The Family Farm Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America
Submitted by glory on Mon, 04/30/2012 - 06:39An entire way of life is rapidly dying right in front of our eyes. The family farm is being systematically wiped out of existence in America, and big agribusiness and the federal government both have blood all over their hands. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States has fallen from about 6.8 million in 1935 to only about 2 million today. That doesn't mean that there is less farming going on. U.S. farms are producing more than ever. But what it does mean is that farming is increasingly becoming dominated by the big boys. The rules of the game have been tilted in favor of big agribusiness so dramatically that most small farmers find that they simply cannot compete anymore. Back in 1900, about 39 percent of the U.S. population worked on farms. At this point, only about 2 percent of all Americans now live on farms. Big agribusiness, the food processing conglomerates, and big seed companies such as Monsanto completely dominate the industry. Unless something dramatic is done, the family farm is going to continue to be wiped out of existence. Unfortunately, it does not look like things are going to turn around any time soon.
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Actually
and don't tell anybody, but my property tax is $150 a year for 1 1/2 acres.
True, though, farm ground is expensive now, more so because of the subsidies and Monsanto. Plus the fields need to lay fallow for 5 years to get rid of the chemicals. Country living ain't what it used to be before roundup.
mickey45
You're right
Although I don't recall that Walton's episode, I do know that they have raised taxes on land around here to the point of stupidity.
I've visited with farmers and it seems that something really fishy is going on with land prices as well. Heck, just a few years ago farmland in IA was selling for $2500 an acre. Now I've seen it as high as $8500. That's what happens when the small farmer has to go up against Big Ag buyers. And who's actually paying that price for the land? Well, the small farmer sure can't make it pencil out.
The price of fuel is playing a huge part in this as well, and the other input costs have tripled for the most part. Just a few years ago seed corn was $80/bag. Now it's $320/bag...thanks to the monopoly conglomerate Monsanto.
Couple that with regulated markets and it's a recipe for disaster, well, unless you are Big Ag and have subsidies to fill the gaps. Then add on the fact that farmers must only sell to a licensed grain elevator and it takes away any aspect of a free market. Yes, it's illegal for my neighbor to sell me a bushel of corn for my chickens. Why? He doesn't have a grain marketing license. Silly, right?
Law of supply and demand
If seed corn is too expensive at $320 per bag - there ought to be competition to drive this price down.
Monsanto is admittedly a big company. They have genetically engineered strains of sweet corn so the farmer cannot simply save some of his crop to use as seed like farmers did in ancient times. But if $320 is exhoribant - there are certainly other companies that can provide this.
In Wisconsin (again where I was raised) Northrup King and others had test plots all over.
If regulations exist where Monsanto is given an unfair advantage, fight it.
But still we need to get away from subsidising the family farm.
there
are family farms and then there are family farms. I look at a family farm of under 100 acres needs some help, or the very least, crop insurance. My neighbor owns 5 or 6 square miles of land here and he is considered by some as small.
You should see my neighbor's corn. Last year it was so deformed, I would have burned it or buried it. Yet, we have that same corn in dog food, as corn syrup, as ethanol.
mickey45
I didn't realize
that being born in Wisconsin entitled a person to an Ag Science degree :)
You better read that bag of Northrup King, Pioneer, Channel, or any of the seeds, you might be surprised that every single one has incorporated Monsanto genetics. Now I realize that being born in Iowa did not entitle me to an Ag Science degree, but I was born and raised on a farm and every generation of my family has farmed since the 1500's (maybe longer, but that's all the documented history I have). I do not farm, but I am still willing to help whenever a hand is needed and feel that I have adequate knowledge of the operation. There is no supply and demand, well, competitors prices do vary...but only by about $20.00/bag or less depending on what you are looking for. The fairy tale land of non-regulated, huge subsidy check, free market farming you keep speaking of simply does not exist.
I know that you love to argue for the sake of arguing, but you might be surprised by what is actually happening in agriculture. It might be worth a second look.
I looked up
the subsidy my farmer gets. It isn't much, about $25,000. But he is a millionaire farmer, so why the sub?
