there really is nothing worse to me than greed robbing honest hard-working people of their livelihood. This sort of thing happens all over the world, and it makes me physically ill.
This is the way black sharecroppers and slaves felt back in the day. This is the powers at be at work and unless we all come together and take down the big companies. But once you get to the point were you come up and be successful, don't let the greed and power turn you into this MONSTERS.
Chevy Ragtop and the share croppers in Ireland and Scotland before them. It's a tried and true business model that is very profitable for the rich and keeps people so poor that there's no way to fight back. It wasnt just done in farming though. They did the same thing with the fisheries where I live but 100 years ago the fishermen fought back. They set up their own banks, stores and even an insurance company. Willie Nelson tried to help farmers out decades ago but he was fighting against Reagan.
American descendants of slaves ADOS are still dealing with the remnants of this white supremacist system, 98 percent of white people own and control all the land,water,food and resources in america, so these white farmers will be ok. The black farmers are done ,unless they have some wealthy friends or relatives to help them out in which I doubt with the bottom 50 percent of black households being worth negative one dollar.
Hi Jonathan. NIce job on making this eye opening film. It's distressing to see corporations treat farmers so callously. Then you have the politicians who will actually vote to protect the corporations! Unbelievable!
This film brought tears to my eyes :'( How can any human do this to people... make families suffer so much... I watched John Oliver and he mentioned this film, so I looked it up. Thank you for showing us the light. I always thought poultry farming was great. I never knew how much people suffer.
fireblazer6661I also came here because of Last Week Tonight. It breaks my heart. Hopefully after LWT more people will see this, get informed and help to fight against this big corporations.
Corporate greed, underpinned by individual greed is a cancer that is eating away at western society. I'm losing my job in a month due to the actions of my very large corporate I.T. employer who is currently making nonsensical business 'changes' that are surely designed to get access to cheaper labour and someday earn a few more points of profit, on the backs of hundreds and thousands of ordinary working people. The corporate execs of the west will one day learn the hard way that the best way to earn a good long-term living in their business is for society to have a broad middle-class that has money in their pocket to spend. When all the middle class people are pushed into poverty by the actions of the corporate giants, who is going to buy their products.
Thanks to all for your kind comments on my little documentary. Question for you growers out there - I haven't been really plugged in to this issue since 2010... what's been going on since then? Again, thanks to all for your kind support. This was a great project and I really enjoyed meeting this amazing group of people, even under such terrible circumstances. -Jonathan Shepard, Director/Producer
Guy this is outstanding...I actually live this gimmick. There is another story..how our politicians reward this kind of business practice..this situtation has actually gotten worse if that is possible...we truly have the worst government money can buy.
Thanks, Craig. That's very sad to hear, although not entirely unexpected. I know we're in a new era of political partisanship, but something like preventing a whole industry from steamrolling hardworking farmers should not be so hard to do. It's just the right thing to do.
Thank you Jonathan, the despair is so painfully evident, you can't ignore it. But this administration will do worse to the farmers with its anti-regulation objectives.
Every one of these growers knew how it was going into the business. Yet, there are people waiting in line to get into it knowing the problems. They all believe they can game the system that has been set up to make them perpetual debtors. I feel sorry for them not for their situation, but for their abject disregard for facts that they knew already.
NO. New growers don't know nor understand the game before getting in. About 24 years ago I checked out the chicken industry in California: Only two companies (one of which also included turkey operation), but they already by then dropped all the growers (so, they don't have this problem any more) and owned all the farms (chicken houses) which were giant operations.
Meet your local producers. Buy directly from them. Its healthier, safer and you'll be supporting the people who have dedicated their lives to feeding the rest of us.
Tuwin Diane I absolutely agree with this. We live in the country part of the year and buy our food at the side of the road or in the local market. When we're in the city we belong to a food co-op and the farmers bring us food every 2 weeks in boxes...and that's when you find out what you got. It's cheaper this way and they make more money too.
Excellent film Jonathan. I pity my friends to the south. So far you have let corporations decimate your manufacturing base and continue to screw with your food chain. It kills me that some of the kindest and hardworking people in your country would take the kick in the teeth for it. The only two parties to benefit within this documentary is the Corporation and the Bank. I was expecting a class action suit at the end defended for free by some high class firm. One where the good guy wins in the end. I guess thats only in the movies.
