Posted on 07/26/2017 2:45:39 PM PDT by artichokegrower
Most of us don’t spend our days plowing fields or wrangling cattle. We’re part of the 99 percent of Americans who eat food, but don’t produce it. Because of our intimate relationship with food, and because it's so crucial to our health and the environment, people should be very concerned about how it’s produced. But we don’t always get it right. Next time you’re at the grocery store, consider these 10 modern myths about the most ancient occupation.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Did you ever drive by the Better Made Potatoe Chip factory when they were unloading semi’s full of potatoes?
They drive the semi onto a huge 70’ long hydraulic lift and lift the whole thing, tractor and trailer almost straight in the air to dump the load. At least that’s how they used to do it.
It is interesting that you say this. When I was young boy (8-9) I was bad about not washing my fruit. I got lectured to by my mom and grandmother. One day my grandmother caught me eating a strawberry (unwashed), She then explained to me that the Mexican field workers would go to the edge of the field and urinate or defecate. No paper, no mashup facilities. Then they went back and picked that very berry which I had just eaten. That explaination took root in me and now I always wash my fruit....excessively.
#33 The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.
Will Rogers
She then explained to me that the Mexican field workers would go to the edge of the field and urinate or defecate.
Once, a very long time ago, I worked in a grocery store and had an office that overlooked the produce area. If people could see what I saw people do with produce you wouldn’t just wash it, you would bleach it. :)
Wash that produce, people.
Washington Post articles should be free with Prime.
I hope you did not just ruin my enjoyment for fruits. I fear you have.
Thanks for sharing that. Those are my favorite chips.
I can't figure it.
I know that reading the article is undesirable.
Family farms sell work shares to friends and neighbors...the friend or neighbor gets a share of the produce for working so many hours per week/month, etc.
They also sell community shares—people who want to be guaranteed a share of food but cannot work contribute so much per month and receive baskets weekly, monthly, etc..provides cash flow :)
My daughter-in-law’s farm milks goats—one tie they had as many as 1500, now down to 700 or so—they are milked twice daily with no foreign labor ever. They also have a cheese factory.
Automation of the planting phase, means one family can plant far more acres than they can harvest, based on the crop. If true, that only 20% of farms can earn a full living, than perhaps planting automation has made the family farm obsolete, and owners cannot share the harvest phase. Hence the incentive for foreign labor.
But that is just a distortion of the market. Build a solid border wall to protect the other folks in society. Ban guest workers, because living in a bus is anti-family.
Then what changes is like the free stock market, shares or contracts would be sold to give harvesters more ownership.
When harvesting is also automated for other crops like fruit picking, only then can one owner farmer responsibly manage the entire farm process.
But currently, mega planting, without mega harvesting, has a very detrimental impact on the rest of society.
No, I never drove by the Better Made Potatoe Chip Factory.
I do have some vacation time coming up, though.
We were planning to go to Hawaii, but this potato unloading thing sounds interesting.
If you cannot pick your own crops, you have too much farm.
Pretty broad-brush statement. Are you involved in agriculture?
Not sure you read or understood what I was saying...I am not supporting illegal immigrants. Migrant farm workers have been around for decades...Not sure how they impact agriculture job market, but they move around the country harvesting various crops...They are different from illegal border jumpers....
I do think there is a place for corporate farms...Why? Because few people have the time or space to grow any portion of their own food. Someone has to grow it. Do you grow your own food? Can it, etc.?
With reduced illegal immigration, it is going to cost consumers more for food. Fact...Just like it will cost more for lawn-mowing, roofing, etc. with fewer illegals. Actually, I have no problem with this as I grow a lot of my own food—I have over 30 tomato plants, over 30 squash and cukes, peppers, eggplant, spinach, radish, lettuce/kale/swiss chard, herbs, sunflowers, etc. If I get some egg layers, I would be store-free on bulk of food needs :)
What I was saying in my reply is that to expand harvest capabilities, small farms can and do use WSA...It is difficult to harvest enough acreage to make a family farm profitable if you only have one or two people doing it. From what I have seen, small family farms have difficult time affording high cost of automation.
WSA working share...family farms are doing that. It is one of the ways that family farms survive.
I am planning on buying a farmette & spouse is in ag, so I have learned a few things and continue learning by talking to family farmers and researching the subject...Here in IL, which has some of the best land for farming, it is not easy to make it work, and many if not most family farmers are utilizing multiple marketing opportunities (farm stand, farmer market, selling to restaurants/stores, CSA and WSA shares). They often if not always have one or more of the owners keeping their day job.
With reduced illegal immigration, it is going to cost consumers more for food. Fact
NOT A FACT! Many consumers will PAY LESS for food after lower immigration. The Free Republic economists have me here to keep them honest. lol. Book "Economics in One Lesson" says look far and wide for the answer.
My automobile was stolen and garage was robbed multiple times because of illegals. Honestly, I know folks who had 6 cars stolen by illegals. Yes 6. So looking far and wide, people can lose $10k to $50k, plus adding other costs like welfare, college, for illegals, and so on.
