all of you who thought they were taking your jobs, accepting applications now, >> this woman here, mountain farm owner, struggles to find workers as immigration enforcement tightens. It's It's just been harder and harder and harder to find those people to work.

[00:00:31]>> Bethany Gots owns Quay's Farm in Mountain Home. But now with fewer workers, a lot of the manual labor is left up to her. She tells me she's tried hiring locally, but it's been difficult to find people willing to do the hard work.

[00:00:45]>> Finding a legal American here that is going to work as hard as an immigrant is nearly impossible.

[00:00:53]>> She even posted job openings on Facebook. I had seven people contact me about it and when I sent them the description, I had no people respond.

[00:01:01]>> She says hiring undocumented workers is not an option with serious risks for both sides.

[00:01:07]>> One, you're going to get fined. You're going to you have a unfortunately an employee living in fear. They could get picked up at any any moment and then you're without an employee.

[00:01:17]>> To keep her farm running, Gots is hiring high schoolers and is now looking into the federal H2A visa program. I have endeavored to spend $200,000 to build a small small worker housing so that I can get H2 workers next year.

[00:01:32]>> Got hopes for long-term solutions that support both farmers and workers.

[00:01:36]>> The misnomer that farmers exploit immigrants is just so sad to me because like I said, my friends and neighbors, we love our workers. They're a family and they want to work and they will work hard and there needs to be a path for these people in our country because our government has failed them and it is failing I feel the farmers >> and I'm never going to do anything to hurt our farmers and you can also say the leisure business etc. There are some businesses where you have a disproportionate amount of people that are the people that you're talking about. At the same time, we have to get the criminals out of our country. And we're looking at doing something where uh in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire and let them have responsibility because we can't put the farms out of business. And at the same time, we don't want to hurt people that aren't criminals. Most of the people that came in over the last three years under Biden, I would say probably three and a half to four years, uh, those people, you have a lot of criminals, you have a lot of, I mean, we're looking at that very closely.

[00:02:42]You've had people that have worked on farms for 20 years. It's very hard to go in there and say, you know, you're you're coming out, but we're going to let the farmers take responsibility.

[00:02:52]They're great people.

[00:02:57]>> It's all gone.

[00:02:59]Everything is gone.

[00:03:06]The pool, the brewery, the bar.

[00:03:10]Mama's house is effed. This one is no better. Um Everyone's alive. That's what matters.

[00:03:31]Everyone's alive.

[00:03:55]Texas farms shut down after almost 100 of workforce vanishes overnight.

[00:04:06]>> Dozens of Texas farms shut down overnight. Why? Because 100% of the workforce has vanished. It's not a mystery. They haven't gone missing.

[00:04:16]They've left because of immigration raids and policies that treat the people that grow our food, even the ones with work permits, like criminals.

[00:04:26]No workers means no harvest. Do you think food's expensive now? Just wait.

[00:04:32]And this isn't just a Texas issue. It's your dinner table, your kids school lunch, your grocery bill, your local farmers market. Do you want America first? Well, guess what? America just ran out of farm workers. And it turns out crops don't pick themselves. We've arrested, detained, or deported the workforce. And now we don't have enough food. There aren't enough people to take care of the livestock either. Guess what? Cows don't feed themselves.

[00:05:01]Chickens can't clean their own pens and then they get sick and they die and there goes your milk, your eggs, and your cheeseburger. This is what happens when we let people write policy who haven't worked a day in their life, especially on a farm, but they never miss a steak dinner. We need migrant workers. We need labor protections for the migrant workers. If the workforce continues to disappear, so will all the food on your plates.

[00:05:33]>> Now they are crying. They They are crying. They are begging for help.

[00:05:39]Uh listen to what this one is saying.

[00:05:42]Farms are closing. That means >> Oh no. This is so sad.

[00:05:50]There are a bunch of white Texas farmers who are losing their farms right now because guess what? 100% of their work force vanish.

[00:06:05]Wow.

[00:06:07]So all those people you know who got eyes called on them, they were working on the farms. So now that they gone, they cannot sustain the farms.

[00:06:21]You know what's crazy about this video?

[00:06:23]Cuz I talked about this like two months ago when Trump brought over all these South Africaners um farm people where we find out that they were not really even um farmers.

[00:06:38]And I was talking about this and found out that a few of our dear white farmers here had started losing their farms because of promises that were made to them and was not kept by this administration.

