|
Farmington, Maine | Sorry this is so long but I tried to address most of the comments
John Sd makes a good point when he says "You can't focus only on money and profit or only land/animal/family care without seriously affecting the other." Over the short them I would say that you can and people have but over the long term I agree.
Tallgrassneil says "MY definition of "exploiter" is a land speculator/ developer" While I agree a developer can be an exploiter I think it can be anyone who uses something or someone selfishly or unethically. Does everyone on this site think giving something to say cow for instance to make it give more milk but shortens the cows life is not exploiting it? I guess that’s up to debate. Some people would say that if we raise a chicken to eat then we are exploiting that chicken
Donkey say "Our goal is to feed the World" That may be your goal but I think most people would be happy feeding less people and making more money to feed and take care of their own family and farm.
95th says "Unlike the agriarian societies in many parts of the world today. Please explain the virtues of Somolia ,,, I'm really interested in how great they're doing with strictly an agrarian society !!"
I said nothing about becoming an agrarian society. Somolia? Are you for real?
Lets take the EU countries for instance, would you say they are all living like Somolia? Or are agrarian societies? Here is what our own U.S.D.A. says about them "EU farms are, on average, considerably smaller than U.S. farms. In 2001, the average farm size in the EU-15 was 46.2 acres, whereas the average farm size in the United States was 436 acres. The addition of 12 new member states with smaller farm sizes than the EU-15 makes U.S. average farm size more than 10 times that of the average EU-27 farm. However, farm size varies greatly by country, ranging from an average of 171 acres in the United Kingdom to 10.6 acres in Greece (a member of the EU-15) and 7.2 acres in Hungary (a new member of the EU-27)."
Many farmers in these countries make very good livings. How? well for one thing food prices are higher ( and the poor still seam to be able to eat) for another a lot more food is sold locally. Bread for instance is more of a regional thing in France. If you travel through France you will find that bread from different regions tastes very different because of climate, soil and variety differences. I guess what I’m getting at is some of these farmers make a good living on 1/10 the land. American Agriculture
Right now in the U.S. farmer uses more fossil fuel to produce food than any other country. Currently about 10 to 15 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1 calorie for food. Hey hasn’t everyone heard China has a billion more people than the US 303,000,000 in the U.S. 1,330,000,000 in China. They are starting to sell more cars than we do and the numbers go up every month. We consume 1/3 of the total amount fossil fuel produced in the world right now. Raise your hand if you think that is going to continue.
Finally without making this too long
pbutler says "Have you set foot on a farm in the last 25 years?"
Yes as a mater of fact I’m a farmer and pushing retirement age. I grew up on a farm married my wife who grew up on a farm and we are still on the farm. I also practice what I preach. We grow, process and sell both retail and wholesale. My youngest son and his future wife is also working on the farm and will take it over some day. We are all very busy and love what we do. I hope you all love what you do too.
| |
|
The unsugared reality of agriculture today
