I got my online issue of Drover’s Alert today and was confused by what I read. One story announced,
"Farm income predicted to drop in 2006.The USDA estimates that farm income willI didn’t have any trouble believing that. What with higher fuel prices, rising fertilizer costs, declining milk prices, declining government programs and the new milk tax, I am sure that the pundits are correct. Especially when you factor in imports, corruption in the Department of Agriculture, conglomerate farming and all the other hurdles facing the conventional farmer today.
drop this year by $18 billion."
But the very next headline read,
"Projections show growing demand for agricultural productsThe USDA’s long-term
baseline projections for agricultural commodities indicate that domestic and
international economic growth and gains in population will strengthen demand for
U.S. food and agricultural products over the next 10 years. "
There is something wrong with this picture. If demand is growing and is predicted to grow still more, shouldn’t the income of the folks producing the product grow too? They called that the law of supply and demand when I was in school. Today I guess it is more like the law of legislate, regulate and devalue the farm dollar by whatever means is necessary as long as the consumers find tasty stuff on their grocery shelves and don't have to go broke buying it.
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The loss of income in a growing market doesn't have to be so. By breaking free of the shackles of corruption and cronyism in the USDA and Big Brother Corporate Agribusiness, the small farmer can pave the way to a rebirth of Rural America.
Sustainable practices, Seasonality, Organic Methods, buying and selling local, reducing crop, herd or harvest size can all reduce overhead costs while improving product quality and income.
Educating the buyer wouldn't hurt either. Would they really rather eat a 1000 steer burger fed with GM corn on a pallid, starchy bun of fertilizer and pesticide GM wheat which has been mass produced in a factory, hiding numerous violations, half way across the country (the cost of transportation eating into the fuel reserves available for their jetski) for $.99 or would they rather have a burger made from a freshly baked bun made with organic wheat and a locally raised, grassfed steer, for $1.50?
Cheap food is a cheat fed to us by corporations who will make money no matter what while shafting the farmers who produce the food. By forming local cooperatives, growing foods in demand, and selling locally the farmers make more, even if the food cost a bit more initially to the consumer. Those that won't pay the higher price for better tasting, fresher, local foods will get the shock of their lives once the USDA has sold out and the US begins to import 90% of its food from outside sources because people want it cheaper--and then the foreign countrys begin to hold us hostage. . . .
The sad part is that the food is hardly tasty anymore. The produce in supermarkets today looks pretty but tastes like tennis balls. The meat has less flavor than it did when I was a kid only 30 years ago. Plus, it's hard to tolerate the thought of how animals are living on industrial farms. Yeah for the small farmer!
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