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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Cell phones and things related

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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Cell phones and things related
  • Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 07:15:59 -0400

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 19:27:35 -0500, you wrote:

>Jay wrote:
>When was the last time you saw a TV series about a farmer
>running a farm in a hard scrabble rural setting?
>
>Aha! Now there's an angle we haven't explored yet. Or maybe a Market
>Farmer Survivor show?
>

There was actually a spectacularly good show precisely about
the hard life of today's small farmer.

It was on PBS, a mini-series, and called 'The Farmer's
Wife'.

It was really sad, because it was true - a documentary
following the life of one particular farming couple in
Nebraska.

They listened to The Powers That Be, and got further and
further into debt. Borrow to expand, borrow to plant your
crops, borrow for fertilizer, borrow to buy new equipment:
every time they turned around, the USDA or the local banker
or the man's parents or someone or other was pushing them to
borrow, borrow, borrow.

Their answer to this was to work harder and harder until
eventually the man was working about 20 hours a day, 7 days
a week, the woman was working full-time off-farm and helping
on the farm, and their marriage fell apart under the strain.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry




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