Agriculture Needs Your Support...Now

Agriculture's silent crisis:

We should prepare for hard times. All forcasts for America are not good. The political face has changed, the government is taking over the private sector and people in power are creating more policy offered by ‘experts,’ many of whom are direct descendants of 19th century snake oil salesmen or are gorelike crazy scientists or are old 60's radicals- with agendas.

We can no longer let the treehuggers and uneducated liberals sway policies that restrict production and create lasting impact on how US agriculture has provided cheap food for it's citizens for centuries.
We no longer have the luxury of picking between animal rights and meat production. We don't have the luxury of choosing between minnows and California farmers.
We no longer have the luxury of investing in years of 'research' before we move forward on every issue... unless it is CapandTrade or Open Borders with little care to long range effects.
We no longer have the luxury of trusting the education of our children to school systems who indoctrinate.
We no longer have the luxury of providing health care for those who will not work to better themselves.
We no longer have the luxury of ignoring how other countries are cheating in international trade and just calling it laissez faire.
We don't have the luxury of not building nuclear energy plants or restricting energy reserves for the future, our future is now.
We don't have the luxury of pretending wolves don't stalk and eat little children and livestock. We don't have the luxury any more to pretend sharks don't deplete fish stocks. We don't have the luxury to pretend bears don't break into homes and kill people.
We don't have the luxury of trying to have the omlette without breaking the egg, or that butchering hurts.
We don't have the luxury to trust elected officials, the mainstream or free press, bonds with other countries, or the judicial system.

A safe and productive America is one that has mines, steel mills, meat production, grain in storage, oil wells, a strong military and honest politicians.
To cry that the sky is falling and that our country is Broke, then continue proposing protectionist measures (economic, political and social), will not only NOT reverse the trend of where we are headed, but most likely make things worse. We can't shut down all offshore oil production to spank the one that leaked, instead we should look to why they have to go so far out in the first place. Extracting oil on land is far safer and cheaper to produce, so I hope the environmental wackos like the tradgedy they created...it's not the method or blowout preventers or uncharted method of cleanup, it's Why do they need to be out there in the first place??

Fuel makes the world go around and the US stable....the supply and cost of fuel is detrimental to all aspects of everything we do or consume.

The mood in the country is alarmist and reactionary, but those in agriculture have always responsed with adaptibility and attitude of roll with the punches, so-to-speak. Yes, we need to be ready to accept and adapt to any change, like it or not. The problem lies with how the People will adapt to less food on the grocery shelves. The big question, and one that history offers, has varied answers. Without low energy costs, less food will be produced or the food prices "will neccesarily skyrocket". For every action politicians and environmental extremists take, there is a reaction. These people with curious ideas about the place of modern agriculture, present liberal ideas that have little to do with the realities of making a living on a ranch or a farm. People who live in the cities better wake up. They have the voting power to protect their food source. Urban districts are loaded with big voting blocks and big money, they can do massive damage or collectively get behind the family farm. If city-people want to pick a cause to get behind, it should be the forgotton ones in agriculture. You have to know who 'really' butters your bread. Obama and his ilk will have you believe in redistribution of wealth. I say, he's not talking about $$$, he's talking about food/welfare.... and when there is a shortage of good food, 'everyone' no matter your status, will be in the same boat.

But let's not be so foolish as to expect we can keep production agriculture as it has been. Those days are over. Those in DC want a Modern Agriculture. Modern agriculture is big business. It has to be in order to feed a rapidly growing world population. They want to Increase Exports to have a bigger stake in the Global Economy and to pay off their tremendous foreign debt. Today Obama sent 400 million to Gaza...on top of millions to Haiti. Where's that money come from? I say, we need to keep our OWN people fed first. Paying off national debt with exports is not the ahh hahh solution. Exports should be the leftovers or the surplus of a good year, not the target.

And for you treehuggers I say this, Corporate Agriculture is the only part of the industry that needs regulation. They have no love of the land and it's ecosystems. It's all about the 'profit' and they can pick up and leave to other states and even other countries, if the bottom lines can be increased. American farmers are 'true' environmentalists and protect the land that they 'own'. And to Washington I say, cancel every usda program and all the ag subsidies, especially the ones that ration production. You can have them all...in return set a 'fixed price' for off-road fuel used for agriculture production. That's it. Mother nature should be the only storm to worry about, not policies set in DC. Government needs to get out of small agriculture just as they need to butt the hell out of ALL small business. The private sector is America's saving grace and when it is forgotton for the 'global good', there goes America.


Comment by Tom Vilsack, Sec. of Agriculture about his tour of rural America :
“What I saw was a silent crisis in rural America. Too many of our small towns are struggling. Although they are some of the hardest working folks I know, rural Americans earn, on average, $11,000 less than their urban counterparts each year. And they are more likely to live in poverty."

So, you city dwellers, if the economy crashes, don't you be thinking on day tripping to the country for your veggies. We are not the fat-cats or the rich ready to distribute to the rich...it doesn't work that way, no more than it works to go to an oil rig to get gas for your car.

