NFR Soapbox indulgence

[Dalmatian90]

This post has nothing to do with the fire service, so you can leave now :)

But it is something that I do care a lot about, and that is that much of American agriculture is caught in a vicious trap of industrialization supported by federal subsidies.

Agriculture is the foundation of our strength as a nation, and we are fortunate to live on the most productive soil on the planet.

But that foundation is having the diversity that makes it strong and resistant washed away by misguided subsidies. We do have a federal role in agricultural subsidies, both to stabilize markets from unpredictable events, more so to preserve farms diverse in products and geography. Screw "energy security" -- we can build more nuclear power plants to make up for Arabian oil...we can not risk our Agricultural power, and yet that's what we do through growing the same genetically modified crops over huge areas, and running industrial protein factories that grow poor quality and dangerous to our health but cheap meat.

I'm sure nearly all of us can remember when you could get a "Medium-rare" hamburg, something now illegal to serve in the state I work in (Massachusetts) thanks to the industrial feed lots and slaughterhouses that have utterly contaminated our beef.

On a national level we can work for reforms over time that start to finally favor small farmers and most importantly a diversity in the species of plants & animals we grow. But that is not a mission for most of you reading this, just something to remember.

On a personal level we can favor local produce and farmers when we can. It's not always an option, but when it's available, try to buy locally. The more bought from local farms, the more overtime will become available. Places like where I live will never compete with California for vegetables year round -- but you know what, we could if the market was there for just slightly pricier but much fresher and tastier produce grow most of what we need to eat from June through September.

At any rate, this is a very well written story that gives you insight into the modern beef industry:
http://www.nelivestockalliance.org/news/nytimes33102.shtml

Matt

[Dalmatian90]

Hey Larry...

Just moving your stuff here:
Dal,
You are right that we should be an agriculture nation as the feeding of the citizens should be the number one priorty. Yet every year we seen millions of acres taken out of production. Where I live we have people moving here from the large cities. They buy ten or 15 acres and build a home. They may put a cow, goat or sheep on it to get an agriculture tax exemption. They also drill a hole in the ground and water an acre of land to grow grain so that can draw birds and wildlife in to shoot. Then they wonder why the water table goes down and the well runs dry. This has forced agriculture producers to develop other means to make more land productive to make up for land taken out of production. I am sure that you have seen shopping centers put up on former agriculture land. Concrete does not grow food or grass for animals. As Americans we demand cheap food prices.
Some years back on PBS there was a show called the Farmer's wife. It was about a couple in Nebraska who were wheat farmers. There life was not as great as many people think. They were working two jobs and borrowing money to live on. Sometimes having to take handouts to feed their kids. Some people will say it was poor management. But, it showed what a hard time agriculture people have in making it.
Perhaps we all ought to go back and try to raise our own food. I have raised hogs at a cost of 33 cents per pound and when i sold they brought 25 cents. I lost money, American Farmers have to go to exstreems to provide us with cheap food. I wish that it did not have to be this way. my opinion. Larry
Dal, I hid wrong button, this is reply for you.


No, agriculture isn't the easiest.

Fair prices is a major issue -- it's hard to compete with industrial feeding operations for commodity beef/pork/chicken. Makes you wonder where money goes when you buy Pork in the store for $1.50/lb for ground pork to $3.50/lb for really good pork chops.

We are slowly losing ag land in my area, although interestingly I've seen some small (10-20 acre) woodlots converted to fields over the last decade. My state does have a fairly active program to preserve the good agri land we have -- the state will buy the development rights which can be quite substantial in Connecticut ($5-15k/acre), so it takes time to get state money, and it takes willing farmers (they lose the ability to use that development value as collateral on loans).

About our program (small for Texas standards, but important to us :D)
The goals and reasons for Farmland Preservation remain unchanged. A goal of preserving 130,000 acres, with 85,000 acres of cropland continues to be in effect for the Department of Agriculture. This land base will enable Connecticut to produce at least 50% of its fluid milk needs and 70% of its in-season fresh fruits and vegetables. This in-state production will ensure some degree of local availability of fresh farm products. It will also help ensure related jobs and remain an important part of the State’s economy.

To date, 22% of this 130,000-acre goal has been met through the purchase of development rights program.

On a local basis we give our farmers very, very good tax treatment -- it costs us a lot less to waive 75% of their taxes than what it would cost us to educate kids growing up in a new subdivision. (You can actually make the logical arguement that the most cost-effective use of taxes in my town is to buy land and keep it from being developed into residential property -- at $8,000/kid/year to educate, we just never recoup the taxes on residences!)

One of the biggest problems is we have many farmers who have gotten caught up trying to keep up with the industrial entities and/or going after subsidies. To get production up that high it takes a lot of debt, a lot of medications and supplements, hiring extra hands to do milkings every eight hours to push cows to 20,000# a year of milk each -- but maximum profits aren't always from maximum output. Many farmers without the debt load make much more net profit from 12,000# milkers. Yet once you've taken on the debt, you've gotta keep pushing to make those payments and you don't have the capability to "downsize" your equipment to a less expensive system.

Actually, that's not just a farmer's problem. Way too many of us are way up to the ears in debt and find ourselves caught in not taking the time to smell the roses 'cause we need the overtime or second job to make the payments on the big pickup truck, or the jetski, or whatever else it is. Debt's not always bad, just lots of debt is.