There is a documentary about some farmers in TX that also were pretty much forced to take subs even though they didn't need it.
Ron Paul is right, there is easily a trillion dollars of spending to cut out.
mickey45
I agree
ending subsidies would help to create a more level playing field. And it's the right thing to do. Deregulate and quit the spending!
Key word "deregulate".
Key word "deregulate".
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin
one of *us* (1988vote) has been . . .
invited to speak to our town council in May on the advantages of allowing chickens within "city" limits.
We support our local family farms, three or more of them.
Otherwise, this OP is painful.
it's hard to be awake; it's easier to dream--
I live in a town that doesn't
I live in a town that doesn't allow chickens or horses or anything without a permit. The next town over is a little smaller but voted not to incorporate so they have chickens, horses, whatever they want.
Less government always equals more freedom.
I understand the importance of stock laws,
but, you're saying your town doesn't even allow people to own chickens in their backyards without a permit? That's insane! What is this country coming to?
this is not uncommon at all--
very few towns/cities allow chickens, and when they are allowed, they must be 'permitted' by license.
We're just trying to get to the licensed stage. :(
True; it's all wrong.
This is as much cultural as anything. Many Americans from 1850 to 1999 and beyond care much more about "looking sophisticated" than they do about being able to sustain their lives, and chickens don't make a neighborhood look "upscale". :)
Who cares? We do not, but we also keep things as neat and tidy as possible while refusing to see dandelions in the grass as enemies, but then we don't have much grass left; it's mostly garden beds now--
not quite as wonderful as the family in Pasadena, but it's quite impressive--
We just need chickens now to complete it.
Believe it or not, there are several large midwestern cities that never outlawed the keeping of hens, and keeping hens is allowed in New York and some parts, at least, of New Jersey. I mean New York City.
So, freedom is all very ambiguous. Some of the more "liberal" areas allow chickens; often the more "conservative" areas do not.
There is a mindset among "mainstream middle class" Americans that is truly illogical.
it's hard to be awake; it's easier to dream--
"This is as much cultural as
"This is as much cultural as anything. Many Americans from 1850 to 1999 and beyond care much more about "looking sophisticated" than they do about being able to sustain their lives, and chickens don't make a neighborhood look "upscale". :)"
Exactly!
In the "land of the free" property values almost always trump freedom.
Never really understood either, ....
increased property values increases your taxes. Don't want to live next to a pig sty, but still. Unless you plan on moving often, even so, during times of rising prices, your going to pay more for the house your going to be moving into anyway. Gets to where you feel like your just paying rent, even when there is no mortgage. Feel like a share-cropper.
What can be said of a people who would sell their own children into slavery, using the rationale that it is to protect their freedom?
Yes that's correct. It's not
Yes that's correct.
It's not what this country is coming to though as much as what it is and has been for a long time. When the government assigns you a number at birth, keeps track of you your whole life and forces you into a government mandated retirement program you live in a socialist country. It just took Ron Paul to wake a lot of us up to that.
amen--
.
it's hard to be awake; it's easier to dream--
The Family Farm . .
... on the natural level is the most vital of all elements for a free and virtuous society. Fight back: plant a garden, raise some chickens, if necessary gather with others to start a cooperative with shared land. St. Isidore the Farmer, Pray for us!
I agree with you completely.
Beyond the market - everybody should produce as much food as they can or at least have the capability.
There is a heck of a lot of things that can go wrong with the market. As another poster wrote, in the early 1930's Ukraine had bumper crops of wheat - but the government took the wheat for ditribution elsewhere creating a famine that killed millions. And people caught stealing the wheat even in small quantity were subject to immediate execution.
Don't trust the government or the market. You have no assurance that food is going to be there till its in your mouth.
A government that subsidises agriculture controls agriculture too much already. We need LESS government involvement - not more.
.
.
Government has no business subsidising ANYBODY
Big or small.
Succeed or fail on your own.
In Another Article
Directly related to this:
http://www.dailypaul.com/229883/feds-sue-to-keep-south-mount...
