Exponential growth and the future of farming

blunosr

Member
Hi, I watched this Ted Talk about farming and the future of farming. It starts out talking about exponential growth and economics, but eventually starts talking about what all this means in terms of farming and it's potential as an investment, and as a career path. If you have some patience, it is worth a look. There's a very interesting analogy about 7 minutes in, and then around 8 and a half minutes in it talks about how tremendously important farming is about to become. Farm land is going to be worth a lot, especially if it is near population centers. And farming will be an up and coming career path...

http://youtu.be/uf_mrQpN1Hw

Bye for now,

Troy
 
Maybe it's the weather today and worrying about next year but I just do not share such optimism. I think the government if the truth be known would like to drive it back to the point of being an occupation for peasants. I remember watching an educational movie in 1975 as an elementary school student that predicted unprecedented prosperity for the individual consumer working only a ten hour work week by the end of the 20th Century. How did that work out? I will believe any prophecy that realistically analyzes human nature. By the way I was the only dissenter in the discussion following that movie in 5th grade.
 
If the truth be known the government would like to drive all occupations back
to the level of peasants except for the government and it's workers all
while expanding government to encompass enough of the economy that government
workers will play the major role in deciding any election. That way the
government can control elections with their employees and control the
employees with the threat of reducing them to peasants. The two major
problems are that any time the government takes something over it usually
screw it up so bad that it no longer works. Combine that with the premise of
man being a senescent being with natural rights and freedoms which would
indicate that either things taken over by the government will get so screwed
up there'll be a revolt OR man under the auspice of a totalitarian state will
revolt by violent or non-violent means to restore their natural freedoms.

I didn't watch the clip but my fear for farming is it's becoming a more
capital intense proposition. Combine that with more intrusive government
regulations and increasing taxation the trend will be for more and more farms
to become large corporate entities and more and more farming will occur with
hired managers and laborers.

I work on an egg farm, 4 1/2 million birds at our location. It is privately
held but still organized as a corporation, that way if someone dies or gets
divorced stock changes hands and the company isn't on the hook for taxes. Our
location is only one of several held by this company, this is by design it
has locations spread across Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. This limits the
potential for one storm, fire, tornado, disease outbreak, mechanical or
utility failure to turn off all our eggs supplied to our customers. The
ability to provide product regardless is a requirement for most food
processors of any size.
 
"government workers will play a major role in deciding an election" ?? About 7.4% of the US population are government workers. The U.S. population is roughly 316 million. It is not likely that there would ever be enough government workers to decide the outcome of any election, unless there was only a 10% voter turnout. Don't think the future of farming is as negative as some would have us believe.
 
Yes, welcome to "Neo-Feudalism" in America. More and more land in the hands of fewer and fewer with farmers being little more than tenants and rents so high that the farmer can barely eak out a living.
 
I heard the same thing in grade school back in the early sixties. I am still waiting for the end of the 20th century to get here.
 
That poor guy is leading a sheltered life. He needs to come out here and talk to the neighbor down the road that is trying to start up the type of farm he is talking about in his presentation. It is not doing so well, fellow had to find a town job this fall to make his payments. The small farmer is going the way of the dodo bird.
 
Farming is a very important industry. It is also becoming a
mature industry. When was the last time you heard of a family
car builder? The only reason farming isn't more corporate
industrialised than it is, is because farming is so dynamic.
Poultry and pork can be managed by numbers in a building with
no Windows. Can you imagine waiting for an approval from the
head office to cut hay?

In the right situations small time farming can work, but it requires
marketing. I have friends that can net 6 figures on 10 acres, but
they have developed the right markets.

As for the future of careers in agriculture, there is huge demand
inoff farm agriculture industries too. Especially for people who
can sell, or manage numbers. For young folk that have farm
experience, there is an incredible world out there.
 
They were saying the same thing when I was a kid.
That was about 60 years ago. Some things never change. World population then was about 1.6 billion people.
 
grain fed vs grass fed there wasnt enough corn to go around. this isnt nothing new back in the 50's and 60's everything was grass fed with little grain 70's till now everybody grain feeds the livestock it butchers easer,has a better color, taste better, more tender, marbled betterand has a good flavor. I raise and like grain fed better than grass and weeds.i can raise more cows and pigs on less acres.
 
Try to find out how many billionaires existed and how many people in our country were living on entitlements, percentage wise, there were in our country back then as opposed to how many there are in those two groups now.....This might help you understand what has happened and why. Most Americans out working nowadays for a living have to work pretty hard and some quite long hours, even many on multiple jobs because there actually aren't many of them percentage wise. And I also think you'll find a huge amount of the nation's wealth is being accumulated by a relative few, but those few have accumulated a horrendous amount and literally monopolize our nation's economy.
 

