Sad Day on the Farm

[rancar]

Referenced link provides a brief commentary appearing in today's LA Times on the nature of today's farming industry. If prevalent and true, it needs to be addressed by the animal rights activists who somehow missed this. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-pacelle15jan15,0,327727.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Doped%2Dmanual>Sad Day on the Farm</A>

 

[rancar]

Here's another similar story along the same lines. Man beats dog to death and gets only probation. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif and /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/1BEC8C2C3FBFFE6786256CAF0061991D?OpenDocument&Headline=Killer+of+Dusty+the+dog+gets+probation>Dusty's Killer Goes Free</A>

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

We had an idiot around here stomp a kitten to death in front of a young child at a pet store in a farmer's market...he worked at the pet store! He then picked it up and threw it in a trash can...I truly believe the world is wacked!

 

[cowboydoc]

No what needs to be addressed is the dang government keeping farm prices low. You decide. Do you want to pay more for food or do you want better treatment of animals that are only going to be eaten? There really isn't a middle ground here. And this isn't even to mention the urbanization problem of farmland. Farmers keep producing more on less. More and more farmland gets converted to houses and shopping malls. The small farmer is forced out and the corporate farmer takes over. The corporate farmer makes it on quantity. This keeps the prices low. It's not as cut and dried as it seems.

 

[dourobob]

I just finished my first reading of "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser - you can see an outline of it <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/books/schlosser.html>here </A>

He has some interesting comments on the mega farms and particularly the beef & chicken operations where he wonders about how the free enterprise attitude that seems to be a fundamental approach in the USA more realistically aligns itself with the "power centralized at the top" approach of countries like Russia before Glasnost.

The decline of the multi-facetted family farm is a sad reflection on society regardless of the country. An interesting contrast is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ecofriendly.com/index.cfm?loc=SaladBarBeef> Joel Salatin </A>

My $0.02

Bob

 

[Anonymous Poster]

You might find this book interesting: Dan O'Brien's Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch. In essence, he makes a good case for shifting from cattle to bison. Of course this calls for some serious acreage...

 

[fenneran]

I know Joel personally and have been very impressed with his operation. He is a small farm evangelist and will tell anyone who will listen that buying your food from a local farmer who has it in his best interest to bring good food to your table is always better than a production facility. Not only for the freshness, but for the amount of non-natural practices that have to be employed to keep the mega-farms operational. You can't grow 10,000 turkeys on a few acres without folowing unnatural practices. He has a number of books on beef, poultry and other operations. If you ever get a chance, read up onit. He is someone who has proven that with the right circumstances and practices, the small family farm can still survive and be profitable.

Frank

 

[rancar]

<font color=blue>"...what needs to be addressed is the dang government keeping farm prices low.....The corporate farmer makes it on quantity. This keeps The small farmer is forced out and the corporate farmer takes over.</font color=blue>

Richard...

Totally agree....but where did all this price inflation start in my local grocery? Over the years I see prices on meat and dairy products steadily go higher while the farmer receives the same or lower prices per unit of product. You're right about the corporate farmer making it on quantity. My dairy farmer who rents my land has about 300 milkers or more with about 150 heifers. His herd keeps on increasing year after year. He keeps on erecting new milking parlors and other barn buildings to accommodate the animals but he never seems to turn a profit. He's always using beat up machinery because he can't afford to upgrade to new. Capital costs of production keep on increasing. Milk prices over last 2-3 years though have declined from $15-16 per hundred weight to about $11. But, I go to the local grocery and am paying higher milk prices per gallon. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif Who's making the profit on the price spread here that seems to be getting larger as the years go on?

I don't deny the government is keeping farm prices low. I can only speculate it's done so to keep urbanites from starving and it's these city folk who put our politicians in office. But, what can be done to fix the problem long term, so small family farms are able to survive? Will we see someday just a few super corporate farms run by the likes of Con Agra and Archer Daniels Midland while watching the independent farms get bought out just like the big three auto makers bought out dozens of smaller auto manufacturers in the early-mid 1900s?

Please pardon my naiveness on all this. I'm not personally involved in farming but I do own a small farm and rent the land to a local farmer. I have a great interest in improving the quality of my land. I have a keen interest in farmland preservation issues and 'feel' for the small farmer who never seems to get an even break in trying to survive in this industry. I've got my own conspiracy theories, but I'd be interested to hear more on your take on this. I welcome thoughts as well from others here in the forums who have an interest in this area.

....Bob

 

[dummy]

Totally agree with the farmer to store shelf cost issue, who's really driving prices up? Are there maybe too many hands in the pot (ie, coop buys from farmer who sells to xyz processing plant, who sells to abc packaging plant, who sells to my brand store which is all freighted halfway around the world to get on the shelf)? Could you clarify your other statement though, <font color=blue>I don't deny the government is keeping farm prices low. I can only speculate it's done so to keep urbanites from starving and it's these city folk who put our politicians in office.</font color=blue>

 

[Egon]

Small farms are a lifestyle that may soon become extinct.The farmer gets caught in an never ending cycle of bigger machines and then needing more land to support them and on and on.

Then on market day he cannot regulate price or even choose his customer. Strangely different from many other industries.

It is a trend that disturbs me greatly as I am thouroughly convinced the small farmer is a better farmer, produces much better quality product and with his diversity has much less chance of introducing diseases that the factory feedlot is capable of. I also beleive the small Farmer is a much better quardian of soil properties and hence nutritional values of his product.

But on the bright side When Russia was still Russia the small peasant garden plot produced as much or more that the communes large factory plots.

Who out there prefers factory cardboard chicken to Free run chicken ???

Egon