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Not to be a d*ick, but your just plain wrong. Most beef comes from a CAFO (concentrated feeding operation) aka factory farm. Grain, especially corn, is all grown on Monsanto factory farms. Fruits and veg too. Sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you buy food from a coop then it came from a factory farm.
Please tell me what a ---------" Monsanto factory farm is "
(I laughed so hard I spilled my coffee while reading that IGNORANCE )
Not to be a d*ick, but your just plain wrong. Most beef comes from a CAFO (concentrated feeding operation) aka factory farm. Grain, especially corn, is all grown on Monsanto factory farms. Fruits and veg too. Sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you buy food from a coop then it came from a factory farm.
Where do you live and what's your area of expertise in agriculture?
Sorry, but you really do have no idea what you're talking about. I live in Nebraska, where we have more cattle than people--literally. Beef is still raised on family operations, but the market is increasingly stacked against small operators. Just like what's happened previously in the hog and poultry industry, major corporations are taking control of the packing industry, or the market. If it continues down the same path of the hog and poultry industry, at some point all beef production will all be done on factory farms, but it isn't there yet. The other issue is that corporations control the pricing at market because they ARE the market, and give huge discounts to factory farms that produce in massive volume. There need to be serious market reforms to support smaller farm operators. Family farmers can produce an identical or better product than a factory farm, but the processors pay more to the factory farms because they can supply in higher volume. It's a way of trying to shut smaller farm operations out of the market.
As for Monsanto--they have the patent on crops that are genetically modified to be resistant to a specific herbicide called roundup. Farming with roundup ready crops are more cost effective (or used to be) because farmers didn't have to go in and manually do weed control--they could spray the fields with roundup instead and everything but the crop would die. Monsanto doesn't own the farmland or do the farming. The farmer buys the seed. Monsanto makes a killing on it because they control the round up ready crops, plus they're the manufacturer of Roundup. The problem is that many weeds are becoming resistant to roundup now, plus they're finding that roundup does nasty things to the soil makeup and causes nutrient deficiencies--they used to say that Roundup was harmless and degraded immediately in the soil, so it was safe for the environment. Now they're finding that it isn't true.
You made one correct statement in your entire post--if you want organic or small farm grown products, a coop or farmers market is your best shot. Some small farmers are banding together to do cooperative meat processing to bypass the corporate controlled slaughter houses, but it's expensive and risky. They're most successful when they can offer a niche product, like organics. It's also more expensive for the consumer. Supporting them is a good thing.
The people who grow the cattle ( ranchers) are NOT big corporate farms.
The feedlots who add the last pounds to the cattle are,
Some family ranches still finish cattle--ranchers have been putting cattle in feedlots to grain feed them at the end for the past 100 years because it dramatically improves the taste of the beef--but you are absolutely right in that cow/calf breeding operations are still family businesses. There are major concerns that the cattle industry is going to vertically integrate just like hogs and poultry, and they're just about there on the feedlot or "finishing" end. It would be harder to corporately control cow/calf operations because it's a more labor and resource dependent process, but the signs are there that it may be the direction they're heading. I know from your posts that you understand this, but other people here probably don't.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis1979
Farmers like the ones Mr. Harvey was speaking of in that sound bite don't exist much anymore. Most small farmers have been bought out, or lease out their land to much larger farming operations for a lease fee or a percentage of the crop.
That's just the modern reality.
What conservatives consider 'modern reality' often appears to be the Norman Rockwell world that hasn't existed for many, many years, if indeed it ever did.
What conservatives consider 'modern reality' often appears to be the Norman Rockwell world that hasn't existed for many, many years, if indeed it ever did.
Have you ever been to a state like Nebraska, or the Dakotas, or even Iowa? If you're really from Wyoming you'd know better.
Oh I don't doubt that conservatives want the same thing. I just said liberals because they were the ones accused of not caring.
I'm not sure republicans want the same thing, but conservatives do. There's a difference these days. The republican party (and the democrats too) need to get their hands out of Big Agriculture's pockets.
Farmers like the ones Mr. Harvey was speaking of in that sound bite don't exist much anymore. Most small farmers have been bought out, or lease out their land to much larger farming operations for a lease fee or a percentage of the crop.
That's just the modern reality.
Both of my grandfathers grew up farming, one continued to do it until he couldn't keep up physically anymore. All the lands been sold, all the old homes gone, and men who I admire are now in their late 70s and can't get around anymore. My mothers other half farms, drives trachoe and other large farm equipment for very little money while the man who owns all the equipment makes millions farming other peoples land.
Yeah, that commercial was awesome, but its been an obsolete one for about 30 years.
You're way off on your belief that small farmers don't exist.
Maybe where you live. I don't know.
Where do you live and what's your area of expertise in agriculture?
Sorry, but you really do have no idea what you're talking about. I live in Nebraska, where we have more cattle than people--literally. Beef is still raised on family operations, but the market is increasingly stacked against small operators. Just like what's happened previously in the hog and poultry industry, major corporations are taking control of the packing industry, or the market. If it continues down the same path of the hog and poultry industry, at some point all beef production will all be done on factory farms, but it isn't there yet. The other issue is that corporations control the pricing at market because they ARE the market, and give huge discounts to factory farms that produce in massive volume. There need to be serious market reforms to support smaller farm operators. Family farmers can produce an identical or better product than a factory farm, but the processors pay more to the factory farms because they can supply in higher volume. It's a way of trying to shut smaller farm operations out of the market.
As for Monsanto--they have the patent on crops that are genetically modified to be resistant to a specific herbicide called roundup. Farming with roundup ready crops are more cost effective (or used to be) because farmers didn't have to go in and manually do weed control--they could spray the fields with roundup instead and everything but the crop would die. Monsanto doesn't own the farmland or do the farming. The farmer buys the seed. Monsanto makes a killing on it because they control the round up ready crops, plus they're the manufacturer of Roundup. The problem is that many weeds are becoming resistant to roundup now, plus they're finding that roundup does nasty things to the soil makeup and causes nutrient deficiencies--they used to say that Roundup was harmless and degraded immediately in the soil, so it was safe for the environment. Now they're finding that it isn't true.
You made one correct statement in your entire post--if you want organic or small farm grown products, a coop or farmers market is your best shot. Some small farmers are banding together to do cooperative meat processing to bypass the corporate controlled slaughter houses, but it's expensive and risky. They're most successful when they can offer a niche product, like organics. It's also more expensive for the consumer. Supporting them is a good thing.
Methinks you are underestimating damage Monsanto does to the small farmer:
No one should own a patent on seeds or DNA. NO ONE.
The precedence set by Monsanto and others is dire. The precedence that will be set by the USSC is of monumental importance.
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The farmer buys the seed. Monsanto makes a killing on it because they control the round up ready crops, plus they're the manufacturer of Roundup. The problem is that many weeds are becoming resistant to roundup now, plus they're finding that roundup does nasty things to the soil makeup and causes nutrient deficiencies--they used to say that Roundup was harmless and degraded immediately in the soil, so it was safe for the environment. Now they're finding that it isn't true.
