quote:
Having the government pump money into failing business models makes food prices higher, stifles competition, and costs taxpayers a lot of money needlessly

Keeping farmers afloat isn't needless spending. Gotta remember, somebody has to provide the grain. Currently farmers are arguably the single most productive human beings to ever live. Alot of these guys are putting out upwards of 200 bushels of corn per acre. That is INSANE. The production is equally impressive for other crops, as well as all meat animals. The point being they are very very good at what they do. They obviously are not failing because they are doing a bad job. They are failing because of major corporations abusing the shite out of them. Contrary to what it looks like on the outside, the laws are against the farmer. The laws and corporations prevent them from busting out of the cycle.

You gotta understand, you MUST have farmers. You don't HAVE to have law firms. You can live without a law firm. You can't live without food. You absolutely must have productive farmers to support the population. There are alot of farmers who can't make it without tax dollars because most of their income goes to the corporations. They have to keep up. They don't have a choice.

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Posted by TigerDog83

Member since Oct 2005

8275 posts

Posted on 6/5/11 at 7:39 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt

quote:
You gotta understand, you MUST have farmers. You don't HAVE to have law firms. You can live without a law firm. You can't live without food. You absolutely must have productive farmers to support the population. There are alot of farmers who can't make it without tax dollars because most of their income goes to the corporations. They have to keep up. They don't have a choice.

For the consumer it might make more sense for corporations to produce more crops than small farmers. Economic reality could favor large scale operations in that they provide cheaper food. With food being a necessity I'm pretty sure someone can make a profit producing it. So for the consumer it is better to buy products at a lower cost. If this means small farmers can't make it well that's simply too bad. Instead our government keeps pumping money into their small operations through subsidies and the taxpayers pay for this on the front end through the payments and on the back end through inflated prices for food (and probably crop lands also). There is no defending farm subsidies unless one is a farmer themselves dependent on taking from the taxpayer. TigahinAtl might have presented his arguments in a way that offended the "pro farm at all cost crowd" around here, but his assertions are essentially correct.

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Posted by BROffshoreTigerFan

Edmond, OK

Member since Oct 2007

10004 posts

Posted on 6/6/11 at 6:05 am to DownshiftAndFloorIt

quote:
You gotta understand, you MUST have farmers

We do NOT need to have farmers, at least not in the traditional sense of farming. I have a family of 6, and can produce enough fruits and veggies to feed us for the year in a small corner of my garage. If I turn my whole garage into a growing site, I could feed my whole neighborhood for the year. It would probably cost me about $200 a month in order to do this year round. Certified organic at that.

Know how much money I need from uncle sam in order to pull this off?

$0

If I had 2,000 sq. ft of area to grow in, I could supply my town.

I'm anti-Monsanto. Very big time. You probably won't find another person who hates that corporation any more than I do. But I haven't had any run ins with them, I'm able to purchase my own seed from people other than them, I'm able to make my own seed runs. And if all else fails, I'm able to clone off the plants I have now so I don't have a reason to buy many seeds after getting a plant started off.

America needs "farmers" who don't need massive farms to produce food.

Google urban farming. You'll be surprised with the low cost options to big farming.

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