Farmers: Get a Job!

Future of Freedom Foundation ^ | February 2002 | Sheldon Richman

[Free the USA]

Good Post

[jrherreid]

Man. Pretty clear that this guy knows nothing about the subject of farming or the current farming crisis.

[Straight Vermonter]

Why don't you offer us some of your expertise?

[xm177e2]

But not the farmers. They have apparently been bestowed with the Divine Right to Farm. If they can't make enough to live on, they have the legal power to loot the rest of us so they can stay on the farm anyway. This sounds like insanity. Would someone please explain it to me?

Yes. Domestic food production is important to our national security.

[jrherreid]

Well, for example, while the price of goods such as cereal, bread and such has gone up along with inflation, the price of wheat per bushel hasn't changed (even with inflation) since the 1970's. The companies, rather than increase what they pay on, say wheat, have mostly just increased wages for their own workers. Which means that small farms really can't compete unless they are part of a cooperative (the big cooperative in Vermont that actually works pretty well is Cabot). And the cooperatives have a hard time competing with Canadian prices--Canadian farmers are fully subsidized by their government. But rather than try and buy US products, a lot of US food companies, naturally, go for the cheaper Canadian products. It's a complicated issue that can't just be blamed on the farmers--it's a whole rash of failed agricultural programs and a fair amount of royal screwings over by the industrial food producers.

[isom35]

the farming crisis doesnt alarm me cause I get all my food from the grocery store :)

[doosee]

Instead of starving people and wealthy farmers (which is what should have happened if the doomsayers were right), we have fat people (see the recent Surgeon General's report) and farmers bellyaching about low crop prices.

We also have a lot of fat farmers. The feed business where I buy my horse feed is a hangout for about a dozen farmers, most of whom are around 300 pounds. Point is, these guys are almost always there, good weather and bad, just hanging out. I recently checked that web site that shows farm subsidies by county, some of these guys are getting up to $800k a year in crop subsidies to not grow tobacco.

[jrherreid]

Yep, that's the guys. I used to work on a farm that was part of that cooperative. Great stuff--especially the extra sharp cheddar.

[Hank Kerchief]

Yes. Domestic food production is important to our national security.

Then why does the government burn it, bury it, and pay farmers not produce it? Hank

[RWG]

The real problems have to do with corporate farming, illegal labor thereby deflating the real cost of food, vertical ownership and the profiterring from value added processes. The game is fixed and when you see what the remedies are no one has the courage to stand up and say ok let's pay a fair wage for farm work, let's pay a fair price for farm produce, and let's keep so few hands from controlling so much of the production and supply. Let's start subsidizing family farms.

[Jay W]

What does Sheldon Richman have to worry about? All of his food comes from the grocery store or the restaurant. That's where food comes from.

If and when the day arrives when Richman goes to the grocery store, or to the restaurant, and discovers they have no more food, he can always fall back on his, what, farming skills? Hunting skills? Fishing skills? One almost hopes that such a day arrives, if only for his comeuppance, but that would mean no food for the rest of us, either.

People need food. They do not need magazine editors. It is that simple.

[annieokie]

Doesn't Sam Donaldson have a sheep farm out in Arizona, how much is he getting???

[eastforker]

If GM or Ford was to go on strike for a year and no new cars were available,the moment they went back to work carlots would have a hay day,no hagglin,just demand the price they want and they and the finance companies would love it,come to think about it,maybe the farmer should go on strike,withhold the beef,chickens, eggs, milk,butter,veggies,just quit producing for a year except what they would use for themselves.Now do you get the picture?The government subsidies are there to insure there is always enough to eat,as long as there are subsidies,no farmer will go on strike.

[xm177e2]

It's the capability that's important, not the actual food itself. If we got into a situation where we needed that food, we could just stop destroying it.

[ImpBill]

Good Answer.

[lewislynn]

First of all someone should tell this shallow nitwit there is no such thing as "free market" (or "free trade" for that matter) every market including farming has government restrictions...even "deregulated" markets have regulators imposing strict regulations....

More important if a farmer is hit with bad weather destroying his crop he's likely done for an entire year...Can this "magazine editor" dole out thousands of, maybe tens of thousands of dollars only to have it all be ruined in one day and survive untill the next year?....

In other words if every year over the last 2 centurys a farmer went out of business we would not only be dependent on Arabs for oil we'd also be dependent on, worse yet, someone for or food.

It's nitwits like this "magazine editor" who has no problem with the government going in and shutting off irrigation water to farmers to save bottom feeding sucker fish.

I'll bet this same "magazine editor" would object to letting the farmer sell his farmland for development but have NO problem with the government taking it to save the environment or some phony "endangered species".