Hi all,
just want to comment on some stuff Phil posted.
" After seeing people in Europe starve during the
early 1900's the US government adopted what we farmers and ranchers call
the "cheap food policy". Our government never wanted to see the people in
the US go hungry like the Europeans did. Consequently the US government
has encouraged overproduction of food in the US so it would always be
available (in surplus) and be available at a cheap price to the consumer."
I think this is a very good policy one of which every government in the world
should adopt.
"This food commodity will always have a
consumer waiting to buy it especially if it is cheaper in price. The
obvious evidence of this is the millions and millions of starving people in
the world that go without food every day. These poor people are not
concerned with a third car or bigger house. These people are not concerned
with even a single car or house. For these millions of people their first
and only concern, even above a simple hut to live in, is FOOD- where will
I get something to eat today so
I can simply stay alive for tomorrow."
The mere fact that these people are poor means that they are not productive
enough or do not produce anything of economic value to other people. That is
why they can't earn the money to buy food. Most of the time they have to plant
their own food for survival but going up against corporate farming, it would
still be alot cheaper just to buy this than plant it yourself. Imagine
yourself as a citizen of a third world country. The only thing your skilled
for is agriculture and the food that is being imported is alot cheaper and
better than what you produce... now what would you do.
"We as farmers and ranchers in the US
are faced with this simple problem unique only to food. The more we produce
to stay in business the cheaper it will get and we will never fill the
demand for food in the world based on these criteria. 100 years ago the
market for US produced food was only the US. Now we are in a global market
for food. This has changed for the same reasons other products are in a
global market - the main reason being world transportation and
communication are faster and more efficient and products can be produced on
one side of the globe and sold on another side within days or weeks instead
of months or years. Because of this any surplus food produced in the US,
and the world for that matter, is discounted in price sold and even
given away to poor people in underdeveloped countries."
Sometimes the best way to help someone is not helping them at all. Giving away
food at unrealistic prices does not promote self sufficiency, it promotes
dependency and kills the hard working people who try to be self sufficient.
Its the American govt that sells/gives these to underdeveloped countries as aid
and gets these underdeveloped countries hooked on cheap food.
"Until that need for
food by underdeveloped countries is met there is no hope for US agriculture
to increase our own prices. We can never met that need as long as these
countries have no money to buy food that is priced based on our cost of
production. They will continue however to consume our surplus at a price
much lower than our cost of production thus always driving our price
downward. If these poor people had the money to buy food from US farmers
"at the cost of production plus reasonable profit" I am convinced the US
could feed the entire world!!!"
If you can't afford something, you should not enjoy that luxury even if it was
given to you. The American gov't gives alot of food aid around the world to
needy countries as good will while buying the same food at US market prices to
support farmers. If the American Gov't didn't give out these excess food.
They would have had to destroy the excess to maintain the price for farmers and
then the farmers would be told not to produce that much because there is no
demand for it anyway. If not for this system of supporting farmers and
supporting "friends" there would be still too many farmers producing too much
for too few Americans. I said Americans because in this case the food would be
too expensive for anyone else to buy.
"You might say - well then, why don't the farmers and ranchers get
together and produce less, create a shortage, and raise their prices to a
profitable level. Besides the fact that this could never be done given the
dynamics of agriculture in the US and the moral issues it would raise in the
US and the world, our government would never allow this to happen because of
the cheap food policy I explained earlier. This would be a monopoly in its
simplest form dealing with a basic necessity for life-food. The government
simply couldn't and wouldn't allow this to happen. Consequently we as
farmers and ranchers are left to seek help from the government so that we
can stay in business to produce the food necessary to feed the US and a lot
of the world at a very cheap price."
Fixing the price is not good. Abundant, cheap food is the way to go. To help
farmers, new uses for these food should be found and established. Like for
feeds or other uses to support price and volume. Making alot of oil from
crops(corn, soyabean etc)for BD and ethanol is a great new market.