[00:06:56]So now it's trickling down to some other farmers because now their workforce they're gone. And I was seeing somewhere where somebody came over and it was a Caucasian man. and he came over from Twitter and he was like, "Y'all, a lot of these um farmers, white farmers, they thought that black people were going to come and work for their farms.

[00:07:23]There's a lot going on in this country right now. you know, us heading into possibly World War II, but this is this is a conversation just to kind of talk about right now that um people are kind of seeing um the I guess what's what's the word? I can't even find the word, but the decisions that they made, they are coming back to hunt them. Let's just say that.

[00:07:49]So, sorry to hear this, but yeah. So I do hope that some of these Native Americans that did lost their lands that they do get back some of these forms that were being lost.

[00:08:06]So uh most of the white people thought that black farmers they'll come back and work at their farms. And remember Trump deported them.

[00:08:19]It caused them illegal immigrants. Yet they were they were supporting the economy. Now no one to work at the farm.

[00:08:29]So that means everything is going to skyrocket. The groceries, everything.

[00:08:37]So they are blaming Trump for what's happening.

[00:08:43]There's a there's a critter here. She's saying that she doesn't care about those one who are liberating, why they voted for for Trump, why they are facing labor shortage.

[00:08:58]Let us hear what she's saying >> regarding all these farmers that are now crying about possibly losing their farms because they voted for Trump. This is why you absolutely should not feel bad for any of these farmers that voted for Trump. Now, the ones that didn't vote, yes, feel sorry for them. Go support them. Do whatever you need to do. But the ones that voted for Trump, do not feel sorry for them. And let me tell you why. I am a builder and I've been building shit in Oklahoma City going on like 20 years now. And farmers are not stupid. If you have the ability to manage a farm and understand the weather, the climate, your machinery, the chemistry that goes into your crops, you are not a stupid person. You're just not. And especially when you come from generational farming, you have the ability to look ahead and predict what you need to survive. And so when you have two candidates where you have Kla Harris on one side giving you a whole fucking list of shit that she's going to do for you and make your life better and then you have Trump on the other side who can't even come out with a normal sounding sentence and you still vote for that guy and you are a farmer, you are either racist or sexist or both. And they're only crying now because now they are being treated exactly how they voted for other people to be treated.

[00:10:24]Got that? They are being treated how they voted for other minorities, people of color, everybody else, poor people, sick people. That's how they voted for other people to be treated. And now they're the ones being treated that way by losing their livelihood, their homes, their income, their farms. So do not feel sorry for them. This is exactly what they had coming.

[00:10:51]>> This is breaking news. Texas farmers are sounding the alarm on this tariff war.

[00:10:58]And in more breaking news, nobody cares. Yeah, I don't know if it's just me or uh maybe it's some of you too, but as far as farmers sending sounding the alarm, I don't care. I I have to admit I don't care at all because the last time Donald Trump was president, 100,000 farmers across the country lost their farms. Yeah. So overwhelmingly, farmers voted for this man again, knowing full well of his history the last time he was president. So from me to you farmers, I don't care. I don't care how bad things get for you. I don't care if you lose your farm. I don't care if you I don't care. At least I don't care to hear about it. I really don't because this is exactly what you voted for and you're going to get what you voted for.

[00:11:59]You're going to get four more years of Donald Trump not giving a damn about farmers whatsoever.

[00:12:08]So enjoy.

[00:12:12]It's Joe from Georgia. So this is uh news out of Texas. But folks, these are alarm bells ringing for the entire United States and our government is not listening. Uh overnight, multiple farms in the state of Texas completely shut down and the reason for this shutdown was because they have lost almost 100% of their workforce.

[00:12:40]Now, we know this this is the result of the immigration raids and stricter enforcement, but the ripple effect is going to be felt all the way across this country.

[00:12:52]Now, you've got crops that are rotting in the fields.

[00:12:58]You have livestock that is not being uh attended to at all. And that takes a lot of personnel and we're talking. So now we're getting every area of food to include meat and the communities that surround these farms, those businesses and those people who depend on the income from these farms.

[00:13:18]It's creating disasters for small communities in Texas.

[00:13:22]Now this is not stopping at Texas farms.

[00:13:26]This is going to end up all the way across America, especially in the bread basket, the middle of the nation because they have tons of immigrant help.

[00:13:36]But folks, the alarm bells are ringing.

