Different world or is it?

[grassfarmer]

Cedar, the point I was making is that people are not getting rich over there. It sounds like a lot of income but factor in pasture land at $2000-$3000 an acre, staw at $100 tonne every year, gas at over $2 a litre and you would find it no easier to make money in Europe. Plus European governments feel there is no place for agriculture in Europe - too many smells and inconveniences for the urban populations. We are now hitting a generation of Europeans that are prepared to put the hard lessons of WW2 hunger behind them and resort to importing everything.
I wasn't kidding about the payments we have had in Canada - i'm embarassed to get over $300 a cow subsidy in Canada - I came here for the freedom to get awy from that system. I always try to fight to get our fair returns from the marketplace - there is plenty money there if it wasn't being stolen by the transnational corporations.

[greybeard]

Grassfarmer; "there is plenty money there if it wasn't being stolen by the transnational corporations".
My thoughts exactly. We have to get more involved up the chain.
European farmers looked to me to be in bigger trouble than we are. All they can do is coast along hoping for bigger subsidies, and keep working at the job in town. Their future is determined by politicians.
I wouldn’t trade them, even with what we have been through Just pay me what its worth

[grassfarmer]

How to achieve it is the difficult part greybeard.
This working in town deal is a big eye opener to me - 10 or 15 years ago very few people in UK agriculture worked off farm - a few wives and some men doing custom work. I was amazed coming to Alberta that a huge percentage of farm wives work and the husbands too in some cases. I wouldn't have believed that a province with an ag economy like Alberta had so many part time farmers. Sadly more and more in the UK are working off farm - given that we are the creators of most of the real wealth in society - yet the ones that get bye retailing, repairing, moving money around, creating mindless beurocracy all have safe, full time, well paying jobs. It's a crazy old world.

[kato]

I'm not so sure I'd call it part time farming. More like full time farming with a full time job to boot.

We're turning into a 'least cost' world. The big international corporations just travel around the globe looking for the 'least cost' products to sell. If the raw material is cheaper in one country, that's where they go. Once the economy develops there to where it's not so cheap any more, they move on. Kind of a slash and burn approach to business. There's always a new place to move to, and don't worry about what you left behind. In a few years the 'left behind' areas will have diminished to least cost status again and you can go back there again.

It's not a good world to be a primary producer in. When lower costs get handed down, they stop at the bottom. That would be us.

Our challenge is to figure out a way to get ourselves off the bottom of the food chain. I think the last two years have given us plenty of incentive to get working on it, and I hope we can succeed.

[cowman]

grassfarmer: Don't be embarassed to be getting $300 per cow(somehow I missed getting that much)! Hey you weren't the idiot who decided the food safety rules, right? I doubt whether you hauled out some old downer to feed to your cows?
The whole deal here is we shouldn't think we have a "duty" to be the low man on the totem pole? We should be saying "Hey how come our government isn't supporting us like they do in Europe?" We don't need to compete with all the slaves in the rest of the world? We are supposed to be a wealthy industrial country, right? At least they keep telling us that...?
If our useless bums in Ottawa had stepped up to the plate and fought the grain wars, we wouldn't be in the pickle we find ourselves today? Sluff it off, and pick the cheap solution to the farm problem...typical Ottawa solution? Let Europe and America have the grain business. Not too smart?
If we had a government that wasn't such a bunch of scoundrels maybe we might have some money to play the game?