1d ago

Farmer says 'we're in a very dire situation' ahead of harvest—with zero soybean orders from China, historically the largest buyer | Fortune

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35684522

Despite his support for Trump, Ragland has become increasingly vocal about the need for immediate trade resolution. “We desperately need to get something rectified quickly with China, our biggest export customer,” he told CNN. “We wanna encourage the administration to get a proactive trade deal done.”

United States | News & Politics @midwest.social

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1d ago

Farmer says 'we're in a very dire situation' ahead of harvest—with zero soybean orders from China, historically the largest buyer | Fortune

fortune.com /2025/09/09/soybean-harvest-china-agricultural-crisis-trump-tariffs-caleb-ragland/

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1d ago

Farmer says 'we're in a very dire situation' ahead of harvest—with zero soybean orders from China, historically the largest buyer

fortune.com /2025/09/09/soybean-harvest-china-agricultural-crisis-trump-tariffs-caleb-ragland/

United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ @lemmy.ml

1d ago

Farmer says 'we're in a very dire situation' ahead of harvest—with zero soybean orders from China, historically the largest buyer

fortune.com /2025/09/09/soybean-harvest-china-agricultural-crisis-trump-tariffs-caleb-ragland/

194 comments

Liberals become wishy washy and lose elections
Let GOP get in charge
GOP destroys the export economy
Americans are all now forced to eat mointains of feminizing soy
The secret long term plot against conservatives to turn them all gay and trans is almost complete!
- Maybe it’s a plot by the GOP! The GOP wants to turn all your kids trans!
bring on the cheap tofu!!
How all the soy boy beta cucks working for this administration will sound this winter while trying to reassure Americans we don't need to resort to cannibalism just yet bc we still have an insane surplus of unprocessed soy beans we have to do something with.
I say this as a vegetarian. I'm kinda looking forward to hearing what kind of propaganda these people will spin to explain the sudden 180. "Awkshully, soy has always been one of the most hyper masculine protein sources available in the western hemisphere."
Maybe if you do nothing and just let the crops rot they will auto ferment into blocks of tofu?
- They will likely dump the crops in the ocean to keep prices stable like they do with many other surpluses. One of the worst things about capitalism, instead of trying to feed the poor or do something useful with it
  
  Lumber's getting affordable so they've drastically stopped cutting.
Now they have to feed the “woke” vegans too? 😅
I was about to suggest that maybe not all farmers voted for trump and thus they may not deserve the financial hardship, then I read this
"Despite his support for Trump, Ragland has become increasingly vocal about the need for immediate trade resolution. “We desperately need to get something rectified quickly with China, our biggest export customer,” he told CNN. “We wanna encourage the administration to get a proactive trade deal done.”
lol, gfy.
- I also have been feeling schaedenfreud but its not all their fault. They may have voted for trump but that was mainly because they were misled by propaganda networks. It shows how bad reporting is particularly among the rustbelt propaganda networks.Because none of these people were aware about project twenty twenty five which pretty much promised to crush trade.
  If they had been presented with accurate reporting there's no way they would have voted against the pro trade neo liberals.
  Our legal and political system enabled a group of plutocrats to falsify reporting and amplify russian disinformation campaigns.
  
  People have been screaming for decades how shitty GOP and Conservative/Libertarian policies are, with proper backed examples and data.
  These people still didn't listen.
  They chose this.
  They were told this would happen, plainly enough for a child to understand, and they chose it anyway.
  
  Except that Trump has said enough stupid shit in obvious places that it can’t be hidden unless you’ve got a chokehold that is simply impossible to maintain on that many people. Ten million maybe, but no at this point they’re willing. They want this and whether they’re profoundly stupid or incredibly evil doesn’t much matter like it used to considering the damage they’re doing.
  Conservatives just suck. The world at their fingertips and daily, unavoidable examples of why they’re super wrong and they still go hard for the worst possible options because they aren’t intelligent enough to understand even the most basic complexities or have even shreds of empathy for people they can’t directly see(and many will even hate those right in front of them). Nah dude, fuck that.
Honestly might be really nice if we can decrease agricultural land usage. Might even cut back on red meat importing.
Farmers:
Votes for Trump
Loses business because of Tariff backlash
Gets bailed out
Votes for Trump two more times
Loses business because of Tariff backlash
Who could have seen this coming?
- Them. They see your pattern continuing.
  Imagine if the government paid you to sit on your ass instead of going to work.
  And since your income is no longer tied to any sense of production, you fudge your number a little and end up better off being on welfare than working full time.
  
