For those who say the farmers have a choice, I just want to toss a few points out for consideration. Coming from a farming family, and raised in a farming community, with family and some of my closest friends still on the land... well, perhaps I have a different perspective.
- Yes, they have a choice. But for those who were born and raised on these farms, well, some have less "choice" than you realise. Take the situation where parents either pass away, are in ill health, or age means they're unable to continue. Many kids raised on the land feel a certain obligation to continue the family legacy. I know they're not tied down with chains to the land. But for some of them it is "their cross to bear" as generations of their families did before, it's in their blood, and there's a lot of pride and responsibility not to let it fall apart on their watch.
- Many farms, particularly today, rely on a large amount of debt. It may not be entirely the fault of the younger generation who are now in charge. Some inherit properties with massive amounts of debt where they could walk away, sell the farm, and still be paying the banks of for years to come without ever taking out a loan themselves. You're talking properties worth millions, owned by a single person, a couple, or a family in many cases. For many, they hope each year that the "product" they sell (whether that be meat, fleece, milk, crops, etc.) covers their costs. Some (many?) don't pay themselves a wage. If they did walk away, what does their future look like? Will they be able to get a job? Buy even a basic home in town? Or will they always be going backwards saddled with the debt they were unfortunate enough to be born into (or have got into themselves taking a gamble, hoping for the days when it did rain, when stock or crop prices go up, etc.?)?
- A lot of farmers would be considered "unskilled labour" in the wider workforce. Some have no qualifications to their name. No formal licences for some of the machinery they learned how to operate out of necessity. Nothing other than a lifetime of learning picked up from farm work. Sure they have skills. Many farmers I know can fix anything, build anything, nurse stock through ill health, educate their children, etc. But they have nothing on paper to prove it. And as self-employed people, they don't even have someone who can act as a real referee and back up the experience they have. How does someone in that situation start over? What about when they're 60, flat broke, and up to their eyeballs in debt?
I get why a bullet to the head looks like the only way out in times like this. You're talking about people who have been self-reliant, resourceful, and tough seeing themselves flat out of options. For them in that moment there really is no hope.
I really feel for the farmers - the men, women and families who bust their gut to put food on our tables, clothes on our backs, etc. No one is denying that the suffering of livestock on a scale like this is anything less of devastating, least of all the farmers. The thought of their animals suffering sickens those I know on the land, keeps them up at night long before you see a trace of it on the news. No farmer I know is in this gig just for the pay cheque. Their farms are their heart and soul and all they know how to do. Believe me when I say they care about the welfare of their stock more than you or I ever could. It is far more than just a job to them. They know no other way of life. To them, farming IS their life.
