Choices farmers have to make, you chose

[seedcorn]

Why do you think traditionally non-corn/soybean areas are now growing corn/soybeans.....because the other crops didn't pay.

Because corn and soybeans are heavily subsidized.

No, they aren't......corn has a LOAN value of $1.98..that's it. Common misconception. Most government Ag $$ goes to welfare and schools. On backyard chickens someone tried to support that government gives it to farmers only to print pie chart that showed 15% of Ag $$ goes to farmers. Rest to social issues that are not Ag-only-problems--welfare, schools, etc

 

[journey11]

Been following this conversation and hate to get into it really... I will readily admit that my understanding on the matter is limited, but I am interested at any rate.

I think the issue is so much more complex than all this. I don't think the farms/farming techniques are so much the root problem. They're just trying to meet demand and keep up with the markets and make a living. There's a world of difference between big agribusiness and the American family farmer.

It's more on the economy and the consumer end. Things are the way they are now because we've built up to this by our way of living in our industrialized nations. We've backed ourselves into a corner, but how on earth will we ever get out. You might consider our modern way of life improved, but much has been sacrificed in return (increased cancer rates and pollution are a pretty good example). But we can't go back to the way things were. (Although on a small scale and personal level, that is what I try to do for my own family). You can only provide so much of what you need and use and then you have to look to buying the rest.

Doesn't most of that corn go to produce ethanol anyway? I know they say that's why grain prices keep rising. It's not that there is more demand in feeding livestock.

I'm no tree-hugger. I want my family to have good, healthy food. My best bet is to have my own hands in the dirt. I feel blessed to live a rural lifestyle. I can't imagine living in an urban setting and not having anywhere to grow my own produce and meat. I don't care if I can get it cheaper at the grocery store and with less trouble. The quality is not the same.

Just my 2 cents... As I said, I don't "know-it-all". Please don't hang me up by my toenails! LOL

 

[seedcorn]

Been following this conversation and hate to get into it really... I will readily admit that my understanding on the matter is limited, but I am interested at any rate.

I think the issue is so much more complex than all this. I don't think the farms/farming techniques are so much the root problem. They're just trying to meet demand and keep up with the markets and make a living. There's a world of difference between big agribusiness and the American family farmer.

It's more on the economy and the consumer end. Things are the way they are now because we've built up to this by our way of living in our industrialized nations. We've backed ourselves into a corner, but how on earth will we ever get out. You might consider our modern way of life improved, but much has been sacrificed in return (increased cancer rates and pollution are a pretty good example). But we can't go back to the way things were. (Although on a small scale and personal level, that is what I try to do for my own family). You can only provide so much of what you need and use and then you have to look to buying the rest.

Doesn't most of that corn go to produce ethanol anyway? I know they say that's why grain prices keep rising. It's not that there is more demand in feeding livestock.

I'm no tree-hugger. I want my family to have good, healthy food. My best bet is to have my own hands in the dirt. I feel blessed to live a rural lifestyle. I can't imagine living in an urban setting and not having anywhere to grow my own produce and meat. I don't care if I can get it cheaper at the grocery store and with less trouble. The quality is not the same.

Just my 2 cents... As I said, I don't "know-it-all". Please don't hang me up by my toenails! LOL

I think most of us feel that way.

About 20% of corn grown goes to ethanol, speculation is that it could go to 1/3. By product is dry or wet distillers grain that is then fed to animals to produce meat, eggs, milk, etc.

Reason corn went up is that dollar down, foreign companies/governments buying it up.

 

[lesa]

Exactly why I work hard to be as self-sufficient as possible!!! Hands in the dirt is the correct recipe!

 

[wifezilla]

There's a world of difference between big agribusiness and the American family farmer.

 

[seedcorn]

There's a world of difference between big agribusiness and the American family farmer.

there is?

both use technology
both use confinement animals
both use petroleum based production
both employ americans
both use chemicals
both are part of the american/world food chain
both are trying to make a profit
both are controlled by government regs

there are more similiarities than differences. Most agribusiness's are just family farms that got aggressive and large.