  Maybe Monsanto or somebody might get bailed out, but smaller farmers won't get a single penny out of the GOP.
Bootstraps people, bootstraps
I had to pipe in this old post from August 6th 2019
"Chinese companies have stopped buying U.S. agricultural products, China's Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday, a blow to U.S. farmers who have already seen their exports slashed by the more than year-old trade war.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall called the announcement from China "a body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by."
China imported $9.1 billion of U.S. farm produce in 2018 - mainly soybeans Sc1, dairy, sorghum and pork LHc1 - down from $19.5 billion in 2017, according to the American Farm Bureau.
Your Dumbfuck-In-Chief, folks. I'm sure someone has a clever retort involving emails, or pocahontas, or shithole countries."
It's not a dire situation for the people who want his land.
- Yeah exactly. Big agribusiness will scoop these family farms up at very cheap prices. Follow the money.
They can always blame Biden (Joe or Hunter), Obama, or trans people! 🤡🤡🤡🤡
- It's so ridiculous they would blame trans people when theyre SOYBEAN farmers.
  I thought they'd want more soyboys to exist to consume their product.
- True maybe the sales orders are in Hunter's laptop. That's why they wanted it so bad.
- Or just blame China directly and call this an act of war.
  
  If we reclaim Panama we can deny Chinese shipping until they decide to play nice. Simple!
  
  Attack Venezuela! That will solve it!
Good.
Have the day you voted for 😘
Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions...
That’s ok, you don’t have anyone to harvest them anyway.
They voted for it.
As much as I try to maintain that these are our fellow working class folks who have been victimized(to a variable, case-by-case extent) by a lying fascist, it's nice to see karma in action.
- Don't condescend to these people. They have the same satellite/cable TV and broadband internet that the rest of us have. These are educated people. Do you realize how many programs, grants, and entire colleges are focused on farmers/ranchers? Half the colleges in the south are either agriculture colleges or have agriculture programs. Even the inner city highschools have FFA programs. These people went to college and have at least 4 year college degree.
  They may be awash in propaganda , so are the rest of us. But they outright defended the pedo who praised the Nazis and said he wanted to be a king. They cheered when he said that if he got elected they would never have to vote again. This is what they knowingly voted for.
- these are our fellow working class folks
  The farm laborers are. But they're the ones getting harassed by our seven layer dip of paramilitary police every time they step off the plantation.
  The farm owners are the same petite bourgeois pos shit sacks who gave us hard borders and bloated security state budgets and massive prison populations. They got baited by racist fear mongering - even profited from it on occasion - and only realized they'd get to the end of their rope at the end.
  Bust up these farms and return them to the people who do the actual labor. Then I'll start feeling bad about farm owners.
- I have never met a commercial farmer that wasn't a bigoted asshole.
Most soy goes to livestock feed, and most of that goes to poultry.
Only 20% goes to human consumption, with most of that going to oil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Global-soy-production-to-end-use.png
- Wait, I'm supposed to consume oil?
  
  It's calorie count is significantly more dense than regular food, giving you fuel for your entire day in a few table spoons!
  
