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Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
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There's a question on the "immigration forum" on Food prices, farming and labor.
As farmers, big or small, I would sure like to hear some of your resonses on this.
I think you'd know more about what's being said...
I grew up on a farm where illegals were used to help in the harvest. My parents tried hard to get local teens to accept harvest jobs, but they would not. My siblings and I worked on the farm, though we did it year around.
The problem I see is that today farmers do not set their own prices. I am currently a very small scale farmer, I sell at Farmers markets and a roadside stand. I can sort of set my prices, but I have a very small window within which I can operate. If I meet or exceed the grocery store's prices then I lose customers. My production is only as much as I can pick. So really I am the only person effected by my prices.
If I multiplied my production ten-fold, then I would need to hire some folks to help me. Nobody really wants to work harvest only [except teams of illegal pickers who focus on that one task].
I do not gross enough to hire a farm hand to work the entire season.
Here locally we do have 'apprenticeship' programs for the certified-organic farms. And there are a few college age kids who are living to live on a farm and work on that farm; in exchange for a stipend. Under the guidelines of being apprentice farmers.
I do not think that it would effect prices, so much as farms would fold up.
So often it requires one or two fulltime jobs off the farm to keep a farm floating, and this is normal. To remove the teams of harvest-only workers, would cause many farms to reduce their harvest.
I don't live in a state over run with illegals yet, but as a farmer I will say that with the down-turn in the economy, we have been beseiged with true American's that truly want to work on the farm. Not just people milking our cows either, but trades like carpenters, electricians and mechanics who are out of a job right now and know that farming is a 24/7/365 operation. With so many people coming to us for jobs...what would be the loss?
Illegals have always hurt us (US Citizens) but now that the down-turn in the economy has made people realize that chasing the DOW is not really right, and that working for a few dollars less in 2009 then they did in 2008 is a really good thing. A few years ago you could not get people to work on a farm, and when you said you were a farmer, you whispered it and made sure only 1 or 2 people heard it...it was down right degrading to be a farmer. Now the tide has turned and people realize that farmers have an important role in this country. And so now it is okay for people to return to the farm and they are more then willing to come and work at wages we can afford.
There is no better time than now for illegals to leave.
With true americans ready and willing to fill the voids, and a new generation of farmers who want and need to learn real world, on-farm experience, will do just fine without them. The teenagers like my daughter who cannot get a summer job wouldn't mind either.
As for the cost of food...that is being driven by the new mandates for ethanol in gasoline. If you want food prices to tumble, call your congressman to stop the increase from 10% ethanol to 15% ethanol content. Its driving up the price of grain so that livestock producers must charge more for their commodities, and more corn-belt farmers are switching from food based crops to ethanol based crops like corn. This is what's driving up food prices. Fewer acres of food being produced...to entice farmers to make the same money growing wheat as they can growing corn for ethanol, the price of wheat had to go up by 252%! That will continue until this country realizes its downright stupid to use land that can grow food crops, and instead use that ground to drive around on it.
Of course think about all the soy beans we can save by moving the illegals out. Since soy ink is used in most printing operations now, we would save tons of ink by not having to print labels in both English and Spanish! That would allow more soy beans to go into food products! (LOL)
-------"to entice farmers to make the same money growing wheat as they can growing corn for ethanol, the price of wheat had to go up by 252% !
"That will continue-----"
It sure didn't " continue" for very long.
Wheat is selling in the $5-$6 a bushel price range compared to the $20 a bushel price awhile back.
The high wheat prices was affected by ethanol, but had a lot more to do with a poor world wide harvest a couple years ago.
Alarmists refused to believe this and the media jumped on their bandwagon proclaiming ethanol the culprit when news paper headlines showed flour prices sky rocketing.
Did all the ethanol plants close ? ( sarc)
Why ,then, did wheat prices tumble from a peak of $20 a bushel down to $5-$6 ?
Why did corn prices tumble also? ( some local markets are paying under $3 a bushel for corn compared to $5 a couple years ago?
Why no media stories now that prices the farmer gets have dropped steeply?
The answer is it doesn't fit their anti ethanol agenda !
-------"to entice farmers to make the same money growing wheat as they can growing corn for ethanol, the price of wheat had to go up by 252% !
"That will continue-----"
It sure didn't " continue" for very long.
Wheat is selling in the $5-$6 a bushel price range compared to the $20 a bushel price awhile back.
The high wheat prices was affected by ethanol, but had a lot more to do with a poor world wide harvest a couple years ago.
Alarmists refused to believe this and the media jumped on their bandwagon proclaiming ethanol the culprit when news paper headlines showed flour prices sky rocketing.
Did all the ethanol plants close ? ( sarc)
Why ,then, did wheat prices tumble from a peak of $20 a bushel down to $5-$6 ?
Why did corn prices tumble also? ( some local markets are paying under $3 a bushel for corn compared to $5 a couple years ago?
Why no media stories now that prices the farmer gets have dropped steeply?
The answer is it doesn't fit their anti ethanol agenda !
Or it could be that oil consumption in this country plummeted to a 13 year low! Ethanol only does well when the price of oil is high and that dropped with the economy collapse.
Either way, corn is down 1.5 million acres this year!
Or it could be that oil consumption in this country plummeted to a 13 year low! Ethanol only does well when the price of oil is high and that dropped with the economy collapse.
Either way, corn is down 1.5 million acres this year!
"down 1.5 million acres this year " ??????????????
According to the USDA report released 6-30-09----------" 87 million acres of corn was planted this year, up 1 million acres from last year"
The report went on to say it is the 2nd most acres planted to corn in the last 60 years.
On Agday the other day they said that corn plantings were down 1.5 million acres?
I don't know, but with fuel consumption down sharply due to the recession it will be interesting to see what affect that has on ethanol production/ If fuel consumption is down by say 1 million barrels per day, and 10% must now have ethanol in it, that is a significant reduction in corn production.
It will be interesting to see what the federal tax on sugar products does to corn production as well since a lot of sugar is corn syrup based.
Location: Prescott Valley,az summer/east valley Az winter
2,061 posts, read 4,135,803 times
Reputation: 8190
What is truly amazing is the BS blaming ethanol production for lack of feedstuff. Ethanol production removes only sugars from the corn leaving all the protien content intact~ which is the feedstuff used by animals for growth. Meaning that ethanol production does not affect feed value. Sorry to burst the bubble of the coal and oil conglomerates that would have you believe differently!
What is left over from ethanol is vastly different than the shelled corn, can only be used to replace some of shelled corn in a dairy cows' diet, and can only be used in small amounts.
Also, the ethanol plant near me sells WET distillers grain, which does not keep long in hot weather and freezes in cold weather.
The dairy farmers utilizing it are mainly the ones very close by so they can pick up amounts daily or every other day.
Hoards Dairyman did an extensive article on feeding distillers grain to dairy cattle.
It ain't all its cracked up to be.
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Meaning that ethanol production does not affect feed value. Sorry to burst the bubble of the coal and oil conglomerates that would have you believe differently!