[00:13:40]Your food on your plate is being affected.

[00:13:44]So, you got to think about it. Uh it won't be soon until either prices go ridiculously high or you just won't have any food to buy.

[00:13:57]>> Our farmers and agricultural producers do not want handouts. They really don't.

[00:14:02]The farmers come to my office a lot and they never they just sir, please just give us a level playing field. Others want more than that. They want everything. The farmers want a level playing field and it's I talk about it all the time. That's all they want.

[00:14:17]>> Farmers from across the valley meeting today searching for solutions as labor shortages continue to impact operations.

[00:14:25]One potential solution is a temporary visa program already used in other states. Dante Galatsi with the Texas International Produce Association says the H2A program may be the answer.

[00:14:38]>> Even the local crews and you model it here are getting smaller and smaller. So H2A is the future. Whe like it, love it or not, it's what we're going to have to learn to do.

[00:14:48]>> With immigration crackdowns tightening, the H2A program could become a crucial path forward. Our Jorge Vela was at that meeting and has this report. become a lot harder to try and like get uh big groups of people. You can certainly find people, but it's just going to be a lot smaller groups. Instead of seeing a group of 80 or 100 people, you're going to see groups of 40 or 30. So, just it's kind of just the scaling is different.

[00:15:11]>> Shortages in labor pools have forced Texas farmers to consider other options.

[00:15:16]Michael Davis from Techmex Sales recognizes the H2A program which brings in temporary foreign workers when US workers aren't available but cause it costly and complicated. And with harvest season fast approaching, there's growing concern. The only problem is that the prices and all that stuff, I just don't see how it can work in an area where uh you're not getting much bang for your buck. So, you're going to be paying out more and then you're going to be earning less. I don't see how it's going to work out in certain areas of the business.

[00:15:46]>> One of the main reasons why farmers are hesitant to adopt H2A is because they cannot afford the high wage rates. In Texas, that is over $15 per hour.

[00:15:56]>> I believe it's $1579 an hour. Plus, if you're in the H2A program, you have to provide free housing. You have to provide free daily transportation. You have to provide free transportation weekly to the store, to the bank, etc. You have to pay all the costs to get the workers here and all the costs to send them home.

[00:16:14]>> Black says that while the program offers a reliable workforce, the cost can add up, potentially pushing our expenses to 25 or even $30 per worker. And that's a challenge as Texas has seen a spike from nearly zero H2A workers a few years ago to over 13,000 today. The solution is we need Congress to pause the wage rate till we can uh develop a replacement wage rate that's in line with the market.

[00:16:40]>> While many farmers remain hesitant, others like Manise Karia and Hargill are embracing the change. Last week I was in Florida and I have seen STO workers. Uh they all say that and they are very happy with the productivity, the quality and uh you know overall you know progress of the company and the employers you know employees. It is good thing uh to go through the the formalities and uh make everything clean, transparent.

[00:17:09]>> Davis says he will continue looking into whether or not it's a good fit for his business. I myself am going to research more but hopefully who who knows in the future we will see >> working for you in mission I'm Havlla >> we're here we are here at the FAFO stage um this is really bad um and if you appreciate my content please engage with this video I'm just going to read this to you multiple Texas farms shut down after almost 100% of workforce vanishes overnight In a stunningly swift overnight change, some Texas farm operations had to shut down after losing virtually all of their workforce. An exodus triggered by the increase in immigration raids and increased enforcement. The ripple effects of these raids are the gift that keeps on giving and will be felt nationwide. Unpicked crops are now left unh harvested. Livestock were left untended and rural economies are on edge. The story isn't just a tale of woe for Texas farms. It's a warning for American aggra business, food prices, and communities that keep food on our plates.

[00:18:21]I need you to share this with every Republican you know. And you don't even need to wait for their response. They just need to know what's happening. And this is part of my line of work. I deal with commercial farmers, including these small farmers, as clients. And I cannot tell you how this is the beginning of the complete collapse of our economy under this Project 2025 administration that doesn't know what they're doing.

[00:18:48]You talk about the immediate shuttering of farms because this is actually what's happening with the food with the harvest that are lying there completely rotting.

