North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark & Helen Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Ioneroc wrote:

 

 

"But this guy is a cruel, greedy @$%?!--like the farmers around here who stuff 10,000 hogs into a small barn like wall-to-wall pork carpeting."

 

Hi Steve,

 

As a former pig farmer, I guess I was one of those greedy so and so's who had wall to wall pork carpeting.  But there is another side and it's not necessarily about getting rich.  Like almost all farming it's about keeping costs low enough to remain competitive.  There are less and less operations with hogs on dirt.  The reason is simply it is harder and harder to remain competitive without confinement operations.  Sweden passed laws essentially banning confinement operations, and it comes as no surprise they no longer have a hog industry to speak of.  Being in the swine industry for many years, I don't think the meat is at all unhealthy either.  Because of parasite risks, I would much rather eat pork grain fed on concrete than pigs on dirt.  It's true pigs may be happier on dirt under ideal conditions, but they are probably unhappier on 0 degree days, vs. pigs in climate controlled buildings.

 

I'm rambling a bit here, but the real benefit is the unbelievably cheap food prices.  The reason dirt farmers can stay in business selling their grain for the same price their fathers got, is because they farm twice the amount of acreage.  Same thing with livestock farmers.  More or less, the only way to get a wage increase is to increase production and with few exceptions, dirt operations are not nearly as productive as confinement.  As a farmer, you'll wait long and hard for a price increase, instead you have to produce more.

 

Mark

Kansas

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: loneroc

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 6:12 AM

Subject: Re: [NAFEX] You Think You Got Pest Problems?

I can deal with someone pulling the wings off of flies, having poisoned plenty myself.  I can deal with folks who quickly kill animals and eat them--I am not a vegetarian.  Like logging companies who strip-mine vast mountainsides of trees:  it's cheaper that way, you know, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to timber selectively or sustainably.  Oooo, it costs me so much money to treat waste water before dumping it!  Why do I have to pay minimum wage?  Maybe slaves are cheaper in the long run.  Since this guy has to export to Europe or the US to survive, I'd say protests and boycotts of any fruit distributor who EVER buys another apple from this guy again would be the free market solution.  Starlings would be the least of his economic nightmares.  Spread the word:-)

 

loneroc

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Thomas Olenio

To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'

Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 2:13 PM

Subject: [NAFEX] You Think You Got Pest Problems?

Hi,

 

Here is a fellow with real pest problems.  Claims they cost him $300,000 last year in lost crops.

 

Massive explosion leaves thousands of birds dead

An orchardist who regularly mounts attacks on roosting starlings has allegedly left thousands of birds dead and dying after commissioning a bird bomb for his latest effort.

 

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4168476a7693.html#Scene_1

 

Having been frustrated by pests myself it is hard to decide where I stand on his actions.

 

Later,

Tom

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