We had Sarah of @FarmToTaber on our show several months ago and asked her: Why the HELL did farmers vote for Trump? It's an awesome discussion and you should watch it... but one of the most common comments we received on that video was: Racism. While I think we did talk about that in that video, we thought we'd let Sarah respond directly... And it turns out, the truth is even worse.
Because once you start pulling on that thread, you get into the money, the promises, and the politics of farm labor. The H-2A guest-worker system is supposed to provide agricultural workers legally when there aren't enough available U.S. workers, but the system also ties those workers to their employers. Then comes the story of Operation Blooming Onion, a massive human-trafficking investigation in Southern Georgia involving H-2A workers who were subjected to forced labor and horrific conditions. These weren't simply undocumented workers being exploited in the shadows. They had come to the United States through a legal guest-worker program.
After cases like this, under Biden, the federal government put new protections into the H-2A system, including measures aimed at preventing worker exploitation, protecting workers from retaliation, increasing employer accountability, and stopping practices like confiscating passports.
But in 2025, the Trump administration rolled back those anti-slavery provisions. So we started with a simple question about whether racism explains the farmer vote for Trump. We ended up talking about farm subsidies, migrant labor, H-2A visas, human trafficking, and a system where the ability of workers to leave their jobs can become a tool of control. And that's when the question of racism starts looking a whole lot bigger.
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Дата на публикация: 21 октомври, 2026
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