[00:19:00]That is a loss of food to local food distributors, local grocery stores, local uh restaurants, hospitals. They sell their harvest all sorts of vegetables to businesses. It gets even more alarming, much more alarming. In the South, which grows a significant portion of the fruits, vegetables, cotton, rice, and peanuts that Americans eat, nearly 80% of farmers cannot afford sufficient fertilizer. Eight out of 10 cannot do it. In the Northeast, 69% in the West, 66%. Even in the Midwest, the literal bread basket of America, pardon me, 48% cannot secure their full fertilizer needs. That's almost half. John Newton, the American Farm Bureau vice president of public policy and economic analysis, uh said after the survey, and I quote, "These results speak pretty clearly that we have got a challenge out in the countryside in terms of farmers being able to afford the fertilizer that they need at this critical juncture in the planting season."

[00:20:17]That's a direct quote. I want you to notice his framing of this because it's important. He did not say some farmers are struggling. That's not what he said.

[00:20:27]He said we have a challenge in the countryside.

[00:20:33]The entire thing, this is institutional language from a major agriculture organization acknowledging that something genuinely significant is happening. Now, let me get specific if I can about which crops are most affected.

[00:20:52]uh because this is where it becomes very real in your grocery cart and that's what we need to focus on. More than 80% of rice, cotton and peanut producers say they cannot afford all the fertilizer required uh for this season. More than 80% said this. These crops are grown overwhelmingly in the south and southeast, the region with both the highest fertilizer unaffordability and the lowest rate of pre-booking.

[00:21:22]What does this mean in practical, you know, terms that anybody can understand? Rice is in your pantry. It's in your sushi.

[00:21:32]It's in your baby food. Peanuts are in your peanut butter. Obviously, uh, cotton affects the food processing industry through cottonseed oil. These are not peripheral crops. These are staples. They are super important. And then there's corn. Yeah, corn costs approximately $5 a bushel to produce right now. The USDA projects it will sell for $420.

[00:22:03]Even if you don't do math, you know that doesn't work. Okay, farmers are losing 80ents on every single bushel of corn that they grow. Then there's soybeans.

[00:22:15]Soybeans uh cost $1227 per bushel to produce and are expected to sell for, here's the math again, $10.30.

[00:22:26]That's another loss. Farm Bureau President Zippy Duval called this generational headwinds for American agriculture at a press briefing on April 14th. He has been in agriculture for decades. That is not language that he would ever use casually.

[00:22:46]Now I want to make sure uh that you understand that this fertilizer crisis is landing on an agriculture sector that was already under extraordinary I mean just mind-boggling financial stress before any of this happened.

[00:23:04]So you're just layering problems here.

[00:23:07]Today, US farm debt in 2026 uh is projected to reach a record 624.7 billion with a B according to the USDA. That is not farm assets. That's not the assets. That is farm debt. Record high. just uh the interest expenses alone are expected to reach $33 billion this year, which is also a record. Farm bankruptcies uh chapter 12 filings, which are the specific form of bankruptcy for family farms, surged 46% in 2025 to 315 filings, the second consecutive year of increases. In the Midwest, bankruptcies rose 70%.

[00:24:04]In Arkansas, the largest number in any single state. Farmade, the nonprofit organization that has tracked uh the farm economy for decades, stated plainly in a recent report, "We are experiencing a new farm crisis."

[00:24:22]>> You see, the farmers are very happy.

[00:24:26]I think it's 25 million tons, but it's numbers that they've never seen before in terms of the soybeans and in terms of other things. Uh we have uh numbers coming to our farmers that the farmers have never seen before from China. Our farmers are very happy. I I suggest that they go out and buy larger tractors and more land. Okay? We want larger tractors and more land because nobody's ever seen anything like it. Guys, I was wrong and I can admit that. When people were saying that mass deportations would greatly affect farmers, I didn't actually think they were serious. They said that Americans were unwilling to do the jobs that immigrants do. And I just I didn't believe them. But this new video that I just saw proved me wrong.

[00:25:10]>> It's just been harder and harder and harder to find those people to work.

[00:25:13]>> Anthony Gots owns Quay's Farm in Mountain Home. But now with fewer workers, a lot of the manual labor is left up to her. She tells me she's tried hiring locally, but it's been difficult to find people willing to do the hard work. Finding a legal American here that is going to work as hard as an immigrant is nearly impossible.

[00:25:29]>> She even posted job openings on Facebook.

[00:25:30]>> I had seven people contact me about it and when I sent them the description, I had no people respond.

[00:25:35]>> I went ahead and found the job listing.