  Only if you want to.
- Poor guy...
- The leopards are getting diabetes and insurance wants to charge them $1200 a month for insulin until their deductible is met.
- I feel bad for the leopards at this stage. Overeating isn’t good for you. :)
Oh no! If only there had been some way for farmers to know this was going to happen! Like Trump telling them it was going to happen! Or every economist in the country warning it was going to happen! Or Trump doing the same thing in his first term! WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN???
- If only there had been some way for farmers to know this was going to happen
  Midwestern Dems are sprinkled with nativist, anti-China, police gimp politicians that overwhelmed their GOP colleagues. So it's sort of a crap shoot. You might get a Tim Walz or you might get a Pete Buttigieg or you might get a Terri Sewell.
  Just "Vote Blue No Matter Who" isn't a panacea. Not when so many Dems are cuddling up to the Cheney and Bloomberg brand of Republicanism, even as they fervently reject Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib
  WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN???
  Biden had four years to reverse Trump policies, rebuild ties with our largest trading partners, and prosecute the corrupt officials in the prior administration.
  Instead, he continued the War on Migrants, tried to shut down TikTok while flooding Israel with cheap munitions, and gave a DOJ sized shrug to fascists big and small.
  These decisions cost his party 6M votes between 2020 and 2024.
  
  I thought "blue no matter who" was a call for the general election because at the federal level the alternative is the republican.
  Then to change the direction of the party you have to be involved far ahead of the election in the candidate suction process.
  ... not that they're necessarily going to listen. The forced two party thing we have going will probably always corrupt the "good" party if there is one.
  
  Bullshit. In this case our reality is so twisted that this is the time to vote blue, no matter who. Anti-fascist, no matter who. Least unethical, no matter who.
  I look forward to the day when all major candidates are not channeling evil supervillains, who care about their constituents (not just enriching their friends and corporate benefactors) and can articulate a platform toward their concept. I look forward to the day we can relate to “both sides” again, to the day we can debate the merits of different proposals. I too wish for that utopia where it’s reasonable to choose on who has the best plan.
  In the meantime it’s just not ok
- It still amazes me that they are surprised. They lived through it the first time. It wasn't fake news It was their own reality.
  
  They will vote for him again.
  
  Trump had no control, deep state did it obvs /s
I'm milk!.... I mean Soy milk! Nice to meet y'all.
They're just going to get bailed out, unfortunately.
- nah, i think this time they will get hung out to dry. trump cares more about mega corps buying the land than he does for the people that will be displaced (specifically, their donations)
Have the day you voted for.
Turns out fascism is bad for international trade. If only anyone could've seen that coming. 🙄
They can cry on Trumps shoulder. I do not care.
- Nore does he. Which is the point really.
Well, as a tofu muchin soy snackin vegan freak, I'm tempidly optimistic. Guess that fascist orange fuck is gonna lower my grocery prices after all.
And to think, all it only took was crashing the national economy, needlessly wasting soft cultural power and enacting worldwide boycotss of domestic goods to FINALLY make America great!
🙄
- Nope. The cost of your tofu is going to rise because of this.
  
  How does over production of something increase its cost?
- What makes you think your tofu is going to drop in price ? The supermarkets would rather let it rot, than allow you to buy it for less money.
  To put that another way, you have already made it clear what price you're willing to pay. The supermarkets now have an opportunity to source the product more cheaply from farmers who are overstocked. That means more profit for the supermarket, not lower prices for you
- I think what will happen is no orders = no crops. They'll grow something else or nothing else. And that'll create a scarcity or perception of scarcity.
  But maybe I'm wrong and some things will get cheaper, or at least not more expensive.
  
  You might well see a temporary drop in some prices. But as farmers go bankrupt and the land gets bought by larger and larger corporations, food prices will rise. As all food production sources narrow even more than it already has.
This isn't even a "I never thought leopards would eat MY face" this is more "I specifically asked for my face to be eaten by leopards".
dint china already find other suppliers like venuzeula, brazil, and other SOUTH east asian country.
- Yep that demand is never coming back. Happens when you continually fling shit at a trading partner.
  
  Canadians are taking notes.
The biggest purchaser of soy and corn was the US govt, which purchased it for foreign aid.
Well the farmers voted GOP because they opposed all that foreign aid, so Trump removed it.
- " You voted for what i campaigned on"- trump.
Hoping these mf divas get exactly and specifically what what they voted for.
Seems like a good time to be a tofu producer.
- Just like every other time a GOP president fucked american farmers there will be a "save the farmers" bill passed that will allow agri businesses to profit and some of the smaller farms will be bought out by large companies and the fuckwit voters will cheer for Trump saving farmers from the evil foreigners.
  
  maybe not this time, trump doesnt really care what happens this time. he only cares about distracting people form the epstein files, and giving more money to the billionaires, he had more "competent" people the first time around.
- Don't forget farmers overwhelmingly voted for Trump at 78%.
  