You might say - well, we don't need the American farmer we can buy
all the food we need at a cheaper price from
overseas. On the surface this sounds reasonable but beware!!! Can you
imagine if the US were dependent on food from a group of foreign countries
like were are dependant on oil from OPEC. We can all drive our cars less,
turn our thermostats down, etc. to conserve energy. We can develop
alternative sources of energy to replace oil. We could in an emergency
get by without importing any oil with the reserves we have in the US - for
how long I don't know. But when it comes to food
it gets a little scarier. Yes we could all eat less and waste less. I
really don't know of any alternative for sustaining life that will replace
food. If the US ever gets to the point where we rely heavily on imported
food like we do oil then look out. Overnight those countries would and
could raise prices for food to whatever they wanted and we would be
helpless to do anything about it. If you think it takes a lot of
infrastructure to produce oil and gas from the ground take a look at food.
For the most part it is a perishable item and requires considerably broader
and different inputs to produce than oil. If you think you could get by as
an individual person or family with less oil and gas you are probably
correct. If you think you could get by as an individual person or family
with less food-think again. If you think we are probably going to war with
Iraq over oil then think of how quick we would be to go to war over food.
This is exactly the reason for the "cheap food policy" our government has
had for the last 80 years.
This scenario is applicable to any country and any item. That is why i'm
against GATT and Free trade. Short term wise its great everything will be
cheap but in the end you will be dependent on the country that produces the
cheapest things that are deemed essential like food and energy and there will
be no way out of their clutches. Reminds me of a drug pusher and an addict.
They start you out on a free use basis and once your hooked, the prices go sky
high.
For those of you that complain about subsidies and financial aid to
agriculture in the US I have this to say...you won't like it I am
sure.......The largest nationwide subsidy to the broadest class of people in
all walks of life rich or poor is the food you eat every day. The American
farmer and rancher produce the cheapest, highest quality, and most available
food today in the world. If you don't believe me try buying the same food
you eat here in the US on a daily basis in any other country in the world
and see what it costs!!!!! This is being done with your help as tax paying
citizens of the US through the USDA and other government programs that some
of you complain so much about. It is also being done with the hard work and
ingenuity of the typical American farmer and rancher and the many industries
that supply goods and services to American agriculture. As of the last few
years it is also being done with equity that has been built up over the past
100 years by farmers and ranchers all across the nation that are still
supplying the American consumer with cheap food at a price lower than the
cost of producing that food.
This cannot continue to happen without having dire consequences on
the food supply of our nation. I fear that our governments "cheap food
policy" is slowly turning into a "no food policy" if something isn't done
to stop the current trend in American agriculture. As our food supply
depends more and more on imports and large corporate farms in the US we are
slowly loosing control of what we now take for granted.
After 911, i read somewhere that the American flag was selling alot at Kmart,
Walmart etc. that these stores ran out of stock. These stores had rush orders
to their suppliers who in turn had them all made in China. In my mind i
thought this was kind of funny and regretfull(and i'm not american). American
Flags all being made by Red China. Isn't that ironic. I know that by having
trade helps China move from a communist to a capitalist society, tensions would
be lessen blah blah. But take a closer look, its american companies making
their products in China at mind boggling low prices in labor camp style sweat
shops and selling it to the American consumer at American living standards.
This in turn takes away American jobs and so on so forth. But it doesn't end
there, American companies make cheap products in China to sell all over the
world making more money that ever before.
Tying this all back to biofuel......farmers in the US would love to
produce ethanol, biodiesel, wind power, etc. but most of them don't have any
financial means to pursue these things- they are simply living from one year
to the next financially and trying to stay in business. Personally I have
been interested in these alternative energy sources for a long time but I
don't have the money to pursue any of it. I share all of your thoughts on
why we need to develop this type of energy and am completely in support of
it as I think most farmers would be. I feel that American agriculture
could produce food as well as clean energy. We have a tremendous amount of
wasted byproducts in agriculture that could be used to produce clean energy
not to mention raising specific crops for energy use. In some areas of the
US there are vast amounts of land with available water that are not being
put to use - we need to developed our own natural resources to produce food
and energy in a non-polluting sustainable way. As usual the most limiting
factor is economics. If farmers and ranchers are expected to take part in
this we have to first be allowed to make a reasonable profit on the products
we are producing now. Any future developments in alternative energy that
are associated with agriculture have to allow a profit for all of those
involved including the farmer and rancher.
I believe everyone should have the right to be self sufficient especially in
food production & energy and not be forced to buy things just because they are
cheap. Somethings are not about dollars & cents its about life & death.
Just my 2 cents
Ken
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