Support agriculture by voting for small Government and 'believe' in the Constitution as written.
As prominent Democrat James Carville said last week, "..., the political stupidity [of this administration] is unbelievable!"
Democrats now have permission to abandon partylines and vote common sense.
Don't give up. Instead vote for sanity in November and food on your plate in the near future.

(notice I didn't mention no or less 'Taxes' in this entire article...it was hard, but a good solution too)

Small Farm and pure economic protectionism

Every day in the United States, close to 3,000 acres of productive farmland are lost to development. Adapting to survive, many farmers have embraced a new paradigm that focuses on agricultural models custom-fit to changing markets and filling local niche markets with specialty produce and value-added products. The movement seems to be working.

Nearly 300,000 new farms have begun operations since 2002, according to recent Agricultural Census data. Compared with all farms nationwide, these new arrivals tend to have more diversified production, fewer acres, lower total-dollar sales and operators who also work off-farm. Most tend to be family run and do not need the so-called migrant worker. Interestingly, many of these operations are located in decidedly urban and suburban areas.

“All agriculture cannot serve niche markets,” says Karen McAdams, North Carolina State University agricultural service extension agent, “but there are many potential opportunities for farmers to take advantage of local urban markets and the increased demand for local foods.”

Nationally, there is a movement toward consuming locally raised foods. More than eight in 10 consumers (85 percent) say they trust smaller-scale family farms to produce safe, nutritious food. It's fresh, maybe cheaper and healthier, right?
So, why are the local, state or federal governments making laws and mandates about FOOD? They pay their taxes so, what's the problem here?


(The ordinance seems to me to be patently unconstitutional, as it is pure economic protectionism.)

Small business is and always will be the strength of America. This is about competition and control. You see it everywhere. Big businesses do whatever they can to compete and get a bigger piece of the pie. They will put up and maintain whatever barriers to entry into a share of their market. Make no mistake, big local businesses are conspiring with local government to restrict consumer choice in your hometown. Right now.

The competion between downtown grocery chains and WalMart is driven by the same thing. It's just that WalMart types offer local government such a huge tax revenue stream that they can get away with things that small local businesses can't. They also have been subsidized by local government through land taxes, so they have a vested interest in their success.

But small businesses are still the most important engine of growth, even more so in tough times when growth is hard to come by. Consider any 'future event' that would cause nationwide or statewide crippling of the flow of goods to stock these big-box stores. If they are the only show in town, the common good of the region is effected equally. Having choices and varied resources to buy local is to everyone's benefit and shame on the public officials that would want to hamper that growth.

And it's a shame to see what rights and liberties the governments of all sizes are willing to sacrifice for what they say is for the common good. Just how can restricting consumer choice ever be for the common good? For the common good of competing businesses--maybe.

Pay Attention to Agriculture!

The AG community is becoming more and more alarmed at the potential impact of Cap and Trade on not only the COST of food, but also its AVAILABILITY!

Food prices jumped by 2.4 percent in March, the most since January 1984. Vegetable prices soared by more than 49 percent, the most in 15 years. Gasoline prices rose 2.1 percent, the department said, the fifth rise in six months.
In the past year, wholesale prices are up 6 percent, with much of that increase driven by higher oil prices.

NO ONE in the news media, Fox News included, is talking about this!

The "Indirect Land Use" provision of the house-passed Cap and Trade bill will, by itself, transform up to 59 million acres of cropland back into forest. This is about 14.5% of US cropland, according to the USDA. This will reduce crop acreage and increase food prices. And that's just a small part of the bill!

As progressives intentionally increase the cost of oil-based fuel, it will have potentially devastating impacts on food prices and food production. One of the leading agriculture analysts in the country said that the US will be "transformed" from the world's largest exporter of ag products into a net food IMPORTER! That's amazing, because for generations, America has been the breadbasket to the world.

The average American farm is about 10 times more productive than the farms throughout the rest of the world. The main reason for this is cheap, abundant availability of crude oil. Farm machinery runs mostly on diesel fuel. If that fuel is too costly -- or UNAVAILABLE -- then food production would plummet and we could see shortages, rationing, or worse! Imagine the civil unrest if that were to occur!

Nearly 90% of American farms are still owned by families. If they couldn't get -- or couldn't afford -- to buy fuel for farm tractors and combines, food production would be devastated in a single season. Farm machinery tills the soil, plants the seeds, fertilizes the plants, and harvests the product. Machinery produces hay and feeds livestock. As the prices of these commodities rise, or their availability is curtailed, the price of food is directly affected. It's possible that we could see for even the 'availability' of food to be affected.

It seems unimaginable that we could ever see a famine in North America. But people need to know that the potential is there if energy costs skyrocket or there are shortages. Americans have no idea how dependent they are on cheap food prices and the cheap, abundant energy that makes that food supply available!

4/26 In the NEWS Today:
Some of the startling food price increases on a year-over-year basis include, fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1%, fresh fruits and melons up 28.8%, eggs for fresh use up 33.6%, pork up 19.1%, beef and veal up 10.7% and dairy products up 9.7%. On October 30th, 2009, NIA predicted that inflation would appear next in food and agriculture, but we never anticipated that it would spiral so far out of control this quickly...
http://libertypulse.com/article/5383/