Industrial Agriculture, Billionaire Landlords, and a New Peasant Class! | Thinking Out Loud

In this episode of his "Thinking Out Loud" series, Double D examines the buying up of agricultural land by billionaires and multi-national agribusiness conglomerates.
Jumping in to the video, Double D reads excerpts from a 'Jacobin' article, which details the recent trend of billionaires investing in agricultural land. He highlights their abuse of tax easements which leave these billionaires paying a fraction of a fraction in taxes in relation to the actual value of the land. He highlights parcels of land worth tens of millions of dollars, being appraised for mere thousands of dollars in taxes. Meanwhile, neighboring parcel not eligible for these tax loop holes, pay tens of thousands in taxes on land worth only a few hundred thousand in value. He notes that some of these tax reductions involve the use of the land for "ranching" which amounts to cattle grazing periodically on the land. He points out that while these billionaires do not work the land, they will often times receive massive tax adjustments for having farmers "rent the land" for cultivation. He compares this relation to the landlord-serf relationship that existed throughout most of the feudal era, he claims that this process is increasingly turning former land owners into modern day peasants. He notes that this land exploitation also robs local communities of billions upon billions of dollars in tax revenue, cash which ends up lining the off shore bank accounts of the rich as it is vacuumed out of the communities who actual live on and work the land.
Double D also highlights tax easements adjusted for "land conservation." He shows an image of a popular meme, depicting a billionaire buying up thousands of acres of Amazon Rainforest for the purpose of "conservation." He points out that in reality, this "conservation" amounts to PR, as it turned out that this specific billionaire still allowed logging on the supposedly conserved land. Citing a 'Pro Publica' article, Double D examines a series of tax scams known as "syndicated land trusts", which allow Wall Street investors to masquerade their land purchases behind "conservation" when in reality they are abusing the tax code to reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit via tax write offs. He asks his audience to consider what could be done with such tax revenue if it was permitted to be used collectively by local governments for sustainable agriculture and to repatriate the land.
Moving on, Double D begins to examine the U.S. system of industrial agriculture. He highlights and article from 'The Guardian' which interviews family farmers, including an activist Double D had worked with in the past. He reads testimonies from farmers who have seen their neighbors and fellow farmers shut down their facilities and sell of their land to agribusiness conglomerates. Double D notes the ever growing industry of corn and soya bean cash crop cultivation which feeds industrial meat and ethanol production in the Midwest. He shows how this process of conglomeration continues to push farmers of their land, as they are outpriced in the market even after being forced to abandon crop diversity and livestock cultivation. He shows how this process has completely hollowed out rural towns and cities, forcing shop keepers to shutter their doors, and for hospitals to shut down permanently.
Double D also examines the environmental devastation perpetuated by this agribusiness giants. He notes that there are nearly 25 millions hogs in Iowa, while there are only 3 million people living in the state. He examines how all 3 million of those people have their waste flushed down toilets and treated before it is recycling back in to the water supply. He notes that none of the waste produced by these 25 million hogs is treated or recycled. Instead, it is stored in massive reservoir pits, before being sprayed across fields as "fertilizer." He shows how this waste runs off in to irrigation ditches, and then into Iowa's waterways, 760 of which are severely destroyed by agricultural pollution, resulting in regular fish kills, as well as increased rates of cancer and other illness among rural residents. He shows also, how this process allows waste to flow down major waterways such as the Mississippi, a reality which has resulted in the "Gulf of Mexico Dead Cone" where no life can persist due to the lack of dissolved oxygen.
Ending the video, Double D again quotes Iowa farmers, who lament the loss of knowledge of how to cultivate crops and raise livestock. They insist that this reality has left a few massive corporations with the power to decide who gets to eat and who does not. Double D points out that as this process continues, farmers and their community members will be increasingly pushed in to a neo-peasant relationship with the land. He asks his viewers to consider an alternative vision of the future, where working people and indigenous people have true sovereignty over the land they live and work on.