Yet another Factory Farm vs. Family Farm Film... page

[keithpowers]

FARMAGEDDON

I wish more people knew that their choices were driving the family farms out of business and increasing the power of profit-first factory monstrosities...

If you steward the land, and make sure it's productive and fertile year-in, year-out, and do your best to be sustainable, it's not enough. You can't compete with a government-subsidized farm that pollutes more, destroys more, BUT produces more thanks to petrochemicals and a disregard for anything but the bottom line.

It's sickening.

[davem]

I wish more people knew that their choices were driving the family farms out of business and increasing the power of profit-first factory monstrosities...

and I wish more people knew how many of those family farms get corporate subsidies to let their fields go fallow. Where my mom lives the peach and almond farmers get $150k per acre to keep the ground, but not grow. Rice farmers get more (and they also sell materials to the meth makers, but that is another story.) to not grow. There are actually organizations in rural places that help maximize subsidy pay out to each farm.

It's sickening.

[keithpowers]

and I wish more people knew how many of those family farms get corporate subsidies to let their fields go fallow. Where my mom lives the peach and almond farmers get $150k per acre to keep the ground, but not grow. Rice farmers get more (and they also sell materials to the meth makers, but that is another story.) to not grow. There are actually organizations in rural places that help maximize subsidy pay out to each farm.

It's sickening.

You don't need to tell me... I agree fully that the subsidies have to stop. It's government interference in trade, quite frankly.

[Mike in Virginia]

Here's another assault on family farms: a proposal from the US Department of Transportation to require anyone who drives a tractor on a farm to get a commercial driver's license: Proposed rule on farms called

Some family farms are punished, and others are rewarded: government control to make everyone do things the way big agri wants them to. I think this situation places in jeopardy the clean, healthful foods that are essential to following the PB.

[davem]

A tractor drives much differently than a car.

[keithpowers]

A tractor drives much differently than a car.

The new ones are pretty damned close to cars... my grandpa's 1959 Farmall 560: THAT thing was a tractor. I recall he had an International Farmall Model M, 450, 560, 760, 1206 and '39 John Deer Model A. Two combines: Gleaner K 2-row and John Deere Model 95 4-row.

Driving those old beasts was something I did when I was too small to pitch hay. You drive around the fields so that your hired help can pick up square bales. Sounds mildly crazy when you could hitch a hay wagon to the baler and stack as it comes off, but it requires you to stop and hitch up too many times. The "hard way" was WAY faster because your baler could run flat out, and your pickup crew could go after the first finished bales... Once I got big enough (say, 10, 12 years old) it was time to throw bales with the hired help and my uncle and grandpa. Nothing like a hayfield in late July/early August with air temps at 100+ degrees, covered in jeans and work boots (and for the allergic, long-sleeve shirts). I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a workout.

[jfreaksho]

You don't need to tell me... I agree fully that the subsidies have to stop. It's government interference in trade, quite frankly.

I've never quite worked out my feelings towards this... I know people whose farms have benefited from these programs, but even they will say that the vast majority of money goes to the big factory farms.

Also, as someone who has studied a bit of military history, food security and national security are often linked, since food is such a primary resource. Remember the war(s) for oil? Imagine if they were for food instead. The gov't subsidizes farms in order to ensure that the people have enough to eat, which prevents or reduces the desire to riot or invade other countries.