To an outsider in Australia sharecropping is akin to slavery- financial slavery that entraps people into unreasonable binding contracts and a lifetime of slavery to debt. Should be illegal.
Buyer beware and supplier beware. Seems these folks were lured into supplier relationships that gave them little control and freedom and had the risk of not being able to recover high and regular investment costs (and pay off debt) due to limited alternative buyers. I hope this isn't greed or unfair market power. My guess the farmers don't have much choice in what they can grow (soybeans, corn, beef?) and when they see what looks like good numbers ... I'd love to see an hour 60 Minutes or Frontline on this. You gotta love farmers. It hurts to hear them though I bet farmer insolvency and closure is an age old phenomena ... Free range wholesome chicken farming is in demand but then someone needs to advised farmers on how this is done and explore understand very well the market and risk.
Just because our people got that treatment doesn't make it right. Those people are in the same situation and I can't find joy in that. They aren't utilizing slave labor. They are putting in the work, and only one man said that his farm was passed down through generations. Of course he was the one who got bailed out. Texas is all about old money and politics. It's time for people to come together and take a stand against the establishment. You're bitter towards the wrong white man. I just want to see everyone succeed. In a country that is so wealthy in both money and resources there is no reason why anyone should be hungry or sleeping on a park bench. There is plenty to go around. I personally have never desired wealth. All I have ever wanted was a deed to a home, a vehicle that runs well, and enough to eat. Happy and healthy children who have opportunities. The ability to build generational wealth. That's what keeps us down. Very few of us have that luxury and it creates an uneven playing field. But if we all did well we would be richer for it. I just can't find it in me to rub a 400 year old grudge in a white man's face. I know what it feels like to have nothing. And it hurts me to see another person go through it too.
Well the Congress put a rider in the 2008 FarmBill to address these types of issues..long story short..61000 comments on the public rulemaking process on the proposed rule that came out in 2010..overwhelming support..and this number of comments is unprecedented.. But as Adam Smith warned..monopoly/monopolistic power creates political influence which oftern leads to corruption. The industry has managed to get its DC minions to not fund..but the rule is still alive..so today..bout the same
I have no tears for white people who are suffering what we suffered. Blacks were sharecroppers for decades up into the 90's. ans no one cared because these guys would have been or slavers/ farm owners. So I'll play a microscopic violin for these people. Now they get to experience what we experienced all the way up to the 1990's. Stop whining. These people will never have to worry about being hung, stabbed , burned alive for not working. These people will never compare themselves to us because they don't want to think about it. Almost as if it didn't exist and then they actually say "what kind of person would do something like this? what goes around comes around. - L
+joshuaoha You don't know anything. This is not capitalism. This is crony-capitalism enables by an overbearing federal government. The government has put in artificial barriers to entry.
Who is this b o pilgrim what name do they sell their chickens under so I don't buy their chickens maybe that'll help you guys somewhat I don't believe that's fair what they are doing to you just saying
A documentary that should be watched by everyone!
Good work, Jonathan.
there really is nothing worse to me than greed robbing honest hard-working people of their livelihood. This sort of thing happens all over the world, and it makes me physically ill.
This is the way black sharecroppers and slaves felt back in the day. This is the powers at be at work and unless we all come together and take down the big companies. But once you get to the point were you come up and be successful, don't let the greed and power turn you into this MONSTERS.
Chevy Ragtop and the share croppers in Ireland and Scotland before them. It's a tried and true business model that is very profitable for the rich and keeps people so poor that there's no way to fight back.
It wasnt just done in farming though. They did the same thing with the fisheries where I live but 100 years ago the fishermen fought back. They set up their own banks, stores and even an insurance company.
Willie Nelson tried to help farmers out decades ago but he was fighting against Reagan.
American descendants of slaves ADOS are still dealing with the remnants of this white supremacist system, 98 percent of white people own and control all the land,water,food and resources in america, so these white farmers will be ok. The black farmers are done ,unless they have some wealthy friends or relatives to help them out in which I doubt with the bottom 50 percent of black households being worth negative one dollar.
Hi Jonathan. NIce job on making this eye opening film. It's distressing to see corporations treat farmers so callously. Then you have the politicians who will actually vote to protect the corporations! Unbelievable!
