How much organic food do you eat?

[bobm]

I am surrounded by small family farms, all of which have corn fields. Just the other day I was wondering how they made any money, after seeing corn 5 ears for a dollar at supermarket.

White lightening by chance ? I hear tell that that activity was quite profitable. Too , the delivery of that liquid product spawned the race car circuit. Or convert corn into bacon , steak, etc. .

 

[Beekissed]

My experience with people who raise organic vegetables/fruits and why organic veggies/fruits are more expensive than non-organic is this (or at least some of the factors):

1. The overwhelming majority of organic farms are small, not hundreds or thousands of acres. You can sell things a lot cheaper when you have so much more of it.
2. Most of these farms tend not to have all the modernized machinery and methods for planting, cultivating and harvesting. It takes more time and effort and therefore a veggie on an organic farm costs more to produce than a veggie on a big industrial farm.
3. Since these farms do not use super-duper pesticides, fertilizers and souped up seeds that can produce almost perfect crops, they lose more produce than a larger industrial farm. Cost per veggie higher again.
4. Picking produce two-four weeks before it actually is ripened kind of defeats the purpose of fresh organic, so less makes it to market and the market better be close...not in California or Brazil.
5. Most of these farms do not have illegals working on them for less money, and the organic produce, for the most part, is not coming from South America where labor is dirt cheap.
6. Organic produce just doesn't last on the shelf as long as its "treated" counterparts...spoils more quickly...less sold. Ever buy organic bananas? They over-ripen in half the time of a regular Dole or Chiquita.

Just a few thoughts. Take them for what they are worth.

Great post!!! Add to that fact that larger commercial farms are also getting subsidies from the government and money help when crops fail....not sure if those are even available to the smaller, organic grower.

 

[valley ranch]

Lots of farms grow food without chemical contamination but are not certified as organic.

 

[seedcorn]

All farms are eligible for crop insurance. But one of the past arguments was that organic out yielded commercial AG so why would they need it?

What farm subsidies are you talking about? If one qualifies (again not sure what you are even referring to) all can.

 

[Beekissed]

http://www.heritage.org/research/re...dies-harm-taxpayers-consumers-and-farmers-too

Furthermore, farm subsidy formulas are designed to benefit large agribusinesses rather than family farmers. Most farm subsidies are distributed to commercial farmers, who have an average income of $199,975 and an average net worth of just under $2 million.[URL='http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/06/how-farm-subsidies-harm-taxpayers-consumers-and-farmers-too#_ftn5'][5]

If farm subsidies were really about alleviating farmer poverty, lawmakers could guarantee every full-time farmer an income of 185 percent of the federal level ($38,203 for a family of four) for just over $4 billion annually-one-sixth of the current cost of farm subsidies.[6]

[/URL]

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2010/05/farm-income-data-debunks-subsidy-myths

Large and profitable commercial farms are the big winners in the current distribution of farm subsidies. The ERS data indicate that large commercial farms collected 62 percent of all federal payments. A further breakdown of the data shows that small farms averaged $4,430, though a large share of this came from conservation programs as opposed to commodity subsidies. However, less than 30 percent of small farms received any payment at all. In contrast, 70 percent of commercial farms – which have much higher incomes to start with – received an average payment of $30,483, with direct payments constituting the major component.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...l-the-real-beneficiaries-of-subsidies/254422/

According to Wise's analysis of USDA data, these huge farms were responsible for 44 percent of commodity crop production and received 32 percent of commodity payments in 2003. As Wise explains, "The concentration of farm payments is caused primarily by the concentration of land and production."It's one thing to support a family farmer. It's quite another to subsidize the expansion of a mega-farm operation that puts family farmers out of business.

http://www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/fall_01/concentration.aspx

Critics often charge that farm programs are really all about transferring income from taxpayers to wealthy farmers. U.S. Department of Agriculture data confirm that large commercial farms typically have net incomes higher than those of average U.S. households. The Figure 3 data show that the largest commercial Iowa farms do, in fact, receive the most subsidies. ♦

http://cps-news.com/wp-content/corporate-welfare/Farm-Subsidies.pdf

....a person could do this all day long. A simple search reveals many, many, many articles filled with research on the topic of how most farm subsidies go to commercial agribiz companies that do not need them, leaving the small family farm struggling in the dust. Could be organic farmers are getting their slice of the pie there, who knows? But it's for sure that the bulk of that money goes to the larger, corporate farms.

 

[valley ranch]

I think it is Clean and Safe Food vs Dirty and dangerous.

Subsidies, why should farmers get subsidies~

 

[bobm]

I think it is Clean and Safe Food vs Dirty and dangerous.

Subsidies, why should farmers get subsidies~

To keep the farmers' cost of operating down so that in turn your and mine daily food bill is much lower . If you loose your backyard garden from flood, drought, hail, desease, etc. no big deal in our food supply or budget . But when a large farmer looses 10,000 + /- acres of one type of crop ... well , that tends to put a dent in your and mine food budget, that is if you want to eat and then afford it .

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I think it is Clean and Safe Food vs Dirty and dangerous.

Subsidies, why should farmers get subsidies~

I'm not 100% convinced that organic foods are all that wonderful. I try to raise most of our own food (both flora and fauna) so their source and feed is knwn. But there are hundreds of other sources in our lives where we have no control over the contents or the source. Even the laundry soap has unwanted chemicals unless we make our own. Even then the supplies we use to make soap are harsh and potentially harmful. Every time we purchase a new article of clothing (or bolt of fabric) we expose ourselves to chemicals. How about our water supply? Or, here's a biggie, how about medications? What I'm saying is that it is impossible to avoid chemical exposure no mater what we do.

I'm one of those people who blame overpopulation for almost all of mankind's problems. Old mother earth is straining under the contamination and over-use pressure we apply every day. I know this is not a pleasant topic but take a moment to try to imagine how many times a toilet is flushed every second of every day. Mother earth is capable of bio-degrading most of our mess but we often forget how many hundreds of tons of medication products are contained in all that poo every second. Most pharmaceuticals are not bio-degradable. And the pharmaceuticals are only the tip of the pollution iceberg. There are thousands of other examples of overloading our planet out there all the time. How about all the factories and vehicles required to keep the overpopulation alive and reproducing. I sometimes wonder if mankind is God's mistake.

@valley ranch - I agree that subsidies are mostly not needed. And that it is a tool that our government uses to keep the public dependent on on Uncle Sam. However, there is also a need to help keep our AG industry strong and as efficient as possible for hard times. Not everyone can be a back yard farmer. And we have paved so much of our land that backyard farming is probably not possible anyway. Subsidies are abused every day and the citizens pay every penny of it.

OK, I'll sit down and shut up now. Sorry.

 

[seedcorn]

@valley ranch That is a long discussion why subsidies. In 2012-2014, government paid insurance companies to subsidize crop insurance against huge losses-at least that was intent. Where you have accountants, they figure out ways to abuse system. In corn/bean Ag that is all they got.

We either do as other countries and tariff products coming in or subsidize our people so they can compete. Or we lose a whole industry and its side affects.

Think about it. Farmers all go broke, all equipment dealers/companies, seed, fertilizer go broke. Farmers don't pay their loans, banks go under. All support people are out of jobs, makes the Great Depression look like cake walk.

 

[valley ranch]

Very true, and Chemicals are good but not in our food, SOOOoooooo.

Label the dirty and dangerous Chemicals that are in and on food so we can choose not to eat them.

Can we agree on that----those of us that make no money on the sale and use of these chems.