[00:25:36]She's offering $2 to $3,000 a month for full-time manual labor on a farm.

[00:25:42]>> She says hiring undocumented workers is not an option with serious risks for both sides.

[00:25:46]>> One, you're going to get fined. You're going to you have a unfortunately an employee living in fear. They could get picked up at any any moment in the year without an employee.

[00:25:53]>> To keep her farm running, Gots is hiring high schoolers and is now looking into the federal H2A visa program.

[00:25:58]>> I have endeavored to spend $200,000 to build a small small worker housing so that I can get H2 workers next year.

[00:26:04]>> This woman had $200,000 lying around that she could have used to pay some strapping young Idaho cornfed boys to do the manual labor on her farm, but instead built temporary housing for visa workers. I never thought I'd live to see the day where liberal media was telling people, "Are you unwilling to pay Americans a fair and decent living wage for hard manual labor? Just import a bunch of people to do it for way cheaper and then put them in a house and they can't go anywhere else cuz what other option do they have?" Man, I feel like there's a term for that, but I it's just slipping my mind.

[00:26:36]>> Serious farmers cannot find help since number 47 has either deported or scared everyone away. Even people who can work don't want to go work on a farm. Farmers have gotten screwed. Their fertil fertilizer is 40% higher. That's if they can even get it. Gas prices, aka diesel for them, is higher. They've been screwed with tariffs. They got screwed in their trade deal. They got a $12 billion bailout, but that didn't really do anything for them. Expect to dig in your pocket more for farmers. And yes, yes, a majority of them voted, not one time, not two times, but three times.

[00:27:17]And a majority of them still support this administration. I think it's really unfortunate that some people have to learn lessons extreme like this. I know I don't. Hit me on the head one time and I get it. How about you? Do you feel sorry for these farmers at this point?

[00:27:34]The nasty comments that I get, the nastiness of Trump supporters, they have really taken away my empathy, which is saying a lot. If you found this post informative, please like, comment, follow, and share for more.

[00:27:48]Multiple Texas farms shut down after almost 100% workforces vanish overnight.

[00:27:55]So, some Texas farm operations had to shut down after losing virtually all their workforce. an exodus triggered by the increase in immigration raids and increased law enforcement. The ripple effects of these raids are the gift that keeps on giving and and will be felt nationwide. And this goes for unpicked crops. So there's crops that are just sitting there that are now left unh harvested. And then also there's livestock.

[00:28:19]There's livestock that's gone unattended.

[00:28:22]And and this is this is hurting not only that I mean the the local economies where this is coming from, but I mean this is going to cause food prices to spike and then also it's going to cause food shortages.

[00:28:36]So this is another effect of Trump's stupid fucking raids. Again, he's not going after the criminals.

[00:28:47]He's going after these workers. These are workers that are working on the farms.

[00:28:55]They're attending to livestock. And now we're all going to feel it.

[00:29:00]And these businesses, these these farmers farmers are generally not liberals. They are fucking pissed. And a lot of them had to shut down. This is all because of Trump and his fucking racism.

[00:29:13]>> My name is Russell Baining. Uh my family and I farm right south of San Antonio.

[00:29:19]We're buying nitrogen right now and it's about 40% higher than it was, you know, 2 or 3 months ago before the conflict.

[00:29:30]Let's just say that.

[00:29:31]>> I'm Lance Libridge from Benton County, Iowa. We booked most of our fertilizer before the conflict in Iran. However, some of it we did not because it was too expensive. We're probably going to go without that particular nutrient on our crop this year. A lot of other farmers are doing the same thing.

[00:29:48]>> My name is Matt Frostic. I have a crop and livestock operation in Michigan. In January, we were looking at nitrogen for about $350 a ton. Today, that number is bouncing around $600. Steve Turner, I'm a farmer in northwest Illinois, located about 40 miles northwest of Springfield.

[00:30:08]We've got a lot of our inputs paid for, but I'm afraid we're going to be looking at some elevated prices for a while.

[00:30:14]There's people saying, "Well, there's 80% of the fertilizer has already been purchased for this year's crop." And we actually heard that figure from USDA.

[00:30:22]Even if 80%'s pre- purchased and the other 20% goes up 50% or or more, it can still be a pretty good hit for you.

[00:30:30]>> The reality is we're not breaking even.

[00:30:31]We didn't break even the last two years >> with the increases in the input prices.

[00:30:37]uh there are no margins. They they appear to be zero at this point.

