|
| Case30, I have to disagree with you that government subsidies are only helping the "old and rich" farmers in today's Ag economy. In our part of the world when the Ag economy is down is when the big boys grow the fastest. They have more backing to get through the rough times and smoke it in the good times. It seems to be the case here that since the Ethanol era there are WAY and I mean WAY more young generations coming back to their family farms then before because the money is actually there to support it. When corn is 5-6 dollars kids see an opportunity when it is 2-3 dollars they are better off getting a job in town. It is absolutely insane to me that high dollar commodities are seen as a bad thing for young farmers??? Would you rather make 20 dollars an acre or 100 dollars an acre. The higher the profitability goes up per acre the less acres it takes to farm full time thus allowing you to take advantage of economies of scale and allowing your farm to grow. You also conveniently left out that there are young farmers programs in nearly every county FSA office which is the easiest money ever given by our government. I bought my first equipment using 1.5% money when the going rate was closer to 5% all because I was a young farmer. Is that not a subsidy? I also bought my first land on a government loan that took 50% of my financing and gave it to me at 1.5% not to mention it only required a 5% down payment. Is that not a government subsidy? The crop insurance subsidy helps me way more than the more established farmers because there is NO way I could afford the crop insurance without it as easy as a guy with lots of land and a good spread out land base. He can last weather related downturns better than I can this helps me. If you can't tell I am young (26) and a lot of times I can get cocky in thinking I have it all figured out, but the older I get the more and more I realize I am still very "Inexperienced", I like to give my dad a hard time about technology in the equipment, etc. (It needs to be stated nothing would run on our farm without him though.) I have years to go before I come close to seeing the things he has and using those things as a decision making tool.
No one likes the consolidation in Ag, its understandable. I blame it more on the technology and ease of farming. A 60 year old guy doesn't even have to throw bags of seed around anymore why wouldn't he want to keep farming? I hope more young farmers can get into the Ag world, it's a good thing. But I don't think we can do it by bashing those who have paved the way ahead of us.
Edited by No soil disturbance 7/24/2014 20:30
| |
|
Young Farmer wanting to rent ground