  Democrats should absolutely not vote for a bailout. While it would be good governing to do so, now is not a time of good governing. Make republicans eat their own turd.
  Talking point: "Trump's tariffs caused this. Trump can fix this at any point without a bill. The only responsible way for congress to fix this is to take away tariff powers from trump otherwise we'll have a new bailout every week for the next 3 years."
  
  Oddly, that aligns with lower education levels amd less exposure to new information, between rural and urban settings.
  Farmers may well be outstanding in their field (pun intended), but that's where it stops
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS HAPPENING. AGAIN. AFTER HE CAMPAIGNED ON LITERALLY THE SAME THING THAT CAUSED THIS THE FIRST TIME.
- Cause and Effect?? MY ONLY WEAKNESS!!!
Have they tried budgeting or making coffee at home?
- If they grow avocados and wheat, they can make their own toast!
  
  Grow avocados!? In this economy!?
  
  They'll grow it right next to dads injection of 100,000 dollars to my new starter home.
- Maybe they can just not eat T-bone steak and not buy the new iPhone.
  
  Or buy domestically produced iPhone.
  
  But it's orange! Like their god!
- Don't any of these people have bootstraps?!
Shouldnt they be happy they aren't giving food to a bunch of commies who are their self proclaimed mortal enemies? Soy beans are native to China, too. So idk how these red blooded Murican farmers got conned into growing them, oh wait it's cuz they're all dumb as shit nvm.
- Soybean is what they grow between seasons of corn. Without cycling the crops, the soil goes to shit. They'll grow corn next year if they still have a farm after this year.
  
  Lol the soil HAS gone to shit. A two year rotation wholly dependant on excessive tillage, exposed to wind and water erosion for minimum 1/4 of the year is not exactly a model for soil health. Average American farmer doesn't give a shit about soil health, they can make good money (or get bailed out) growing soy and it gives them a nitrogen credit.
  
  Also, I hope they don't have a fucking farm next year because I'd like to start a sustainable farm and I want that cheap land, babyyyyy
- also growing alfalfa which are notorious water hogs, and is only supplied to ME,.
  
  Yeah gotta love that they grow alfalfa in some of the most arid regions of the country!
This is the Find Out stage.
Keep voting red you stupid fuckers.
- a lot of farmers are capitalists, its not a stretch to say a lot of them financed it and actually made trump happen.
  if only these people only had a vote to influence politics.
- I can't wrap my head around how some of them can be so hateful and intolerant when they are the true soy boys.
  
  Projection. Always, every single damn time, it's projection.
  
  the only version of reality they know is on fox news, newsmax, the joe rogan experience, and am radio.
  this war has been coming. they've even known its coming. but they understand it to be solely at the feet of the chinese state manipulating the markets. they think, because it's the only perspective they've ever been exposed to, 47 to be a big strong power daddy standing up to those bullies.
  it has never occurred to them that the great imperial powers, russia, china, the anglosphere, are engaged in a centuries long stalemate. one that benefits no one but the people at the top. their big power daddy is not their savior, but their antichrist. their pharaoh, caesar, king, and overseer. he hates them and will make them suffer.
  and i hate everyone in this thread thinking laughing at them is the play here. they turn to their churches because their churches promise to help them and accept them. i'm sick of this performative leftist bullshit. things don't get better by shaming the morons, they get better by feeding them and showing them another way. through galvanizing them against all our opressors. yeah, some are so twisted with hate you can never help them, but by not even trying to bring them to our way of seeing things you're repeating all of the same mistakes that created a malicious and uninformed public in germany that cranked out adolf eichmanns.
  don't be like israelis blaming this genocide on an evil race of tormentors. be like hannah arendt blaming it on a system of manipulation of what right and wrong even is
- No choice now...
  
  Well, they did fuck around...
Tough shit and the fuckers voted for this disaster. The corporate farms are going to be buying a lot of cheap family farms.
- Methinks you're dancing a little to hard.
  Once corporations have total domination of our food production, we are completely fucked.
  