A lot of the changes in our economy favor a wealthy elite. Fewer workers are needed to produce more products, so the demand for labor is lower, leading to lower wages. Industry is capital intensive, and now capital can move jobs from country to country, always seeking the best "deal" ( low wages ). Workers can't move so easy, and it disrupts families and communities.

There are very few small farms around anymore, and a small farm is maybe 1000 acres? A few folks are trying to scratch out a living doing organic stuff, but it is hard work for little pay, and most give up after a few years. The local JD dealer knows his customers as they walk in the door. He should, there are only a few big operations left.

I don't know what the answers are anymore. I am not sure of the questions!!
 
(quoted from post at 02:16:16 11/19/14) Right now non-citizens are deciding most elections. How did we get so stupid?

Seriously? 330 million people and elections are being decided by illegals? :?:

You should talk to your docs about your pills, you are suffering from delusions.
 
(quoted from post at 21:46:46 11/19/14)
(quoted from post at 02:16:16 11/19/14) Right now non-citizens are deciding most elections. How did we get so stupid?

Seriously? 330 million people [b:4e6cd18f1c]and elections are being decided by illegals? :?: [/b:4e6cd18f1c]

You should talk to your docs about your pills, you are suffering from delusions.

AII it takes is a coupIe votes one way or the other
 

Part of the problem is most people will willingly vote for or back something they think they aren't paying for or at least not paying much for. The other problem is a lot of people are simply not voting on anything at all, they just don't care anymore or never did. When you only have 40% of the voting population turning out in the first place then 7 or 8% can make a huge difference. Doesn't matter if it's illegals or what, it all can make a difference.

As far as working for the gov't, up here the major employers are gov't and hospitals/universities that might as well be gov't employees. Those voting blocks rarely vote for less spending or lower taxes. They control what happens up here. It isn't at all outlandish to think gov't would like to have an assured group backing them. And that goes for both sides.
 


I agree, folks not voting is a big problem. As for people working in health care and other service industries, that is economics, not much we can do about that. I worked 35 years in manufacturing, and watched technology replace most workers. And that isn't done yet.

Realistically, illegal voting is some small fraction of 1%. If somebody lost a election on that basis, they would be in court, and they aren't. To say that "most" elections are being decided by illegals is nuts. You can't find 1, much less "most". You would have to be paranoid to believe that.
 
(quoted from post at 20:48:56 11/19/14) Try to find out how many billionaires existed and how many people in our country were living on entitlements, percentage wise, there were in our country back then as opposed to how many there are in those two groups now.....This might help you understand what has happened and why. Most Americans out working nowadays for a living have to work pretty hard and some quite long hours, even many on multiple jobs because there actually aren't many of them percentage wise. And I also think you'll find a huge amount of the nation's wealth is being accumulated by a relative few, but those few have accumulated a horrendous amount and literally monopolize our nation's economy.

The billionaires are living what the right wing talking heads call "The American Dream." They (supposedly) worked hard to get where they are and they deserve the rewards of success. All the left (supposedly) wants to do is take it away from them and hand it out to the poor as entitlements.

I got no problem with people working hard and getting rich. The slippery slope comes when someone reaches a sort of financial "critical mass" where their holdings are so massive and so diverse that they cannot help but continue to rake in piles of money. These guys never say, "I'm rich enough, I will leave that opportunity for someone else." It's bad business to pass up a good opportunity.

They get so big that it's literal pocket change to snuff out any small-time competition, either by buying them out or pricing them out of the market. It's bad business to let the competition get a foothold in your industry and they would be a fool to not eliminate the competition if they have the ways and means to do so legally.

What's the solution? It's not right to take from them or tell them that they can't make money. It's also not right that these super-wealthy people take from us and tell us that we can't make money through their business practices and actions.

The wealthy winge and minge about how the government is taking so much money from them in taxes and fees, and say how if the government would just leave them alone they would make more jobs. Really? You got stuff for people to do? If you did, why did you have that reduction-in-workforce just before Christmas? Paying people to do "make work" or nothing at all is bad business too BTW.

How about this, rich guys? The government is not taking anywhere near everything you have. Why don't you start making some of these jobs and get more people paying taxes? Make some of those jobs you say you'd create if not for the overbearing government. If you can prove that it works the government will surely cut your taxes so you can create even more jobs.
 

These big corps are vacumms for money. If there is a profitable niche, they move in. The local hardware here shut down early this year, been in biz 100 years. But Wallmart sells much of the same stuff cheaper than they could buy it. Little shop used to do tires and small repairs went out also - Wallmart sells tires. Now that a big box auto supply is coming to town, the local parts place is history pretty soon.

The local auto parts factories pay very little, mostly just above minimum wage. The only decent jobs are in health care or working for the government - the police have some of the best retirements. Somehow, the powers that be don't screw with them much.
 

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