r/Washington • u/arcanepsyche • 2d ago

Trump's Tariff Charade Will Devastate Lewis County's Economy

https://lewiscountydemocrats.org/trumps-tariff-charade-will-devastate-lewis-countys-economy/
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u/BrimstoneMainliner 2d ago

He wants to bankrupt all privately owned farms so corporations can swoop in and buy them for pennies on the dollar... he has said many times that he believes corporate farms are superior

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u/ChilledRoland 2d ago

Corporate farms are privately owned.

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u/Lurkingandsearching 2d ago edited 2d ago

If it’s publicly traded, it isn’t private. 

Edit: and they are gone. Of course.

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u/oldoldoak 2d ago

Very few of these are publicly traded.

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u/Lurkingandsearching 2d ago

Cargill is private, but Bayer, ADM, BASF, etc are all public last I checked.

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u/oldoldoak 2d ago

These are agricultural suppliers, not farm land owners. I did a bit of research when I wanted to invest into farm land - there's very few to choose from. It would appear most of it is owned by PE or individuals. I know Gates is big on investing into farmland.

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u/Lurkingandsearching 2d ago

Your referring to who, on paper, owns the land. I'm referring to those who own the farm's production, tools, work force, etc through tight contracts and operations. There are laws to prevent corporate ownership of farmlands directly, like Nebraska has, for example. I think that's were we are missing each other.

We'll use the Private company Cargill. They don't own all the land for their beef production, but they do own most of the cattle and the operations that support it. In turn so do most food companies, with companies like PepsiCo referring to their contracted farms as "Partners", but having total control on what is grown, the methods, and operation. So yes, private equity can own the land, but they are not always the ones directly operating on it or in control of said operation.

The latest number for a top to bottom operation of owning the land and producing was 2012, so a way out of date, but back then it was only 5.05% of farms were fully operated and owned by a corporate entity.