We see the far-reaching abuse across the country...It's happening everywhere and takes many shapes.
And the Villains? The Federal Govt AND MONSANTO.
This article has a few links to these stories:
http://www.wnytruthers.com/archives/16692
Among them, a positive note re:Child Labor Laws vs Farm "Chores", and how public outcry has "pushed back" this onslaught against freedom.
http://www.wnytruthers.com/archives/16854
Thanks for sharing this.
"Beyond the blackened skyline, beyond the smoky rain, dreams never turned to ashes up until.........
...Everything CHANGED !!
I would love to have a hand made car.
Custom made for me, by some craftsman. No mass production. Just designed and built for me. Fine wood accents in the interior, hand carved and polished. But I can't afford it. Such cars exist but they might cost me close to a million dollars.
So I settle for a mass produced car.
The poor craftsman who has the capability to make such a car may have to find other work.
Likewise I would love to have my food and produce come to me after being produced by a hardworking farm family, on their family farm. But I and others like me can't afford it. We want efficiency. We want low prices. Those are the things that win in a fair marketplace.
Will you subsidise the hand manufacture of my automobile? No?
You think I should buy a mass produced car like everyone else?
Well, sorry, but I feel the same way about subsidising your family farm.
LOL...
you've been here for 4 years and 18 weeks!? LOL...I thought you were either a troll or a brand newbie.
are you tipping a bottle now or what?
where do you get this idea that local made or produced items are "subsidized"? farmers or craftsman decide the cost of their goods based on raw material and what they feel is a good wage and some profit to grow the operation. Where are these "subsidies" that you are talking about?
LEARN about the subject before you post about it.
Obviously you have internet access. Use it.
you are all over the place
take a step back and look at what you are posting here.
I may not be an expert on dairy subsidies like you, but at least I take a few moments to compose my thoughts before writing something, and I didn't learn that from the internet.
EVERY Dairy Farmer in America get a subsidy milk check from the
government.
Family farms unfortunately are not efficient. And though admirable, they cannot survive without government subsidies.
Family farmers argue that their way of life is being threatened by big agriculture. And they want the family farm to continue to be a way of life. But they grow silent when it comes to the fact that they are already recieving subsidies from the government (ALL OF THEM ARE).
I resent the idea at underneath their argument - they are basically asking for more.
I grew up in the dairy state.
Not on a farm, though my best friends (and practically everyone I went to school with) were farmers.
Honestly, I don't know much about other types of agriculture subsidies - except for corn where some 40% goes to the production of ethanol. Making ethanol ONLY efficient as a gas substitute because farmers get the subsidies.
But I can tell you with certainty that subsidies pay EVERY SINGLE DAIRY FARMER IN AMERICA.
The formula used to be based on how far the farmer was from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I am not sure the formula is calculated that way anymore.
It is just that he went too far down the rabbit hole...
in persuit of his MBA.
What can be said of a people who would sell their own children into slavery, using the rationale that it is to protect their freedom?
Yet You Probably Own
..A car built in Japan?
The Japanese Govt has subsidized their auto industry for decades, so you only have yourself to blame.
I admit to the same myself, but now attempt to buy locally.
To direct blame upon the US Farmer is to paint a picture with a broad brush.
Seed Companies (Monsanto,ADM etc) have enjoyed great favor from the FEDERAL GOVT which should never have been involved.
BIG GOVT..the REAL CULPRIT.
Add to that the enticements of the "BANKERS" and the bill of goods sold to most farmers, ultimately leading to foreclosures.
And the milk you buy????
PRICE REGULATED which only propels a family farm to do whatever they can to remain competitive.
After all, if the markets were truly free,these farm families would be able to enjoy a level of prosperity comparable to those enjoyed by their "city cousins".
BIG GOVT...BIG BANKS..the REAL Culprits
"Beyond the blackened skyline, beyond the smoky rain, dreams never turned to ashes up until.........
...Everything CHANGED !!
No I don't own a Japanese car.
I own a Ford.