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FACT BRIEF

Is the government telling farmers they must destroy their crops to create shortages, or they'll lose all farm subsidies?

By Sarah Thompson
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NO

A collection of hoax TikTok videos has been circulating with baseless claims about a global or U.S. government plot to destroy crops and depopulate the planet or the United States through mass starvation. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman said these rumors are not true.

Several of these videos have been declared a joke or fake news by the persons who made them.

A post featuring a collection of these videos was published on Facebook in late August 2021, under the title "Farmers destroying crops world wide."

Nebraska.tv published an article debunking the claims and focusing on one that originated in Nebraska. The article included a statement from the Nebraska Department of Agriculture saying there is no government program paying farmers to destroy crops, and quoting the department's communications director: "Don't believe everything you see on the internet!"

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Nebraska TV News Farmers are not being paid to destroy crops
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.