This film brought tears to my eyes :'( How can any human do this to people... make families suffer so much... I watched John Oliver and he mentioned this film, so I looked it up. Thank you for showing us the light. I always thought poultry farming was great. I never knew how much people suffer.
fireblazer6661 Thanks so much - I'm very glad to hear you were moved by the film.
fireblazer6661I also came here because of Last Week Tonight. It breaks my heart. Hopefully after LWT more people will see this, get informed and help to fight against this big corporations.
fireblazer6661 farming itself should be great. The economic system makes it complete bs.
I live in Pittsburg Texas. Home of Bo Pilgrim. Touching documentary. They handled my grandfather the same way
I live in lufkin, tx and we have a huge pilgrims pride plant. This is mindblowing
I saw clips on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and had to check out the documentary. It's extremely powerful.
Corporate greed, underpinned by individual greed is a cancer that is eating away at western society. I'm losing my job in a month due to the actions of my very large corporate I.T. employer who is currently making nonsensical business 'changes' that are surely designed to get access to cheaper labour and someday earn a few more points of profit, on the backs of hundreds and thousands of ordinary working people. The corporate execs of the west will one day learn the hard way that the best way to earn a good long-term living in their business is for society to have a broad middle-class that has money in their pocket to spend. When all the middle class people are pushed into poverty by the actions of the corporate giants, who is going to buy their products.
Thanks to all for your kind comments on my little documentary. Question for you growers out there - I haven't been really plugged in to this issue since 2010... what's been going on since then?
Again, thanks to all for your kind support. This was a great project and I really enjoyed meeting this amazing group of people, even under such terrible circumstances.
-Jonathan Shepard, Director/Producer
@4:53 FWIW: I learned about the frequency of lights that has on the development of plants, animals and even humans.
Stunning.
Guy this is outstanding...I actually live this gimmick. There is another story..how our politicians reward this kind of business practice..this situtation has actually gotten worse if that is possible...we truly have the worst government money can buy.
Thanks, Craig. That's very sad to hear, although not entirely unexpected. I know we're in a new era of political partisanship, but something like preventing a whole industry from steamrolling hardworking farmers should not be so hard to do. It's just the right thing to do.
The haves have it and the have nots don't. Why a few people at the top want to suppress the little guy is beyond me.
Thank you Jonathan, the despair is so painfully evident, you can't ignore it. But this administration will do worse to the farmers with its anti-regulation objectives.
congratulations on being on the John Oliver show!
Every one of these growers knew how it was going into the business. Yet, there are people waiting in line to get into it knowing the problems. They all believe they can game the system that has been set up to make them perpetual debtors. I feel sorry for them not for their situation, but for their abject disregard for facts that they knew already.
NO. New growers don't know nor understand the game before getting in. About 24 years ago I checked out the chicken industry in California: Only two companies (one of which also included turkey operation), but they already by then dropped all the growers (so, they don't have this problem any more) and owned all the farms (chicken houses) which were giant operations.
Meet your local producers. Buy directly from them. Its healthier, safer and you'll be supporting the people who have dedicated their lives to feeding the rest of us.
Tuwin Diane I absolutely agree with this. We live in the country part of the year and buy our food at the side of the road or in the local market. When we're in the city we belong to a food co-op and the farmers bring us food every 2 weeks in boxes...and that's when you find out what you got. It's cheaper this way and they make more money too.
this is why i dont eat meat. companies not only hurt animals but also hurt the human workers.
When time went on people raised their own chickens
Hard times in the days of chicken farmers
Man this Is sad I couldn't imagine everything being take away from me.
Excellent film Jonathan. I pity my friends to the south. So far you have let corporations decimate your manufacturing base and continue to screw with your food chain. It kills me that some of the kindest and hardworking people in your country would take the kick in the teeth for it. The only two parties to benefit within this documentary is the Corporation and the Bank. I was expecting a class action suit at the end defended for free by some high class firm.
One where the good guy wins in the end.
I guess thats only in the movies.
The background music is similar to the offset - clout ft. cardi b instrumental
Internet princess EXACTLY what I thought as soon as the video started. I immediately judged it lol
dam shame what the one percent has done to this fine country
You know whats weird? It was very difficult to find this video or any information regarding the term...