[00:30:42]>> It's just not the fertilizer, it's going to be the fuel end of this thing. And I know, you know, everybody's experiencing that right now with the elevated fuel prices.

[00:30:49]>> You know, I I always say if if gas and diesel go up, if oil goes up, everything else is going to follow in some form or fashion. As fuel becomes expensive and it's hard to produce that crop or costs more to produce and and transport that crop, it all it all kind of equates to higher prices.

[00:31:08]>> So much of of growing a crop is out of our control and we can only manage certain things. When the prices of these inputs become so high, I it's gosh, what do we do? I don't know. And I don't think anybody's got a wonderful answer to it. Well, when it comes to policy, I mean, frustration might be a little bit of a strong word. There's maybe anxiety.

[00:31:30]Even before the conflict, you know, let's be honest about it. Tariffs have have caused the price of our inputs to increase. If you want to look at it from the 30,000 ft view, agriculture pretty much still trusts this administration. Uh, that's still what I hear.

[00:31:46]>> When you look at a straight hor, we've got to have shipments out of there. And I think anything whether it's our US Navy or or whatever it is to stabilize that region to get shipments out of there because we were already fighting record inflation and a price squeeze already and and this is just you know more on it right there. For more on the impact of this fertilizer shortage. We turn now to Caitlyn Welsh. She's the director of the global food and water security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

[00:32:15]Welcome back to the program. It's good to have you.

[00:32:17]>> Thanks for having me. So the straight of Hormuz has been closed now for longer than a month. How critical is it for global fertilizer supply?

[00:32:24]>> Very critical and for a number of reasons. First of all, because the Gulf is responsible for production of a significant amount of major fertilizer types um exporting uh being the top exporter of some major types of nitrogen fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer. The Gulf is also responsible for significant proportions of exports of inputs to fertilizers as well. liqufied national natural gas and sulfur and combine both the restrictions on exports to fertilizer and inputs to fertilizer has caused the price spikes we just heard about.

[00:32:54]>> Well, say more about that. What has it meant for prices and availability?

[00:32:58]>> Yeah, the prices of all fertilizers are increasing whether or not they're exported from the Gulf. Um and the prices of nitrogen-based fertilizer particularly um like some of the ones we just heard the the farmers reference. um one type of nitrogen fertilizer has increased by 45 to 50% month-on-month.

[00:33:16]And what that means for farmers right now, as you mentioned in the spring planting season, a lot of farmers are faced with high prices. Um some farmers, in fact, most farmers in the United States had already secured the fertilizer they needed for this planting season beforehand, but those who didn't who needed to uh to purchase fertilizer on global markets and were exposed to those high prices. When that happens, farmers have to make choices. they plant less crops, they apply less fertilizer or they switch the crops that they plant. All of those have long-term effects >> globally. What are the biggest risks if this disruption continues?

[00:33:47]>> So, biggest risks come in in two categories. One is risks from high fertilizer prices. Um and and that um those risks change depending on the time horizon of this war. Um the the nature of the countries affected uh and how they're affected changes. Um, when you look at the countries that were importers of the products that I mentioned, the final fertilizer products and the inputs to fertilizers, those include some of the world's major agricultural producers and exporters. So potentially many really important countries on egg markets could be affected uh alongside a lot of countries that are food insecure could also be affected. But the other category of impacts comes actually through a different channel which is high energy prices. And it's actually through higher energy prices that we're expecting the uh to see high food prices in the short term in the US and around the world.

[00:34:35]>> If the straight were to reopen tomorrow, how quickly could the supply recover?

[00:34:41]>> Weeks to months likely um um mainly because liqufied natural gas is one of the most important inputs to nitrogen fertilizer. And what we've seen are uh intentional attacks on LG production facilities. So, the duration of time it takes to get those facilities back online is going to uh affect how long it's going to take to get fertilizer prices back to normal.

[00:35:00]>> There are comparisons to the 2022 disruption after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Is that a fair comparison?

[00:35:07]>> Yes and no. Um uh it it's a fair comparison in that major commodities are affected in both scenarios and the timing was very very similar almost to the day. Um, in the case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, you had fertilizers and fuel and food exports affected. In the case of this war with Iran, you have fertilizers and fuel affected mainly with Russia's invasion of Ukraine because millions of tons of grains were effectively locked in Ukraine's ports immediately after the invasion. That's why you saw global food prices spike to a historic high within a matter of weeks. In this case again we'll it will take some time to see the impacts of high fertilizer prices on on agriculture markets and food prices but in the near term is high energy prices that are glo driving food prices higher globally. We saw the first report of the UN food and agriculture organization out just a few days ago looking at prices of uh in March the price of all major egg commodities had increased.

