Be fun to sit down a while and swap notes, or visit a week in each other's shoes.
I've changed so much on my farm in the past 10 years, my head is dizzy. It would seem an organic farm, by definition, would be standing still in the 1950s? Just a little fun, but if you think about it, not sure what you are trying to say.....
Organic has no real value, it is a fad. It may grow to dominate the food industry, that is fine. But it is just food, many studies show an average organic farm has more pathogens, less nutrition in the food than an average conventional farm. Neither is good or bad; but if that is the next push you will make, I'm aware of the data......
So, the organic growers are cashing in on a fad. That's cool. But it likely is going to be short term. The big food companies, as General Mills is showing, or Deans Foods, or the other very small handful of companies that controls 90% of the food - they will not be paying a farmer those kinds of premiums. They will control the production themselves. You will be cut out.
Or, the organic fad will peak and fade away again, as fads tend to do.
So your business plan is pretty short term. You are jumping in bed with some cut throat operators.
My concerns are not about me. I operate dad's farm, added only a very few acres over the years, stuff is paid for and I'll be find the next few years. My 1980s machinery is nicely paid for, and I might well farm less acres than you do! Your assumptions are probably pretty funny to those that know me.
My concern is about the next generation of farmer. The little towns around me. What are they gonna do?
The current direction Ag is taking is not economically sustainable.
Organic production is even worse!
I'm looking for a different direction, one where people listen, to start with.
If you and the union guy up above have it all figured out for yourselves, that's fine. Seems pretty selfish and short term to me, somehow. And I don't think you mean it to be selfish, I just think you haven't looked out at the big picture, and what the future is. This is no personal dude between you and me....
We will always be stuck with a farm program. It is how the govt nudges and controls and does its thing with internal USA politics and global politics. It's silly to think that will ever go away.
So we need to figure out a better system then we have.
The crop insurance deal now is just dumb and anti- farm as the day is long, but you know if we kill it, the first person calling his congressperson in a froth will be that union fella up above, can't cut money to farmers we need our pentions invested in the insurance companies, and we need farmers buying iron with those subsidies! Oh the horror, put those insurance subsidies back and double them!
And you have a deal going where organic is the only way to farm, if everyone did then everything would be great for everyone. But - think that through?
How could that possibly work? It wouldn't.
And so, what is the future of Ag in the USA?
I want a better one than we have.
Yours doesn't work. It does for you and that is great, but for the country, for the farmers, 20 or 40 years from now, that is a terrible dead end for Ag in the USA.....
The union guy doesn't understand at all.
Congress listens to bankers and insurance companies, they have the nicest, biggest buildings in the middle of the biggest urban areas, they make the most contributions. Nothing in the 'farm program bill' is for farmers. It is 80% to poor people, it is for the bankers and the insurance companies to get subsidies.
No one listens to real farmers. Or works towards a better Ag future.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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