To an outsider in Australia sharecropping is akin to slavery- financial slavery that entraps people into unreasonable binding contracts and a lifetime of slavery to debt. Should be illegal.
Buyer beware and supplier beware. Seems these folks were lured into supplier relationships that gave them little control and freedom and had the risk of not being able to recover high and regular investment costs (and pay off debt) due to limited alternative buyers. I hope this isn't greed or unfair market power. My guess the farmers don't have much choice in what they can grow (soybeans, corn, beef?) and when they see what looks like good numbers ... I'd love to see an hour 60 Minutes or Frontline on this. You gotta love farmers. It hurts to hear them though I bet farmer insolvency and closure is an age old phenomena ... Free range wholesome chicken farming is in demand but then someone needs to advised farmers on how this is done and explore understand very well the market and risk.
Yall cant be mad?! This country was built on this, it was fine when you were exploiting Africans what seems to be the problem now?
Jay King Did you even watch this? Some of the represented farmers are African Americans. They get the same bad deal. You should watch the documentary.
Just because our people got that treatment doesn't make it right. Those people are in the same situation and I can't find joy in that. They aren't utilizing slave labor. They are putting in the work, and only one man said that his farm was passed down through generations. Of course he was the one who got bailed out. Texas is all about old money and politics. It's time for people to come together and take a stand against the establishment. You're bitter towards the wrong white man. I just want to see everyone succeed. In a country that is so wealthy in both money and resources there is no reason why anyone should be hungry or sleeping on a park bench. There is plenty to go around. I personally have never desired wealth. All I have ever wanted was a deed to a home, a vehicle that runs well, and enough to eat. Happy and healthy children who have opportunities. The ability to build generational wealth. That's what keeps us down. Very few of us have that luxury and it creates an uneven playing field. But if we all did well we would be richer for it. I just can't find it in me to rub a 400 year old grudge in a white man's face. I know what it feels like to have nothing. And it hurts me to see another person go through it too.
Many of us farmers are Black, what are you talking about?
LIVING IN AMERICA 🇱🇷
jonathan..how can I contact you directly?
Hi Craig. Please feel free to email me directly: jonathan.sandor.shepard@gmail.com.
Reminds me of "reconstruction" post civil war...the rich and wicked ALWAYS find a way to enslave...
Well the Congress put a rider in the 2008 FarmBill to address these types of issues..long story short..61000 comments on the public rulemaking process on the proposed rule that came out in 2010..overwhelming support..and this number of comments is unprecedented..
But as Adam Smith warned..monopoly/monopolistic power creates political influence which oftern leads to corruption. The industry has managed to get its DC minions to not fund..but the rule is still alive..so today..bout the same
They did their best, but their best wasn't good enough.
That's is so bad rich people are no good. But God will take care of them.
This is the nature of business in America.
I have no tears for white people who are suffering what we suffered. Blacks were sharecroppers for decades up into the 90's. ans no one cared because these guys would have been or slavers/ farm owners. So I'll play a microscopic violin for these people. Now they get to experience what we experienced all the way up to the 1990's. Stop whining. These people will never have to worry about being hung, stabbed , burned alive for not working. These people will never compare themselves to us because they don't want to think about it. Almost as if it didn't exist and then they actually say "what kind of person would do something like this? what goes around comes around. - L
they should have filed a civil suite take it all the way to thr capital of texas AUSTIN TEXAS supreme court
Thanks for all u do they are doing u guys wrong.
1 -0 for the chicken
Hey, its just capitalism. If you can get away with it then good for you. I just read Ayn Rand and now I know everything.
+joshuaoha You don't know anything. This is not capitalism. This is crony-capitalism enables by an overbearing federal government. The government has put in artificial barriers to entry.
This ain't shitt compared to what black people went through
You can thank Trump for this! We tried to warn you.. Obama tried to help the farmers..
Another reason to not eat meat
Who is this b o pilgrim what name do they sell their chickens under so I don't buy their chickens maybe that'll help you guys somewhat I don't believe that's fair what they are doing to you just saying
Go Vegan
first dislike :D
+Fredrick Fedoray™. 139 IQ. You look like one of those Reddit Homosexuals.