From Baby Formula To Eggs, Who Is Trying To Creaye Food Shortages In The US?

[Tommy Tainant]

Bullshit. A farmer doesn't have time to pound a keyboard 24/7

One of my friends is a dairy farmer and he spends a lot of time online. Its company for him as farming can be a very lonely business. As an occupation the suicide rates are through the roof.
He doesnt get much social from his cattle.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

One of my friends is a dairy farmer and he spends a lot of time online. Its company for him as farming can be a very lonely business. As an occupation the suicide rates are through the roof.
He doesnt get much social from his cattle.

Has he ever tried a human woman?

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Has he ever tried a human woman?

She has to go out to work because farming doesnt pay that well anymore.

 

[mudwhistle]

One of my friends is a dairy farmer and he spends a lot of time online. Its company for him as farming can be a very lonely business. As an occupation the suicide rates are through the roof.
He doesnt get much social from his cattle.

He doesn't spend as much time online as Moon.....he's always online.

 

[Missouri_Mike]

She has to go out to work because farming doesnt pay that well anymore.

So he can’t handle eight hours of work without someone to talk to? How big is this ranch, what does the wife look like, is she good in bed and can she cook? I may be interested in this dudes job.

 

[Chillicothe]

Yes, autocorrect changed it from patents to parents. They aren’t ******* hero’s. They are an army of lawyers.
You’re actually proving my point. Farms these days have to be inherited. Or must have massive loans to get started. It’s damn near impossible to get started. And if you choose the wrong year due to weather? You lose it all.

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Well, I dunno who the poster is referencing with the......"aren't f*cking hero's. They are an army of lawyers."
If it is Monsanto, well, he is setting up straw man to heroically knock down.
NOBODY on this thread has alleged anybody is a hero here.
So let's move beyond that rhetorical whirl&twirl.

Quoted from the poster: "Farms these days have to be inherited. Or must have massive loans to get started. It’s damn near impossible to get started. And if you choose the wrong year due to weather? You lose it all."

I don't think the poster's complaint is novel, nor new. Throughout my life I have heard family and neighbors complain about the cost of land, machinery, and inputs. The 'cost' of farming.
So, nothing new here.

Look, re-frame these complaints into trying to buy a successful business in any manufacturing industry....or even in retail or wholesale. If the business is generating significant income, and there are significant marketable hard assets (like land, equipment, buildings)....well, it ain't ever gonna be "cheap".

It is naïve to think otherwise.

 

[Missouri_Mike]

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Well, I dunno who the poster is referencing with the......"aren't f*cking hero's. They are an army of lawyers."
If it is Monsanto, well, he is setting up straw man to heroically knock down.
NOBODY on this thread has alleged anybody is a hero here.
So let's move beyond that rhetorical whirl&twirl.

Quoted from the poster: "Farms these days have to be inherited. Or must have massive loans to get started. It’s damn near impossible to get started. And if you choose the wrong year due to weather? You lose it all."

I don't think the poster's complaint is novel, nor new. Throughout my life I have heard family and neighbors complain about the cost of land, machinery, and inputs. The 'cost' of farming.
So, nothing new here.

Look, re-frame these complaints into trying to buy a successful business in any manufacturing industry....or even in retail or wholesale. If the business is generating significant income, and there are significant marketable hard assets (like land, equipment, buildings)....well, it ain't ever gonna be "cheap".

It is naïve to think otherwise.

You obviously knew exactly what I was talking about. The seed companies such as Monsanto sell dead seeds. They don’t reproduce like they would in nature. This means you buy a new batch every year. You have no choice. Add to that you will have to buy their pesticide and I’m sure you can notice the circle of fucked once you sign up for that.

Of course it’s not new. It’s been going on for 50 years now. There are no new farmers getting some land and making a career of working it. Family farms hang on as long as possible but in the end when they have to sell out it goes to the corporate farms. There’s no room for a new family farm of affordable size.

What I have gleaned from your posts, if you’re being truthful, is you’re part of the beneficial corporate farming that can afford the costs and have sat back buying up the smaller operations to add to the portfolio.

 

[Chillicothe]

"The seed companies such as Monsanto sell dead seeds. They don’t reproduce like they would in nature. This means you buy a new batch every year. You have no choice. Add to that you will have to buy their pesticide and I’m sure you can notice the circle of fucked once you sign up for that."

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IMHO, a too jaundiced view of the real-politik of today's ag business.
Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Syngenta, et al, don't need me to defend their business practice.
But if tasked to do so, well, then.....I'd run it this way:

Round-Up revolutionized weed management for row crops. Prior to it's development to control weeds the operator needed to run his tractor mounted cultivator across his field on multiple occasions. Each pass was time consuming, labor intensive, fuel expensive, and served to cumulatively compact the soil.

But.......if a single pass with a sprayer prior to planting reduced the mustards, grasses, ragweed or curly dock, well, that is a big benefit. Trust me.
But, a single pre-plant application in early May doesn't eliminate the late germinating pigweed, lambsquarters, jimson weed, other grasses. So Round-Up didn't cure that because back then you couldn't spay it over your growing crops. It would kill them too.

Then Monsanto's scientist unlocked gene-manipulation to make the crops...soybeans, corn, etc. immune to their herbicide Round-Up.
Then, weed management went to a whole new level. A very good level for an operator. Now, one proper sprayer pass took care of the problem. And saved a whole big bunch of input costs in making a crop.

But, Monsanto knew their gene-manipulation was a big deal, they had invested a ton in creating it, so they patented it. Those seeds with that technology became proprietary. So, if you don't want to use their seeds, fine. But then you won't be able to use their Round-Up....because it will kill the plants grown from your non-Monsanto seeds.

And by the way, those proprietary seeds are not 'dead'.....put 'em in the ground they'll grow an ear of corn. And you could plant the seeds from that cob and they will grow. But.........but those seeds from that cob derived from a proprietary seed patented by Monsanto, or Dow, or Dupont. And they don't want you growing crops from their technology that you didn't pay for.

Monsanto's development of Round-Up and their subsequent gene-technology is one of the biggest building blocks that has created today's American agriculture,. the most productive in the world.

THAT.....and million of acres of fertile soil located in climates that are favorable for feed and food crops.

Hope that helps.
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There’s no room for a new family farm of affordable size.

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What's a "new farm"?
And old farm with a new owner?
You do know that there is no 'new dirt'?

More importantly than whether that old dirt has been tilled for 170 years is that economies-of-scale are a reality in farming. I won't bore you with the cost of land, or a new combine, or no-till planter, or bins, etc.

But I would do this: Point out to you that there is no room for the family computer manufacturer, or family car manufacturer either. There used to be, and those companies existed with the families that started and ran them.

But no longer.

Times change.

 

[EvMetro]

Here is the egg section at my local wal mart.

Let's go Brandon!

 

[ninja007]

It is a non-story. Even if all the chickens in the barn died, which does not seem to be the case, it is still a drop in the bucket that this company owns.


These things have been happening for as long as man has had buildings. But now you all have your tribe leaders scouring the internet looking for every single story so they can up the fear level you all are living in.

Fear is a great agent of control.

And you happily let it be done to you

the irony.