I truly appreciate a lot of what you do. Sometimes I feel like you are speaking in riddles. What do you mean by small family farms? Here in the southern plains of Oklahoma the only farm I know of that I would not consider a “family farm”
is Brahms. And, I know hundreds of them. Consolidation in production agriculture is moving ahead at full steam. Often outside money, such as oil and gas, is driving the consolidation, it is nonetheless happening.
The world you speak of and the world I live in seem like two different planets. I share many of the concerns you voice and I fear that the smaller farms/ranches without outside money will eventually be gone. I also worry that it is increasingly difficult for local young people to enter the profession. You and folks like Meryl Nass, even Joe Salatin, seem to be at war with the very people producing most of our food. I even detect a sense of moral superiority at times. I can’t figure out how this is helping us solve the very real problems we are facing. As you know…a house divided is not a good thing.
There is room -- and need -- for both large and small farms. Pumping $30 billion into industrial farming while shifting money out of programs that help local farms is a continuation of the unfair playing field that has made small farms unviable. I advocate in my book to 1) pare back regulations and 2) phase out subsidies to industrial ag and reward large farms for better practices. If we shift entirely to large farms (as we are), doom awaits us -- it is not sustainable, and destroys rural economies and cultures. Thanks for writing!
Big ag, big chemical, big industry has declared war on the people a long time ago. Defending one's position and oneself against an enemy who is literally trying to kill you is a necessary action. I don't see any of the actions of John Klar as war. I see them only as honest and driving open/honest discourse about topics which affect our very health. Self-defense is often passionate.
Regarding young people, I have been making the offer for years for access to land. That offer is through classified listing in farming and organic journals. I've never once had an inquiry. In some cases, the offer is land, home, buildings. Again, no takers, no inquiries.
If there are young people who want to get into organic farming, they simply need to partner with people who own the land and have resources and skills that they do not. Joel Salatin has advocated this for a long time, and he has seen success in his area where young people are asking for access to land and getting it.
It depends on what you mean by “big Ag”. If you are talking about Tysons, Monsanto and the like that is one thing. If you are lumping everyone who is not organic that is another. Here in the southern plains farm and ranch people have gotten larger and larger because it is what we must do to stay in business. Consolidation continues at a rapid rate. I personally know hundreds of production Ag people but not one organic farmer. I have nothing against organic farmers but I do realize that they are not raising the bulk of our nations food. People just like me are doing that. John Klar and others want to do away with Roundup and weed killers. This may, in fact, be necessary but we better have a good plan in place for the transition, whatever that is going to be, or people will be starving. I love Joe Salatin, Kit Pharo and others promoting regenerative farming/ranching. I have not always found their ideas to work in my setting. As for young people, the battle for land here in the southern plains is fierce and very expensive. Most young people are being locked out. It just seems to me that if there is to be a major change in the farming/ ranching business model those currently raising the food will have to be involved. Otherwise this is all just talk.
Thank you for this very important overview, in particular to those who are not studying the BBB plan.. So giving AI power above the HUMANS is not even the worst part of that agenda? I suspect the AI topic is closely related to agricultural development, alone for the purpose of automatizing everything, and you can't start that with small farmers, each doing something different. The same thing happens all over the world, except maybe in Russia, where GMO's do not have a big say, yet... Just an example of a farmer in Silesia (Poland), who used to grow thousands of pigs in a very sustainable. modern way, selling the meat all over. The new EU regulation, related to a 'disease' forced him to such a restructuring of his farm in a way which would financially ruin him. How did it end? He sold everything and now has few chickens to feed his family...
I truly appreciate a lot of what you do. Sometimes I feel like you are speaking in riddles. What do you mean by small family farms? Here in the southern plains of Oklahoma the only farm I know of that I would not consider a “family farm”
is Brahms. And, I know hundreds of them. Consolidation in production agriculture is moving ahead at full steam. Often outside money, such as oil and gas, is driving the consolidation, it is nonetheless happening.
The world you speak of and the world I live in seem like two different planets. I share many of the concerns you voice and I fear that the smaller farms/ranches without outside money will eventually be gone. I also worry that it is increasingly difficult for local young people to enter the profession. You and folks like Meryl Nass, even Joe Salatin, seem to be at war with the very people producing most of our food. I even detect a sense of moral superiority at times. I can’t figure out how this is helping us solve the very real problems we are facing. As you know…a house divided is not a good thing.
There is room -- and need -- for both large and small farms. Pumping $30 billion into industrial farming while shifting money out of programs that help local farms is a continuation of the unfair playing field that has made small farms unviable. I advocate in my book to 1) pare back regulations and 2) phase out subsidies to industrial ag and reward large farms for better practices. If we shift entirely to large farms (as we are), doom awaits us -- it is not sustainable, and destroys rural economies and cultures. Thanks for writing!
Big ag, big chemical, big industry has declared war on the people a long time ago. Defending one's position and oneself against an enemy who is literally trying to kill you is a necessary action. I don't see any of the actions of John Klar as war. I see them only as honest and driving open/honest discourse about topics which affect our very health. Self-defense is often passionate.
Regarding young people, I have been making the offer for years for access to land. That offer is through classified listing in farming and organic journals. I've never once had an inquiry. In some cases, the offer is land, home, buildings. Again, no takers, no inquiries.
If there are young people who want to get into organic farming, they simply need to partner with people who own the land and have resources and skills that they do not. Joel Salatin has advocated this for a long time, and he has seen success in his area where young people are asking for access to land and getting it.
It depends on what you mean by “big Ag”. If you are talking about Tysons, Monsanto and the like that is one thing. If you are lumping everyone who is not organic that is another. Here in the southern plains farm and ranch people have gotten larger and larger because it is what we must do to stay in business. Consolidation continues at a rapid rate. I personally know hundreds of production Ag people but not one organic farmer. I have nothing against organic farmers but I do realize that they are not raising the bulk of our nations food. People just like me are doing that. John Klar and others want to do away with Roundup and weed killers. This may, in fact, be necessary but we better have a good plan in place for the transition, whatever that is going to be, or people will be starving. I love Joe Salatin, Kit Pharo and others promoting regenerative farming/ranching. I have not always found their ideas to work in my setting. As for young people, the battle for land here in the southern plains is fierce and very expensive. Most young people are being locked out. It just seems to me that if there is to be a major change in the farming/ ranching business model those currently raising the food will have to be involved. Otherwise this is all just talk.
How come nobody talks about the landfills that seems to be the biggest global heating problem.
Thank you for this very important overview, in particular to those who are not studying the BBB plan.. So giving AI power above the HUMANS is not even the worst part of that agenda? I suspect the AI topic is closely related to agricultural development, alone for the purpose of automatizing everything, and you can't start that with small farmers, each doing something different. The same thing happens all over the world, except maybe in Russia, where GMO's do not have a big say, yet... Just an example of a farmer in Silesia (Poland), who used to grow thousands of pigs in a very sustainable. modern way, selling the meat all over. The new EU regulation, related to a 'disease' forced him to such a restructuring of his farm in a way which would financially ruin him. How did it end? He sold everything and now has few chickens to feed his family...
Where the hell is Trumps mind lately. He doesn’t seem to stand for anything we want or voted for. . He’s even beating wardrums with Iran
What does RFK Jr think about all this? I'm with him as far as getting pesticides out of foods to improve our health and our children's health.
I think Bobby agrees with my position here... That's why we did this -- to support his efforts. :)