Thread

California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops

389 points · 987 comments · randycupertino

driverdan · 1790629641 · focus · HN ↗
[flagged]
1. gonight · 1790629797 · focus · HN ↗
  [dead]
2. apparent · 1790630905 · focus · HN ↗
  Which policy related to Canada is affecting the grape business? I didn't see it referenced, and assumed that since it's being described as a trend over 3 years then it's not just about tariffs.
  1. jleyank · 1790633957 · focus · HN ↗
    Us alcohol products unavailable in most of Canada. So there’s a fair bit of export gone missing. And European response is probably reducing demand for us product in favour of their own.
    apparent · 1790653318 · focus · HN ↗
    Ah, gotcha. I presume there's then substitution effects on both sides of the pond, but the US loses more on net from the Canadian shift from American to other wines.
  2. epistasis · 1790649755 · focus · HN ↗
    > Tariffs have reduced exports, particularly to Canada, which was the largest foreign buyer of American wine.
    And it links to a Feb 2025 article titled "Canada Tariffs Paused, but California Wineries Fear a Trade Dispute Would Be Crushing"
    <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12025404/canada-tariffs-paused-california-wineries-fear-trade-dispute-would-be-crushing" rel="nofollow">https://www.kqed.org/news/12025404/canada-tariffs-paused-cal...
3. legitster · 1790631111 · focus · HN ↗
  Even if that slippery slope logic were true, the vast vast vast majority of farmers in the country are some flavor of conservative. It would be hard to ignore all of them and also care about our food supply.
  1. twright · 1790632471 · focus · HN ↗
    I think OP was more pointing out a supreme irony with the farmer demographic. They rely heavily on seasonal immigrant labor yet they voted for immigrants to be rounded up and forbidden to enter the US. Their sales rely on exports (e.g. soybeans) and imports (tractor parts, fertilizer) yet they voted for a complete upending of the global trade system that benefitted them. So that they are complaining about the current economic climate while simultaneously politically being fully behind it is schadenfreude for many.
    legitster · 1790634109 · focus · HN ↗
    This is an unhelpful generalization.
    Both political parties are made up of constituent cohorts. All Republicans are not anti-immigrant, anti-trade junkies in the same way all Democrats are not anti-work socialists. I think you'll find farmers in particular are generally much more pro-trade and pro-immigrant than the rest of the party.
    The story is these farmers voted for Trump despite him tilting against their best interest. But the reality is they probably put up with his views on immigration and trade hoping they would be more than offset by his views on land use and tax policy (and have been sorely mistaken).
    I know that people really want to make schadenfreude out of this But when the shoe is on the other foot and Republicans make these same kind of ad hominem attacks they equally fall flat. No, just because someone voted for Joe Biden doesn't make them a police-hating communist.
    bgilroy26 · 1790643071 · focus · HN ↗
    You aren't going to escape the association with President Donald John Trump. He is the present and future of the Republican party.
    floatrock · 1790644634 · focus · HN ↗
    Copium.
    rizzom5000 · 1790646350 · focus · HN ↗
    > these farmers voted for Trump despite him tilting against their best interest
    There is a good amount of research that suggests people do not vote using reason, or necessarily consider their own best interests. Rather, it is suggested that most people who vote affiliate themselves with a political party that appeals to their interpretation of morality; and then they vote on tribal lines.
    <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5120865/" rel="nofollow">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5120865/
    1718627440 · 1790714230 · focus · HN ↗
    > Rather, it is suggested that most people who vote affiliate themselves with a political party that appeals to their interpretation of morality
    Well obviously, I rather have someone making decisions, that hurt me a bit, but are morally good, then someone who makes me a profit, but acts evil.
    wat10000 · 1790646491 · focus · HN ↗
    I could buy it if we heard about reluctant Trump voters who don’t really like him and disagree with a bunch of his actions but reluctantly voted for him because they thought he was better than the alternative. This seems to be extremely rare, though. Maybe those voters just don’t get air time.
    what · 1790653167 · focus · HN ↗
    > because they thought he was better than the alternative
    There has to be a large number of these? Or how do you explain voting him out and then back in?
    wat10000 · 1790654071 · focus · HN ↗
    His 2020 loss was all about turnout among the opposition. He got more votes than in 2016.
    what · 1790737205 · focus · HN ↗
    Okay. So all that opposition turnout disappeared in 2024? Where did they go? Were they so disappointed with the alternative that they just decided to just stay home?
    wat10000 · 1790773336 · focus · HN ↗
    Beats me. Maybe people just have very short memories.
    What does this have to do with the existence of reluctant Trump voters who disapprove of some of what he does?
    kelnos · 1790651741 · focus · HN ↗
    > (and have been sorely mistaken)
    It's a little hard to feel bad for these people when they already saw how Trump didn't actually push their interests during his first term, and yet they voted for him again.
    Meanwhile, the Project 2025 handbook was there for everyone to read, and Trump's rhetoric was based on cracking down on immigration (bye-bye, seasonal labor), beating up our trade partners (need to import farm tools? pay more!), and slashing federal government spending (haphazard and largely a failure to actually save money or tackle deficits or debt).
    The 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act was a fine preview for more of the same in 2025, so I'm not sure what these voters were looking for when it comes to tax policy.
    Land use is generally a state-level concern, so I'm not sure what they think Trump would be doing for them there.
    watwut · 1790681889 · focus · HN ↗
    > All Republicans are not anti-immigrant, anti-trade junkies in the same way all Democrats are not anti-work socialists
    Democrats are not anti-work socialists and never were. They never had rhetoric that would imply so. However, republicans do have anti-immigration, anti-trade rhetoric and politics.
    > No, just because someone voted for Joe Biden doesn't make them a police-hating communist.
    Of course, because Biden was not hating police and was not a communist. Republican party however is exactly what it is accused of being here. And Trump is its ruler and champion.
    domh · 1790661315 · focus · HN ↗
    Same as UK farmers voting for Brexit whilst being beneficiaries of EU subsidies for farming.
4. tomhow · 1790643451 · focus · HN ↗
  Please don't jeer like this on HN. Wine grape growers all over the world are experiencing similar declines in demand. The same thing is happening in Australia (I know people personally affected by it) and it has nothing to do with any flavor of political rule.
  Please always observe the guidelines when participating here, which include avoiding political/ideological battle and off-topic tangents. <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  1. [deleted] · 1790646358 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
  2. driverdan · 1790650125 · focus · HN ↗
    How is this jeering? I'm pointing out important facts about one of the subjects in the story that weren't included. I didn't celebrate or express my opinion. Should I have worded it in a different way?
    It does suck for everyone else who didn't vote for this and I feel for them.
    tomhow · 1790652978 · focus · HN ↗
    You didn’t point out a fact; you’ve raised vague associations and extrapolated them in a way that seems damning, but without any evidence. There’s no record I can find that this man or his family members support this administration and its policies. Most of them haven’t been public representatives for over a decade. The last one left office in 2018.
    You shouldn’t have worded it a different way; you shouldn’t have raised it at all because it’s in clear breach of the guidelines I pointed out.

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