  Obviously, but what can you do against the tyranny of fucking idiots?
Oh NO! ALL they wanted was to be able to Kill Black Kids on their Driveway! They DIDNT know it would Effect their WALLETS too!
Two in the thoughts, one in the prayers.
- This comment evoked the famed but elusive chuckle-clench.
- Great depression 2.0 is here. These morons got ~~Hoovered~~ Trumped and now we'll get to see farmers setting soybeans on fire to collect insurance instead of feeding people.
  
  Capitalism is so normal and sane
- I can only hope...
- It means they're going to ask the FDA for as waiver on how long they can keep it and how much can rot before it all has to be tossed.
  Ie. Food will just be less safe
- Bruh it ain't that kind of soy just like most of the corn grown in the US is completely unstable for human consumption...
Farmers will sell their land to someone with more money.
More consolidation is what this country needs. /s
- https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/does-jd-vance-have-a-stake-in-acretrader-all-about-the-farmland-app-controversy-article-151319788
  
  Sketchy ass site.
“We desperately need to get something rectified quickly with China, our biggest export customer,” he told CNN. “We wanna encourage the administration to get a proactive trade deal done.”
If you’re desperate, you’re well beyond the “proactive” stage…
Oh no.
The consequences of your own voting.
Just like Canada is, China is specifically targeting people who voted red and I have zero sympathy. In fact, I applaud them in this instance.
Every one of these people had more than 8 years to see what Trump was like before voting.
It’ll probably be hard for them to buy some tarifer potash and fertilizer next year after their reduced sales this harvest, but it’s what they wanted.
- You have any sources for the claim about China specifically targeting people who voted red?
Retarded Trump voters again
Hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha..
Sorry I meant..
HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH
Rice and beans, friend. And you got lots of beans to eat.
Man is racism expensive.
- I am just a single persom, and have been micro stockpiling a surplus 5lb bag of rice, 6 or so cans of refried beans, about 10 or so cans of soup, 24 instant ramen packs...
  ... each month, since I think March.
  Plan to keep doing so as long as I can, and then start literally eating into it when shit gets insane, only buying bits of protein and veggies to throw into the rice cooker/stew pot.
  Fucking Great Depression 2.0, this time with live streaming rofl, at least until our infrastructure starts also completely crapping out.
  Might be worth it to stock up on some duct tape, get a basic set of home repair tools and a basic medkit if you don't already have one, also maybe a water purifier straw, sewing kit and patches...
  ...and if you can swing it, some kind of backup battery that can be charged via either wall outlet or solar panels, in the event of grid outage and you still want to keep a mini fridge going or at least have some access to AC vs none.
  Also, get a mylar blanket. If you lose power, those things can be taped up to a window to help bounce more heat away from them and keep the heat down... or used as an actual heat retaining blanket when its super cold.
  
  Try to get dried beans instead. They are cheaper and taste better, although take a little more prep.
Bailout incoming.
- Nope they will go bankrupt, their farms will be bought up by equity firms, Trump will tell them it is because the “Haitians are eating their cats and dogs,” and they will vote for him again.
- Why? They're rigging the elections so they don't have to cater to these idiots and the only people who matter to the republicans are billionairs. The media will just lie and blame it biden or just lie say farming is better than ever.
What's that you say? Soybeans are a complimentary crop for corn, and those same soybean farmers will now have to carry this utter loss into corn planting season? I wonder how many farmers fail this season and don't plant next season.
- I’m lost, can you explain this?
  
  Need to rotate and harvest them so they can perform their complimentary soil amendments naturally. Farmers can’t repeatedly grow the same crop or the soil will go bad.
  So now they’re stuck with increasingly difficult choices. Pay to harvest and store them with no buyer, figure out what to do with the harvested beans later, thus paving the way for next year’s corn crop, is the likely choice. But now they’re going into debt because no bean income and corn seed isn’t free, plus they’ll need to empty those grain silos at some point before the corn harvest…and I don’t see this admin making any trade deals between now and then.
  In other words, prepare to pay even more in taxes to bail the farm corpos out again so they can buy up the remaining small farms which will fail from this mess.
  
