Posted on 12/29/2014 11:30:22 AM PST by dennisw
Investment guru advises MBA students to study agriculture DECEMBER 06, 2014 08:18 loading
Legendary investor Jim Rogers on Thursday advised Master of Business Administration (MBA) students at Seoul National University to quit the MBA program and study agriculture. He argued that by the time the students would retire, agriculture would become the most promising industry. Rogers advised the students to have a switch of ideas and become farmers at a time when everyone else is neglecting agriculture and rush to cities. When the investment guru said he hoped to live as a farmer in China rather than a financier in America in his next life, it sounded like a prediction that there are promising chances to make money from agriculture from an investor`s viewpoint, rather than an expression of his personal dream of life on the farm.
The South Korea-China free trade agreement (FTA) has caused major concerns for rural communities. There are growing voices from farmers opposing the opening of the local rice market to Chinese imports. Rogers probably did not mean to advise retirees to go to rural villages and do farming. He called on younger generations to consider agriculture as a future growth industry and open up new markets by pioneering globally competitive farming sectors. To that end, universities should carry out systematic studies for a scientific agricultural industry and seek a breakthrough.
The Seoul-Beijing FTA is a golden opportunity for Korea to target 100 million wealthy Chinese consumers. Anxious about harmful foodstuffs in China, the high-income Chinese consumers are willing to buy Korea`s safe and organic farming products at high prices. They are increasingly concerned about Chinese agricultural products, which include fake food such as liquor, milk and even eggs.
Farmers who graduated from the state-run Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries had an average income of 65 million won (58,295 U.S. dollars) in 2010, about 40 percent higher than that of urban workers. This suggests that those who properly run livestock, flower, fruit or vegetable farms can be far better off than average workers in cities. Just as Rogers said, younger generations should change their way of thinking, and the government needs to come up with ground-breaking measures to encourage young people to taking on farming as a blue-ocean industry.
There are a lot of benefits in the ‘farming’ way of life.
Just keep or get government out of it. Too bad the US doesn’t understand that ....
I would think the Chinese to be far more protective of their job market than we are allowed to be in the states. If you begin a factory over there, I wonder if China would demand that a certain percentage of your employees must be Chinese, irregardless of any language or cultural barrier.
So he’s long on commodities?
I have both....a double major with a Bachelors of Science in BA and Agriculture. Worked out well for me.
Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
They are going to drive up the price of land before I can buy the farmette of my dreams!!!
Was he suggesting picking cotton might be in their future?
Investment guru (Jim Rogers) advises MBA students to study agriculture by shoveling horse & cow manure for 20 years.
That`s how I learned how to raise giant tomatoes.
There fixed it.
My wife and I left suburbia and now live on an 80 acre farm far away from any big cities. We did it to become independent and so far it’s working out well. When the SHTF we are ready, as are most of my neighbors. City dwellers, on the other hand, will be forked. Katrina and Sandy are the best examples.
There are only 2 kinds of people... those who are prepared and those who sit on their roof waiting for FEMA. Your choice.
I come from farm country in Iowa. The folks back home never had an economic slowdown. In fact during the worst of it, there was 1% unemployment in my home county. Why? People need to eat, and the government continues to subsidize ethanol.
The Who - Now I’m A Farmer
I’ve got a spade and a pick-axe
And a hundred miles square of land to churn about
My old horse is weary but sincerely
I believe that he can pull a plough
Well, I’ve moved into the jungle
Of the agriculture rumble to grow my own food
And I’ll dig and plough and scrape the weeds
Till I succeed in seeing cabbage growing through
Now I’m a farmer, and I’m digging
Digging, digging, digging, digging
Now I’m a farmer, and I’m digging
Digging, digging, digging, digging
It’s alarming how charming it is to be a-farming
How calming and balming the effect of the air
Well, I farmed for a year and grew a crop of corn
That stretched as far as the eye can see
That’s a whole lot of cornflakes
Near enough to feed New York till 1973
Cultivation is my station and the nation
Buys my corn from me immediately
And holding sixty thousand bucks, I watch as dumper trucks
Tip New York’s corn flakes in the sea
Now I’m a farmer, and I’m digging
Digging, digging, digging, digging
Now I’m a farmer, and I’m digging
Digging, digging, digging, digging
It’s alarming how charming it is to be a-farming
How calming and balming the effect of the air
Now look here, son, the right thing to say
Isn’t necessarily what you want to say
The right thing to do
Isn’t necessarily what you want to do
The right things to grow
Ain’t necessarily what you want to grow
Your own happiness
Doesn’t necessarily teach you what you want to know
Well, I’m suntanned and deep, so’s the horse
And my hands are deeply grained
Old horse is a-grazing, it’s amazing
Just how lazily he took the strain
Well, my pick and spade are rusty
Because I’m paid on trust
To leave my square of cornfield bare
It’s alarming how charming it is to be a-farming
How calming and balming the effect of the air
When you grow what I grow
Tomatoes, potatoes, stew, eggplants
Potatoes, tomatoes, gourds
Oh, farmers certainly do know it.
But far too many big companies have purchased large tracts of farmland and/or ranchland for the corporate welfare handed out by the government.
Get government out of farming and the family farm will come back.
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