Mechanization and taxpayer funded subsidies of commodity crops transformed the mid-west into a place where one man could farm hundreds of acres with machines, and no labour at all. And that set of circumstances is the wet dream of corporations – and tech bros.

Your father sounds like he was farming in a region that could not provide the kind of labour he needed for his cranberry crop. If so, bums and low-lifes, might have been the only people around who would work a couple weeks for cheap pay. If so, those bums had the upper hand with your father, they could walk away anytime they pleased. Peeing on your father’s crop, was a big eff you to the boss man who happened to be your father.

Talk about emasculating a man, finding himself in the position of beggar would do it. That you were watching those men humiliate your father would make it a whole lot harder for him to swallow. Your father sounds like a jerk, so I'm not sticking up for him, or excusing him. But I've seen that kind of humiliation many times and it makes men angry, violent, and resentful towards anyone who witnessed their humiliation.

In regions where table food is grown, farmworker unions fight tooth and nail, for porta potties in the fields, plus fresh drinking water, and cheap ez-up canopies in the rainy season, and 100+ degree heat. In turn, Corporate Ag and mid-west commodity farmers spend millions on lobbying and campaign contributions to oppose legislation that would force farmers to provide these basics for farm workers.

Times are changing and in regions that grow table food, corporations are moving in and pushing out family farmers and independent farmers - and spreading shame again. In rural areas the humiliation of men is showing up in violence, hate, anger, suicide, addiction, and divorce.

I don’t think people realize that corporations use emasculation, the same way they use racism and for r the same reason – power and control over men who are ‘supposed’ to control women and children. Corporate emasculation tactics have now moved into cities and suburbs, where more and more men are doing women’s jobs, including secretarial work, telephone work (call centers), nursing, teaching, waitressing, cooking, maid work, childcare, sewing, sorting mail, meter maids, crossing guards, Walmart greeters, etc.

Any who, those were just my thoughts while reading.