Whining farmers

[enough]

Well first off I have no children, I am 42, divorced with a income that makes me dependant on no one else.
I believe that one must make your own way in this world without the aid of others. For nearly twenty-five years I have made my living in the profession of helping others understand the importance of peoples rights as well as an understanding of our planet earth.
I feel that agriculture, be it a noble profesion in many eyes is a life style of waiting for others down falls to help their own causes. Your B.S.E. problem is a result of your own greed. Your financial problems can be corrected by taking charge of your own lives, the government will not help you anymore than with my causes.
There is to much comercialization in this world. The rich get richer and us with values not associated with the accepted practices are shunned.

[bombay_43]

I think that what Enough is trying to say,is that we people who believe that we are putting food on peoples tables, need to form a UNION!

I think we only need to withhold our food for 72 hours or so, before Enough and others like him, have had Enough!

Maybe then a true realization of where food comes from and the actual cost of producing it, would appear.

Our governments have NEVER subsidized the farmers. They have subsidized consumers such as ENOUGH, who would be unwilling to pay the actual cost of production to the farmers.

Give me a break!

[bulltipper]

Long time lurker, seldom poster and I had to reply to this one. What Enough is yapping about is the perception out there in urban land, hell, that even isn't so bad. I haunt a bunch of fly fishin' BBs and you should see how agriculture is perceived by that bunch at times. The problem as I see it, seem lately every time agriculture is in news lately, it's because of some disaster i.e. mad cow, etc.

Looks to me we need to hire a spin doctor of some sort and get some positive news out there.

BTW Country, I know where you're comin' from. Got tired of the B.S., harvested my last crop in '99, sold out, took my part-time business full time. And now, wonder of wonders, I still have money in the bank after paying all my bills and people keep phoning me to do some more work for them!

Have a good '04, People and Take Care!

[countryguy]

Enough

I've been reading through the discussions trying to find where you were complaining about the whole segment of the population scattered around this country that do absolutely nothing for 100% of their income,or the big handouts made by you and me through our gov't to the Bombardier corp.Surely these must also tick you off a bit?

I think it's very distateful for you to come in here kicking an industry that's on its knees and down for the count.Farmers make up like 2% of the population in this country.How many less of us do you want?

Let me put things into perspective for you.The other day I was in the grocery store with the wife and noticed these bags of whole,unprocesed wheat selling for nearly 3 dollars for a one pound bag.That works out to $180 per bushel!We as farmers are FORCED to sell our wheat for $4 per bushel.That's a $176 per bushel profit somebody other than the farmer is making!Would that not be enough to make you complain if you were in our shoes?So instead of coming in here and calling us whiners maybe you should direct your energy to the ones who are making the massive profits ripping both you and I off.

Bulltipper

2004 is going to be a tell all year for me.If I don't like the way things are going I'll be starting a new life in Cowman country!

Welcome to the site and post often!

[ivbinconned]

Enough; what do you DO to make your income????

[Muttley]

WOW!!!! I go away for the day and all hell breaks loose on Agri-Ville.
I am surprised at some of these responses, they are certainly from open minded people and not somebody that usually spends New Years chained to a tree.

Well I tend not to be so open minded at times. What enough is saying is they don't know enough about agriculture to form enough of a opinion on it. He's just ranting crap. Mr. enough guys like you are what gives people like us in farming trouble getting help from the powers to be. You don't have any knowledge about agriculture at all do you?
So go back to your tree in the hills and you had better not eat my food I produced!!!

[sewen]

Enough your last name wouldn't be Vanclief would it?

[cakadu]

What makes me sad is that enough is putting a voice to an attitude that prevails out there with respect to farmers in general. This person is not the only one who feels like this by any stretch of the imagination.

I understand the viewpoint - don't agree with it - but I understand. What else are non-producers supposed to think when the media portrays us as a bunch of whiners?

Think back to the rally on parliament hill about 2 years ago - hard to make urban folk relate to producers not getting paid enough when what the media showed was a bunch of bright, shiny new combines on "the hill".

What happens when an announcement is made about aid being given to producers - $800 million about 2 years ago comes to mind - and what is the first thing that producer groups like the Canadian Federation of Agriculture or the group in Ontario that are now the International Farming Federation do - they complain that it isn't enough money. (I do have to admit that I get a little ticked when these groups don't acknowledge that it was more than they had pre-announcement.)

Granted it's not enough, but what the general public does not realize is that so much of that money is caught up in administrative red tape and the producer doesn't see much of it.

Also look at the aid package that came to producers this year for the BSE problem - what they don't realize is that the cow/calf operator got very little of that money - most of it went to the biggest feedlots in the province (Alberta).

In a perfect world we would be able to convince the powers that be to raise food prices to the level that would allow producers to earn a decent living from. It's sad when less than 10% of an average family's disposable income is spent on food.

We don't live in a perfect world and it's hard to get non-producers to understand.

Food is essential for us to live and what I find hard is when non-essential things like alcohol and cigarettes go up in price, there is a hue and cry for a short time, but people go right on buying them just the same. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could see prices charged for food that were more in line what it cost to produce it?

The long and the short of it is, I can't get mad at people like enough when we as producers haven't exactly been portrayed in the best light.

[bombay_43]

As I read through the various topics today, I have to laugh out loud! Thank you to Enough for giving me possibly the biggest laugh so far! If you were a tree, I would hugggg you! LOL

At first I became extremely angry by the comments that Enough has made in various places, but after reading everyones comments, my mental illness set in, and I lost it! LOL

Cowman: You keep your head so cool all the time! It would be good if Enough got BSE??? LOL

Muttley: You always have such well thought out things to say! “Holy Crap Batman”??? You’re opinion stinks??? LOL

Countryguy: Thank you for that eloquent definition about raping the land, Websters should be worried about you.

Kato: making that lovely comment about how nice we all were to Enough! LOL

I noticed throughout these topics, wherever Enough has put in his 3 cents worth (inflation), he has managed to get a rise out of us all. He is NOT interested in any responses from us. He managed to get everyones blood pressure up and that is what he intended. What he did not intend was to make any of us feel good! A good laugh will do that you know, and that is exactly what Enough did for me. Really! Read all our responses. LOL

Now sit down and picture exactly what Enough is like as an individual. Read what he has written, and what others wrote about him. Close your eyes and make a mental picture of this person. I have an idea of what all the regulars here look like just by your various comments. I feel like I know many of you, although many times I come in just to read and not write.

Enough is a sad, insignificant, possibly comical looking fellow, who leads a very miserable existence, and wants someone else to be just as miserable. He believes that the earth was created with just his pleasures in mind, and has remained miserable about the fact that someone had the audacity to kick him out of the Garden of Eden! A wonderful place where fruits, vegetables, and wildlife grew in abundance. No pollution, no fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Where you could eat anything that grew and hunt all the wild animals with no price attached. (notice I didn’t mention anything about naked people running around) And then along came that damned “F” word…. the FARMER!

Need I say more? We are sorry Enough, but the world changes, and you must change with it!

Thanks Enough, you’ve brightened all our worlds. I can only hope your spirit has been lifted as much as you have lifted all of ours!

[ALICIA]

I've leaned that you can't change people, they have to learn for themself.
My dad told me when I was a child, that some day in this country you will not be able to keep a cow because when people start to starve to death they become like animals. At one time Africa was the most furtal place on earth, and look at it now. Over population is the down fall, and their is not enought land in the world to grow a steady vegitarion diet, but you can't tell non-farmers this because they just don't get it.
All things are born to die. I'f Agriculture dies, the rest of the people will follow.