[00:36:03]>> Well that was my next question for you.

[00:36:05]We talked about the impact on these farmers, but for regular consumers, I hear you say that we might not see the price increases for what, a couple more weeks.

[00:36:12]>> Uh, a couple more weeks. I'll be looking for the consumer price index report um from the US uh out in in a matter of days. Um, I'll be uh watching for subsequent reports from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The World Food Program of the UN expects that the impact of high energy prices alone will increase the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity by up to 45 million depending on the duration of the war. And those impacts could spike within within a few months. So, it takes a few months for the impacts of high energy prices to bear out on high food prices. That's what we saw in the case of Russia and Ukraine as well.

[00:36:44]>> Caitlyn Welsh, thanks as always for your insights. Thank you for having my my my farmers sure are going.

[00:36:49]>> Texans pride ourselves on our grit and determination.

[00:36:54]Texas farmers especially, they rise before the sun, push through drought and debt, carry the weight of feeding the their families and the world on their shoulders. That weight is often backbreaking and in the weight of massive debt from a lost crop where the consequences are too far off and life ending.

[00:37:14]That's why I fought in this budget to secure $100 million in lowinterest loans for struggling farmers through Senate Bill 1. When times get tough, we have to make sure our farmers aren't on their own. This isn't just a loan. It's a lifeline. Farmers in my district and across this state are facing historic drought, rising input costs, volatile markets, and recently federal funding cuts that threatened to pull the rug out from under them. These aren't hypothetical pressures. These are real families barely making it through yet another season. I've talked to farmers across this district and across Texas for too many far too many of them tell me that they're just one bad harvest away from losing land that has been in their family for generations.

[00:38:03]I've heard these stories. I've heard their struggles. And that's why I decided to file this amendment.

[00:38:10]We went to work. Now, I partnered with Senator U. Joan Huffman, our finance chair, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, to push this priority across the finish line. And together, we doubled the my original ask to a total of 100 million in the final budget to fund a hardship program over the next two years.

[00:38:31]But we can't stop there and call it a day. Our farmers are committing suicide at three and a half times the national average.

[00:38:40]That's a mental health crisis that we must address. Rural Texans face isolation, financial stress, and almost no access to mental health care to speak of. If you're in a town without a doctor, there's probability that there's not even a therapist. Texas must make serious investments into rural health. I pioneered the Agra Stealth Agra stress help hotline which is a 247 mental health support line to farmers from people who knew what they were going through. It blossomed now into a nationwide program. This loan program is one piece of a broader solution. We've got to keep listening to our rural communities and addressing their needs in a real way. Our farmers, they don't often ask for much, but when they need our help, I'm proud to say that Texas will answer. My name is Roland Gutierrez, Texas Senator, District 19. Thank you so much for your support.

[00:39:36]>> There's been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands in his vision for farm labor. The first thing I'll say is the president has been unequivocal that there will be no amnesty. And I think that's very, very important. I and the rest of our cabinet certainly uh support that, affectuate that and make sure that happens every single day. The second thing to your question about mass deportations, the president and I have spoken about that once or twice and he has always been of the mindset that at the end of the day the promise to America to ensure that we have a 100% American workforce stands. But we must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply. Ultimately, the answer on this is automation. Uh also some reform within the current governing structure. And then also when you think about there are 34 million ablebodied adults in our Medicaid program. There are plenty of workers in America. But we just have to make sure we're not compromising today, especially in the context of everything we're thinking about right now. So no amnesty under any circumstances. Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce.

[00:40:51]>> Immigrants, migrant workers, whether documented or undocumented, or afraid to go to work each day because they're afraid to be detained illegally by ICE agents for a duration of time or just deported out of the country without due process. And nothing is showing that more than this right here. That's right.