  It's something aling the lines of corn sucks up nitrogen from the soil like crazy. While soy is a nitrogen fixer. It adds/ pulls nitrogen into the soil. Something along those lines.
Fuck these dipshits, they ALL voted for this. Let them all suffer deeply for their stupidity. I hate this timeline where morons are running the show everywhere.
- The idiots have taken over.
  
  I hear NoFX, I upvote. I'm a simple man.
Seen ✓✓
Perfectly good taxpayer subsidized food rotting in the ground, I sure feel great again. /s
- Growing up in an ag state I was shoved propaganda left and right about how great rural states were, that cities depended on us, we were the breadbasket.
  Our crops? Cattle corn and soybeans.
  Cattle corn, aka feed for cattle, inedible for humans, and subsidized out the ass by the gov. So much is overproduced that they literally had to find other usages for it, which is where ethanol comes from. Subsidized corn making cheap fuel to have cars run on subsidized roads.
  Soybeans, also subsidizes, and what is used is mostly exported to other countries like China.
  We provided very little food to our own citizens. You listen to these rural farmers though and they'll tell you up and down how gov payouts and leeches are a drain on society, hooboy do they hate them. Until it's time to get their own check.
  
  I have been known to visit some of those growers sheds, sit down and drink their beer, then call them a welfare queen.
  When they get mad, I ask them how much their subsidy and crop insurance checks were the past few years?
  Every fucking single one of them knows that they are parasites on the system. They just don't want the "wrong type of people" to get welfare too.
In other words, he's republican and expects special treatment than other Americans. Traitors.
Get fucked, Magats. Have the day you voted for.
So... Soy products are about to become cheaper? I'm down for some tofu.
- Lol, no. They'll just leave them to rot in the fields.
  
  Not so much "let them" as "happy accident that theres no buyers and no pickers"
Damn, you know what would've been a good trade deal? Not touching anything and just letting it be instead of the tariffs.
- If they'd done that then Canada would be fascist right now.
Weird. I seem to remember the orange idiot they voted for starting a pointless trade war with China (and the rest of the world)? That's why we're all paying more for less...
- This isn't even the first time this has happened. Soybean farmers already got screwed over as a result of one of Trump's trade wars way back in 2018 during his first term. Anyone who voted for Trump again expecting anything different is an idiot.
They knew this was coming before the planting season, too. Now, they may have already used their loans on soy, as I'm not sure about the time frame on when their orders would be placed, but they still could have minimized the loss with reduced planting. This is how incredibly stupid these people are. They've known since last November he was elected and what his plans were.
- Since November? LOL, Trump started a trade war with China during his first admin.
  
  I'm aware of his first term. They knew he was reelected in November and therefore should have known the storm that was coming.
STFU, you moronic cunt.
Grab yer pitchforks n torches, frankenorange must die
if only there was a North America where food was expensive where you could sell a shitload of edamame
i only lightweight hope Farmer Fritz doesn't starve
- It's not that kind of soy, it has been bred to be used for cattle feed.
Got what you voted for. It’s ok, they have insurance.
- Does their insurance cover acts of megalomania? Because I somehow doubt that.
  
  Most policies have a guarantee in yield/minimum money made. It will cover costs, but they won’t profit much if that happens…. And if they are farmers that are already struggling, then that will put them over the edge.. this shit is wild.
Does any one need some cookies with your tea?
honestly even quite aside from the politics behind this, being unable to sell fucking SOYBEANS feels like a skill issue to me, there are so many people who want vegan protein these days. Literally just blanch them, freeze them, and sell them to grocery stores.
Hope they starve to death on a bed of rotting soy
If the Supreme Court won’t issue a verdict, maybe, just maybe, the people who produce our food will.
Too bad there isn't a local population that could use the food. But if Americans can't afford it on their own, and with farmer's federal subsidies cut, farmers aren't about to sell cheaply or give it away locally.
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZWpsYnZsaDkwYjloc294bHFmbTh1aG4yMm9ya3Zud2NrczNvaXlhaSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/7k2LoEykY5i1hfeWQB/giphy.gif

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