$50k dollars buys A LOT OF FOOD! So no, LESS ILLEGAL ALIENS equals CHEAPER FOOD.
Republicans always fail to find the right argument.
IDEAL - The farmer wants the same as a merchant. He wants a cashier whose lives in a cardboard box behind his store, because that is the cheapest labor. The farmer wants homeless wanderers living in a tent city, but bussed in for harvest. As long as they can do the work.
However, there are hidden costs for wanderers. When the full cost is known, the illegal costs more. The business costs are just SHIFTED to obscure areas.
Even roofing and lawn mowing are more expensive when the additional $10s of thousands of dollars are accounted for. People do not want to do the mental work seeking out the hidden costs that exist elsewhere. Politics works, because they use a simple but incorrect premise, that the only costs are the immediate mentioned.
Also, I suspect the family farm dilemma, has its source elsewhere, hidden in big govt somewhere. That is where the root problem often resides, in some monopoly granted by the State, to knock off the competition. Good bye Grandpa farmer.
It would be fun to buy food directly from the farm. But storage is the next problem. Therefore like Amazon or EBay, I could see the day when farms do sell their product DIRECTLY to the consumer. During harvest, food pre bought, even shipped. All that is required is an incredible website. Maybe when I retire, create the first farm to consumer trade market. The entire harvest could be pre-sold before harvest.
Republicans always fail to find the right argument? Huh?
Sorry my comment was specifically about farming...not macro-economics—however, I have had actual college courses in econ, so I don’t need a magazine/book to “set me straight.” Of course a reduction in illegals will have an effect in a macro-economic sense reducing welfare, etc. No one argues that is not a good thing. The macro economy will be better for it.
However, I would add that there will be disruptions along the way...they are reportedly occurring right now in California and Maine. Now farmers are hiring locals at higher wages due to shortages of illegals, purchasing robots, etc...That will drive up food costs.
With all due respect, I understand your thinking; however, I was talking specifically about food and you are not comparing apples to apples— excuse the pun...Fact that there are less home and auto robberies will not directly impact the cost of food unless food markets are being robbed less.
I have never had a robbery nor car stolen (and I live in Chicagoland), so I am not going to have a $10,000-$50,000 windfall or reduction in my cost of living to put towards increased food costs. What you are trying to say is that consumers may have more money to put towards food so cost increases to food don’t impact them as much...that is not the same thing as cheaper food.
Food will cost more. Fact.
Roofing and lawn care will cost more...Fact. Same reasoning.
You are saying the cost to taxpayers will be less, so it will trickle down...We will see. When housing values went south in 2009-2010, I called my assessor and asked if my taxes would go down as my house assessed value was less. I was told that the municipality will raise the mil rate, and I will pay the same as always—with the same as always increase cause the town needs x amount of $$ to function, etc. I have rarely seen tax decreases==look at what Trump is going thru to try to get one...but I understand what you are saying...hope we get some serious spending reductions under Trump!
I just don’t think it is accurate to say food etc. will cost less because the direct costs likely won’t.
Farmers can and do pre-sell their harvest all the time...called futures and/or options contracts on commodities. However, this is for the big boys, not family farmers. Traded on the CBOT.
Not sure what family farm “dilemma” you are talking about...your edict that they should only farm what they can harvest? I answered that...previous post.
Not sure what this means:
“Also, I suspect the family farm dilemma, has its source elsewhere, hidden in big govt somewhere. That is where the root problem often resides, in some monopoly granted by the State, to knock off the competition. Good bye Grandpa farmer.”
The small family farms I was discussing are not in compettion with large corporate farms. A small farm is designated as less than 178 acres by USDA. The farms I am talking about have far less acreage.
Some family farmers will say that going for the “organic” designation is time-consuming and costly due to all the paperwork required by the USDA.
Not sure if you even read my previous post, but family farmers are actually selling directly to the consumer right now, and they don’t need Amazon to do it although farmers are selling seeds and seed starts on eBay.
Family farms are already pre-selling thru the CSAs and WSAs I talked about in my previous post...They sell local~I don’t see a large exchange website where stuff is shipped because the appeal is to get fresh, locally grown produce, not shipped as is in the stores. WHen things have to be shipped, varieties have to be chosen and picked according to shipping considerations—not necessarily flavor which is why stuff like tomatoes, strawberries, etc. taste like crap in stores ;) ...That said farmers are already selling farm related products such as jams, soaps and salves, salsas, olive oil, coffee, etc. on their own websites, at farm markets/stands and on eBay.
Again, cost of food will impact me less now and in the future as I grow a lot and plan to buy a farmette. I don’t hire out a lot of lawn work and put a new roof on a few years ago...so these direct cost increases will not affect me as much as the general consumer.
I am no expert and not pretending to be. Nor am I a Freeper economist. However, I am researching the subject of small farms and my spouse has PhD in plant breeding, so I have learned a few things along the way.
Freegards.
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