Posted on 06/28/2014 4:12:12 PM PDT by blueplum
JENSEN, UTAH — It’s easy to find the largest Chinese-owned hay farm in the United States. It sits 189 miles east of Salt Lake City, on a stunningly scenic bend of the Green River. After driving past the only gas station in Jensen, population 400, a visitor crosses the river, turns left and is soon surrounded by a meticulously managed, 22,000-acre ranch, lush with green alfalfa.
Nearly all of it is destined for China. :snip:
Simon Wen Shao, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen who’s a co-owner of the Utah alfalfa farm, acknowledged that locals had acted warily when his company purchased the ranch. Friends of his farm manager, Frank Biggs, immediately chided Biggs for “working for the communists.”
Shao said those concerns had eased as his company had attempted to build ties in the community, buying new farm equipment and modernizing the ranch. One of his first steps was to rename the historic property “Escalante Ranch” after the previous owner had dubbed it “Thunder Ranch.”
“I think local people liked that decision,” he said during a tour of the farm. “It sounds better than Red Dragon Ranch.”
:snip:
Michael J. McKee, a Uintah County commissioner, said that many local growers recognized that foreign demand for alfalfa helped raise the price for their crop, aiding the county’s farm economy. Still, McKee acknowledged he’d heard from a few constituents who want “our land here to be held by American farmers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
Way things are going we will all work for the Chinese one day. Gee, thanks Obama!
I’d like to hear from the free traitors on this post. (crickets)
Here is my free trade comment: if you can’t compete, you do not deserve it in the first place.
I'm curious. How did you get either of these from the article?
The only "trade policy" discussion was with regard to shippers giving extra-low rates to goods headed back across the Pacific to avoid deadheading. That's a company policy, not a national one.
There may be a good discussion to have on the topics you bring up, but not based on this article.
It makes sense for the USA to sell what it can to China.
I gather that alfalfa growing is not a Chinese thang. Lots and lots of rocky ground. So we sell them alfalfa and they sell us cheap trinkets.
I wonder if some day we will sell California to China.
Compete against third worlders, we see where that’s headed. That’s why many of us in our 50’s have been sidelined despite years of experience.
What do you want to hear? If you want some alfalfa, buy it. Don’t go running to Uncle Sugar for help.
America could certainly stand to perk up.
I keep on hammering on this to some people’s disgust, but it’s true. A consciousness of the love of the Lord would propel America back to greatness again. This is known as the gospel message; yes it manifests in individual salvations but it manifests in shareable blessings too.
If we drop this on the floor it isn’t God’s fault. It’s ours.
It’s amazing how quickly belief in a free market evaporates when it affects one personally in a negative way.
So go into the alfalfa business or something... if you can get China to love nothing but moo shoo beef, more power to you.
I’d rather they buy our alfalfa than our technology (which they then copy).
Sometimes imaginations are lacking. Maybe you’ll have to hang up that buggy whip production works. But it could be parlayed into upholstery factories. Etc. and similarly.
They aren’t set up to be able to farm like the US can. They can’t live on cheap plastic trinkets forever.
I know a guy who just gave away 140 bales of last-year’s alfalfa (to a horse-rescue outfit) because he couldn’t sell it, and needed the room for this year’s crop.
Never could understand this push to move all our economy overseas.
Of course, Red China has so little arable land, they have to import feeds. What is silly is that a lot of that Red China ag ends back here in US....we could use the feed to feed US cattle
It isn’t an all or nothing game here.
There are things that China wants that the US is well positioned to furnish. And they aren’t totally stupid about it.
It is time to let Chinese cattle ‘starve’. No alfafa until we have unfettered access to Chinese markets on every thing.
And if I want alfalfa for my horses, I want it at the same price the F’n Chinese are paying, less shipping costs, of course!
It has not only effected me, but millions other of my countrymen. Since when haven’t Americans always been screwed in any free trade agreements. From the Japanese getting their cars through as trucks back in the 70’s by taking the back seats out to millions of electronic jobs sent to Mexico in the 80’s. I can list a bunch of other examples too.
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