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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost AT gilanet.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Undercutting
  • Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 08:36:49 -0600


About that "largely unregulated capitalism". Maybe it was for the first 150
years in this country, but today industrial griculture is a prime example of
the opposite and it's why I favor grow local buy local as in farmers markets.
Agriculture like just about every other industry is heavily influenced by
selective and inconsistent government subsidies, and family farms (and rural
communities) have been declining for decades. And the tax system is so full
of inconsistent tax breaks and hundreds of "incentives" of every description
that we really have no idea what industry and commerce would look like if it
was really a free market. Tax breaks and regulation favors anti-competitive
consolidation in the middleman processing, storage, and distribution of
produce and meat. Subsidies and incentives have favored larger and larger
farming operations at the expense of the little guy.

Education is mostly government "public" schools controlled from the top down.
Look at the transportation industry, the airlines, the truckers, the
railroads. And health care? Government regulated inside and out, with huge
favors to big pharmaceuticals, the most expensive in the world and relatively
high infant mortality, unusually high death rates from properly prescribed
and used drugs, and 40% of the population without health insurance. We turn
to herbal health care. But back to agriculture - it's so common for farmers
to complain about the government telling people what they can grow and what
they can't grow. It's my own opinion that the whole food industry is such a
mess today because of big business and government interference (regulation),
not because of lack of regulation. Everybody wants government to regulate
this and that, but in my opinion the problem is usually caused by some
regulation already in place that shouldn't be (the libertarian view). Take
the family living by a large field where they have to close all the windows
to keep out pesticide drift. They want it regulated to protect them. But if
the government didn't bar lawsuits against the spraying by making it so
expensive for the little guy to sue, and put their stamp of approval on the
spraying and the chemicals used, that family wouldn't need it regulated in
the first place. They could threaten to sue instead and be taken very
seriously. I won't even get into the whole GMO mess. I'm reminded of the
story, true or not, about the poor farmer who answered the door to see a man
in a dark suit introduce himself, "I'm from the government and I'm here to
help". And the farmer went for his shotgun ;-)

paul AT largocreekfarms.com
http://herbfarmer.net
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 9/23/2004 at 9:44 AM Old Timin' wrote:

>Pat:
>But - it was my impression that in a society of largely
>unregulated capitalism such as ours - that it's everyone's
>right (by law) to sell whatever they like for whatever price
>they wish to charge
>
>Oldtimin: As a Libertarian I couldnt agree more, but, I do see a difference
>between not letting them sell at that price or not letting them sell at
>that
>price at a specific market.I feel that whenever you agree to be part of
>something ( such as a market) you have to concede to rules that will help
>the majority, it is still your choice whether to be in the group or not.
>
>
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