Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com>]

Actually the problem here is there's nothing in the article claiming that farmers will be better off. It just doesn't seem well researched, and doesn't track what I've heard about margins on crop prices from the producers themselves. The fact that they are buying more land and equipment is probably indicative of the fact (or so I'm told locally) , that their margins are further eroding not ballooning as suggested by the article. Whether they are paying down debt or accruing new debt is as questionable as ever.

Of course its a good time to be an ag banker, it always has been, you take no risk and do no work, just like its always been great to be a banker of any sort. You take peoples money and keep some for yourself, when that fails to work you get a whole bunch of people's money and you take an even bigger pile of that. What's not to like?

What's stranger for me was the way all this was interpreted. Prices going up is a clear indication that economy of scale is failing, at the same time the article seems to point out that scaling up production is what will succeed, since its currently failing both the farmer, and now the consumer. Nothing was said about the increase in both fertilizer and fuel prices which dramatically reduce margins in so many other instances - it was almost as though expenses didn't really exist. Which is not strange from a bankers point of view (or an agronomist), but certainly something I've never heard a farmer suggest. Maybe they are all celebrating in Omaha, but its news I'd rather see first hand.

Certainly I'd like it to mean small farms move into a competitive pricing position - but I think its crazy to think that's possible as long as the distribution mechanisms of today still own the majority of the market. Yes people should grow for themselves, and yes communities are going to have to think of this as a serious problem in a seemingly short amount of time. I'm not the culture they have could lead to solutions where populations are densest. The examples I've seen locally suggest the opposite is occuring at an accelerated rate. Its almost as though the view of land as something to be destroyed has been sanctified to even greater levels - at least where I am these days.




--- On Mon, 2/14/11, Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

From: Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] "Get Ready For Higher Food Prices" GoesMainstream
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Monday, February 14, 2011, 6:15 PM

Besides unpredictable climates the main reason for increasing shortages is increasing populations which raises demand. Countries such as China with a growing middle class want more meat which puts even more pressure on grain prices. None of this can work in reverse, barring an extinction event. I didn't say that.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 2/14/2011 at 9:42 PM John D'hondt wrote:

>Hi Liz,
>Timing of price increases is all good and well. The main reason is that
>many
>of the biggest grain producers in the world have seen disastrous crop
>failures in the recent past and thus grain prices are going up.
>I do think though that we could very well see that next seasons crops will
>do no better and thus that prices will keep going up and up. My reason for
>thinking this is that the reasons for crop failures will not likely abate,
>like extreme weather caused by climate change and SDS or sudden death
>syndrome caused by gm and glyphosate spraying. It should get worse if
>anything.
>Whether that will save family farms I sincerely don't know.
>But I think you are right in your conclusion that we all better start
>growing more of our own.
>john
>
>
>> Interesting info about the timing of price increases. I hadn't thought
>> about a chicken's lifespan entering into that, for example. I'm also
>glad
>> if farmers are better able to pay down their loans. That by itself may
>> slow the invasion of corporate agriculture into family farms. On the
>other
>> hand, any time a profit appears on the horizon, you can be certain
>people
>> with no interest in the work itself, but looking only to get rich out of
>> it, will come sniffing around. We don't need any more agribusiness
>driven
>> only by the bottom line.
>>
>> Take-home message? Get out there and grow more of your own. And in
>> addition to that, make an effort to find more local growers where you
>can
>> buy things you aren't able or ready yet to grow yourself. Not everyone
>has
>> to grow everything. I buy blueberries every year from a friend rather
>than
>> grow my own. Helps to support him, and frees up my land to grow other
>> things. He buys my blackberries in return.
>>
>> Liz
>>


_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland