Ag Ministers Seal Your Doom

[checking]

Doom - that's just senationalism talking, or you have been too heavily influenced by the economists found on this site.

Patience, and allow all of us to become senior citizens, and pioneer farmers while this plays out.

[TOM4CWB]

I for one would MUCH rather get our family income from farming... FROM the private market place.

Emergency help in times of disaster... NOT regular income support.

We have been treated well compaired to others in the small business sector... I think we should count our blessings... instead of swearing at folks that are spending time and finances to HELP us.

Never have so many... been given so much... and yet been so ungrateful.

Does anyone here go to sleep HUNGRY... unless they choose to do so?

Its not like we can take anything material with us; when we are DEAD.

[freewheat]

Tom, I am taking my land with me... lol
Exactly!

Here is what I would like as a farmer. A
BASIC, crop insurance program, with
tangibility, and realistic options.
Other than that, heck with all other
programs.

Now, wd9, I would argue that crop
insurance is a decision maker for my
farm. It allows me to plan for a worst
case scenario, and gives me a worst case
scenario that if I don't abide by to
keep my costs sane, I am on my own and
should not complain if I choose to run
400 000 dollar combines. These types,
are often the first to complain, and beg
for government help, even though they
themselves desired to purchase said
combines. If all we had was crop
insurance, I believe the decision making
would be more sane.

And yes, I would be willing to foot the
entire crop insurance bill at that. Guys
would buy insurance rather than
townships of land, stinking high priced,
depreciable iron, etc. Survival is not
in most farmers vocabulary nowadays.

[sumdumguy]

Small business would love to be guaranteed a
margin. Tom is 100% correct. If you don't want
the insurance don't buy it.

The government doesn't need to offer anything
and many would say they shouldn't. Other
businesses fly alone.

[wilagro]

If society wants food security and wants the farmers to stay on the farms and produce it then some kind of survival mechanism has to be in place. Farming is too risky to guarantee a viable return every year. The weather, insects and the uncertain markets imperil every years production and profit. What better organization to assist than government?

However, when they promise one thing and then renege on their promises, that causes dissension and rancor and lack of trust in politics and politicians.

[fjlip]

WD9, how is it fair that making all the correct management decisions, weather destroys my potential profits 3 out of last 6 years? I say too much high cost risk NOT to have such a backstop.
Or if more crop Insurance options, but no, we should never have to pay crazy high private rates.
Ya food kind of real important to society, and SFA risk for 98% of the population, spending less than 10% of income? They owe us.

[perfecho]

Small businesses do not have a government with policies to ensure low cost food either......

[charliep]

Just curious as to which changes should
be of concerns to farmers.

No changes to AgriInsurance.

Contributions and matching on
AgriInvest reduced to 1 percent. 1.5
percent currently.

AgriStability - Margin payout reduced to
70 percent from current 85 percent. This
will have the most impact on crop farms.

Read the press release. Ask questions.

[wd9]

Food is important, but obviously you're
not producing that much with crop
failure. Cold statement, but maybe land
should be farmed that is much more
consistent. Move and buy some good land
in a better area.

Again, a very cold statement! But why
should tax payers fund farming in an
area that isn't profitable?

McFarms, don't buy crop insurance, you
don't need it. Lots of people don't take
it. Tax payers subsidizing your
guaranteed income? Given your net worth,
is it really fair for families to do
without necessary services just so you
don't have to worry about payments on
that second combine? (only an example)

[freewheat]

wd9, with respect, the region fj and I
farm within, has historically been one
of the highest and most consistent areas
in which to farm in Saskatchewan.

Just saying. It is not like the area has
always been too wet. As conditions move
back towards more common conditions, and
the western side is crying the blues
because of drought, and we are sitting
pretty, i guess we will just tell them
to move to a different area. That is
kind of a low blow.

The point he is trying to make, is that
you can be the worlds best farmer, yet
have crap happen. You can not manage
away too much rain, etc.

That being said, I do not like the
program structures we have in place. i
believe in the marketplace, in freedom,
and in government subsidization cuts. I
will reiterate, if farmers were more
careful and were not racing to be the
biggest, have the newest, and blowing
money like drunken sailors on iron, it
would be better for our public
perception etc..

Just a couple thoughts..

[hedgehog]

wd9, if all the farmers in bad areas jacked it and moved to better areas, the current world shortage of food would be far worse.
basically grain at $9/bu is still as cheap as dirt, thats why programmes are needed.

[farmaholic]

Subsidizing farmers to install autosteer and other toys in their equipment throught the Environmental Farm Plan was a joke. Protecting us from wild market fluctuations or wild weather events is ok with me. If someone who isn't doing this for a living thinks it is so lucrative and without heavy risk can have at it. I am on fjlips side if you want to eat cheap, support the ones who are supplying you with your food. If you don't want to, grow a garden and preserve it with canning and freezing, raise a calf to slaughter(some pigs and chickens too). Don't forget to milk the cow or she will go dry. But who will tend to this when they are at the lake every weekend? Food is too expensive but the boat that gets used 4 months of the year isn't.

[freewheat]

Farmaholic, you are bang on, particularly
regarding food vs. boats etc. Very true.

[wmoebis]

The majority of people would starve to death, if they had to feed themselves. Even right here in Canada.

I have done aot of work with "AG in the classroom", it would scare you.

[wd9]

People are starving not because of food
production but of government oppression
and people just plain poor. You could
get 400 bushels per acre and those same
people would starve.

We grow food for the rich. Period. and
we grow lots of it. The poor will always
starve unless you're willing to give
away your production.

At a billion people making less than a
dollar a day how will they buy your $8
wheat delivered?

In the US, 40 to 50% of the food is
thrown away, gone to waste in the trash.

Everyday 40% of the children in india go
to bed hungry, why? Food rots in huge
piles while they starve.

Bring that home now. You want how much
security in your income to afford that
latest iron? Its gonna cost you big time
because with the loss of risk, comes the
loss of cost, the loss of peaks, the
loss of valleys, the loss of any balance
whatsoever.

Agristability and agri programs are so
unfair and distort any sort of balance
of having risk vs consequences.

Why worry, the government will just keep
giving me money if i cry that i can't
make ends meet. All the while creating a
huge empire. Its wrong folks. This is
about world hunger and feeding people in
the cities.