[00:41:10]Because farms in Texas have now started to shut down because they don't have the workforce to actually maintain the farms. That's right. So, the food that we get and all of the livestock, produce that we get, everything is starting to stop. Why? Because we don't have people to actually go and work these farms. And I'm pretty sure that the, you know, Jenny Craig type 2 diabetes American citizens that are sitting around complaining about the immigrants aren't going to get up and start working on the farms anytime soon. So, while they're all sitting here pointing their fingers about how immigrants and migrant workers are criminals, the food that we're supposed to be getting from all of these farms is now sitting there rotting. All of the animals that were supposed to be turned into I'm out here at a ranch just uh east of La Prior, Texas here in District 19. Behind me, you can see a little over a 100 head of cattle.

[00:42:03]you know, as farmers and ranchers like this that make up our rural community in Texas. Some years ago, I passed an amendment to allow what is now called the Aggra Stress Hotline. I got Republicans to vote for that thing. That program is now helping farmers and ranchers in over 34 states that have emulated the program and joined a compact with the state of Texas. That's a program that Sid Miller's done very well with.

[00:42:28]That's an amendment that I created just very recently in this last budget. Elon Musk cut a hundred uh cut $25 billion dollar out of our farm programs that would have farmers and ranchers create food uh for our schools or poor schools.

[00:42:45]That program was dozed by Elon Musk and Donald Trump. On budget night, I added 50 million and over the course of the negotiations of that budget, we added another 50 million for a total of $100 million in a microloan program for our farmers.

[00:43:02]All of those programs came to me because one of my constituents lost her father when he killed himself because he couldn't handle the pressure of trying to make ends meet. He lost the family farm. You see, we have to understand that people in our rural communities are hurting in a very big way.

[00:43:26]We're hurting everywhere, in small towns and in large cities alike. We've got to be able to push forward policies that help all of us, not just the millionaires and the billionaires.

[00:43:40]We deserve leaders that are going to go out there and try to help everybody in our community.

[00:43:47]I appreciate your support through these years. We're going to keep fighting for you.

[00:43:52]>> Farms in Texas shut down because nearly 100% of workers disappeared overnight.

[00:44:02]>> Multiple farms across Texas have been forced to halt operations after nearly their entire workforce vanished in a single night. The cost, a wave of ICE immigration raids that have sparked fear. Among farm laborers, many of whom are undocumented or fear being mistakenly targeted.

[00:44:19]>> Farmers like Nick Bilman in Donna, Texas, say they've had zero workers show up for days. Even those with legal status are staying away. Terrified of being caught up in the sweeps without laborers to plant, harvest, or maintain the land. Some farms are shutting down completely.

[00:44:41]>> This isn't just a local issue. It's a national food supply concern. The Texas Farm Bureau is calling for urgent immigration reform to stabilize the agricultural workforce and protect the future of American farming.

[00:44:53]>> This is what happens when you implement policies without researching and giving proper analysis to the potential consequences. Should immigration policies be paused to protect our food supply? Or perhaps the policy should concentrate on removing criminals as it was stated initially.

[00:45:16]Drop your thoughts in the comments and follow for more realw world breakdowns.

[00:45:28]So, Texas is having a farming crisis because multiple farmers have had to shut their doors because their workforce virtually disappeared overnight. This, of course, is due to immigration enforcement and many people either being deported or too scared to come to work or fleeing the state where enforcement agents are. What people may not realize is that the United States, our entire food chain is built off redundancy. We have multiple farmers growing the same foods. We have multiple farmers raising the same cattle to produce more food than we actually need. Much of our food gets wasted. If too many farms close, we lose that redundancy. We potentially lose our ability to keep up with the need of food for everyone.

[00:46:19]So playing around with undocumented workers like this that are literally keeping the United States afloat seems like a really bad decision. But I also want you to consider that the country was literally built on immigration. If it wasn't for the Chinese and the Irish immigrants that came here, we never would have had a transcontinental railroad. We never would have been brought into the industrial age if it wasn't for the current rise of immigrants coming to the US. Our birth rates would have plummeted already. We would have been in an age crisis because there people aren't having babies in the United States cuz we can't afford it. So the literal country is built on the backs of people who were either forced to come here in the form of slavery or came here to flee a disabled government which often was disabilized destabilized sorry destabilized by the United States.

[00:47:17]If it was not for people from elsewhere, people from other places coming to the US, we wouldn't function anymore as a country. And I don't know when this administration or the magazel are going to learn to understand that, but it's really frustrating that I have to be a victim of their bigotry as well because they don't understand the system they created.

[00:47:46]Have a good night.

[00:47:48]>> Thank you for watching Great Minds Blacks.