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market-farming - Re: Farm Bureau

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: "Del Williams" <delannw AT dlogue.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Farm Bureau
  • Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 21:45:06 -0500


Rick,

Perhaps that particular wildlife group and many others like it are
impossible for you to support. Lots of others support their goals. Some of
those people, happen to be farmers.

As for the factual validity of the information presented on the website
familyfarmer.org,
all of it is subject to verification or falsification.

This isn't the first source that I have read that pointed out how the Farm
Bureau artificially inflates its supposed membership by including policy
holders of their various insurance companies.

I've attended Farm Bureau meetings in my county... here in east central
Illinois. I never felt much support there for what I was trying to do in
market farming. Go organic. I practically got laughed out of the room.
Grow something besides corn and soybeans? I mean, come on, why would you do
that? Nevertheless, I noticed this year and last that many farmers were
converting cornfields to pastures and also growing other crops.

Maybe my local Farm Bureau ought to develop a vision for this area based on
the needs of farmers and not just the companies who want them to grow more
of the same old less profitable crops.

Perhaps you are generalizing your experience with your local Farm Bureau
group.

I had a similar experience with lack of support dealing with the extension
service. My county extension service thought I was a pain in the ass. I
just happened to join a farmers' market organization in another county and
got all kinds of information from their extension service about several
issues related to market farming and organic growing. They would have been
happy to help a very small grower develop the business. My own county
thought it was a waste of time.

It seems to me that many of these traditional organizations are there to
defend the status quo or work on the agendas of a few other
organizations/corporations that simply have the funds to support lobbying.
What I haven't observed in my experiences with the Farm Bureau and other
organizations is any long term vision for the consequences of growing
practices.

Del Williams
Clifton, IL
delannw AT dlogue.net








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