 

[TillinWithMyPeeps]

There's a world of difference between big agribusiness and the American family farmer.

there is?

both use technology
both use confinement animals
both use petroleum based production
both employ americans
both use chemicals
both are part of the american/world food chain
both are trying to make a profit
both are controlled by government regs

there are more similiarities than differences. Most agribusiness's are just family farms that got aggressive and large.

Most of those also apply to the average zoo. With comparisons that broad, and logic that obscure, you can relate just about anything.

 

[Whitewater]

there is?

both use technology
both use confinement animals
both use petroleum based production
both employ americans
both use chemicals
both are part of the american/world food chain
both are trying to make a profit
both are controlled by government regs

there are more similiarities than differences. Most agribusiness's are just family farms that got aggressive and large.

Huh. Let's just take a good look at this, shall we? I garden, largely for food, mostly because I can't afford fruit and veggies on my limited income, so my garden is a necessary part of living a healthy lifestyle. So, technically, I farm. I am an American Family farmer, because I grow crops that I and my husband and friends will eat, and have eaten in the past.

Do I use technology? Not so much, really. Unless you consider a spade/shovel technology. Or books.

I do not farm using confinement animals. And hopefully I never will, I prefer the animals I have to live unencumbered, healthy lives.

My production is most emphatically not petroleum based. I don't use gas or oil or even byproducts (like plastic) if I can at all help it. Last year I prepared every single square inch of my soil by hand.

Well, yeah, self and husband are Americans but I have a few expat Brits as friends, and they like to come over and help every once in a while . . .

I do not use chemicals.

My produce isn't part of the food chain. As a matter of fact, my produce isn't part of *any* chain whatsoever because it doesn't get passed on. I grow it, I eat it. I grow it, I give it to my friends, *they* eat it. There's no chain here. Certainly no world involvement!

I do not grow food because I'm trying to make a profit. Financial gain is the furthest thing from my mind.

My garden is not controlled by any governmental regulations. In fact, I don't think my city gives a flying fig about what I grow in my own back yard. Around here, it's too cold to worry about tropical plants carrying diseases or, really, any disease at all -- it will die from freezing. 'Bout the only plant the government cares about at all is milfoil, and you can't grow that on land. That's a fisher/boater/canoer thing.

So, yeah, I would say that from where I stand, there's a HUGE difference between me, the American Family Farmer, and big agro-business.


Whitewater (who, granted, is doing the whole mico/teeny-tiny farming thing as opposed to having acres in the double digits, but when you have a house and three animals and a husband, also trying to squeeze a good garden in on .13 acres, well, you're tinyfarming by necessity!!)

 

[wifezilla]

Your yard is even smaller than mine! I have .167th of an acre. Interesting challenges doing things very small scale.

 

[seedcorn]

Whitewater, not sure of your point at all? Is there a difference between yourself and a farmer........you bet. Try making a living off of your garden. think you can generate $30,000 plus pay for health care from your garden?

Try farming an acre w/hoe, shovel only--once successful try 10 acres. Can it be done? Yes, but not at the costs we're used to paying.

On the average we spend 7% of our income on food (hear people complain about the high cost of food all the time) when rest of world spends about 30% or more. Most of our $$ spent on food is for packaging or convience. Want an example, go to store buy 1/2 LB of pollenta. It'll be way more than the $.03 the farmer got. (You know the stuff that farmers grow in Iowa that is totally unedible )

Farmers don't have those choices. Hydroponics don't work (financially) in the midwest. Farmers in general grow hi volume, lo margin crops to feed the world. If they grow lo volume crops, guess who won't eat? When they don't have food, guess what they'll do? Want to live in a civilized, safer world, better keep the masses fed.

Want food produced a certain way? pay for it or grow our own.