My Dear Lady Henevere,
It is a truly monumental problem and if you will forgive the expression you are "preaching to the choir" in this forum. I agree with you 100%. It is however, a much more difficult problem because of the size of the economic impact on the American farm than anyone can imagine. I farm 7 acres of SDAK. Folks here laugh when I say that. They farm THOUSANDS of acres. Their livlihoods are always on the edge of the envelope because of the cost of farming. Farmers here spend a great deal of money to produce huge volumes of food products(and yes, sad to say they use Roundup and a lot of other chemicals) to feed our nation and others in the world. They all do this to make a very modest living for their family. The problem gets worse over time. The weather is never on our side. My 7 acres of corn cost me $2500 to grow last year. They were willing to give me $900 at the elevator for it. You can do the math. Multiply the number by 1000 and you can see what an impact these issues make.
In addition to your completely sound arguements (and I really do agree with you) there is as you say, the effects on the people. I live in a county that has nearly the highest incidence of cancer in the state. Now when you ask the question "is there more disease or more reporting?" many other questions arise, but the truth is the truth!
I don't know what you do or what your farm is producing but we both know that diesel fuel has skyrocketed in price. A John Deere 4420 burns about 4 gallons per hour and moves about 2 mile/hour or less when pulling implements. Newer tractors burn a lot less but then they also cost in the $250,000 range to buy. Fertilizer is brutally expensive now and for that matter so is roundup. While I am NOT justifying anything, I am merely pointing out the issues I see in my area. I take care of these people and almost every day I see someone or hear of someone with a new cancer diagnosis. It is heartbreaking.
You are right. The big corporations such as Monsanto have control over big farming and big farming isn't lucrative. In the 1970's grain was nearly exactly the same value as it is now and a farmer used to have to grow about 10 times less grain to afford a vehicle. Wheat was about $5/bushel then and about $6/bushel now. So now he has to farm 1000 acres instead of 100. Land has gone from $300/acre here to $1500/acre since 2001 when I first visited here. Folks are trying to sell some land for as high as $3500/acre. You can see that this is NOT a sustainable economy. Cash rents went from $20/acre to over $100/acre. Farmers are paying more and making less than ever before. Any guesses as to how long many of them will be able to stay in business? Our country is being driven to its knees economically. It is intentional and deliberate. A better question is "who is doing it?" and "what can we do to stop/reverse it?"
We need a change, but so far, the change we were "promised" by the current administration does not appear to be going the right direction.
Small, family farms are all but extinct now. We need them back.
Caucasian women are having less children than ever before because they all want to have jobs and compete in the job market instead of being mothers to their children...who they send to "day care"to have someone else raise them.
Other groups are having more children than ever before. The goose that lays the golden egg is nearly dead. What do you suggest we do to stop this? I for one am willing to help. But we can't do it here. We have to do it at the ballot box and in the schools and in our communities. Otherwise, we will become a third world nation very soon. Once there is no more money to fund the "social programs" that the democrats have promised in order to attract "votes" what do you think those "voters" will do then?
YMMV
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Excellent post!!
