Thank a consumer this Thanksgiving?

[gustgd]

An excerpt

"Not to get all warm and fuzzy now, but in a world where the ag community is trying to build awareness, credibility, and relationships with the public, are there unintended consequences from complaining? Have non-farmers grown tired of the farm community “crying wolf”? Never mind the public, there are cases where farmers are fed up with other farmers whining."

http://www.realagriculture.com/2014/10/farmers-say-thanks/

[SASKFARMER3]

Telling the young new comers in farming it's all gravy is bullshit to! It's not for everyone or everyone would do it! Take the prices we are getting today and live with that plus throw in s drought or two and all will harden in time!
Tell our city people the facts you play with big money big machinery big expense and maybe one in ten big profit! It's a great buisiness, that' you love to do!
Now enjoy the bread, beef, Turkey, ham, potatoes! Beer and vodka that all farmers had a part in creating do your belly is full!
Thank a farmer!

[SASKFARMER3]

Till their belly is full!
Thank farmer!

Note the consumer needs to live thru still haven't found a way to keep people alive without food!

[hobbyfrmr]

Consumers dont care and thats fine with me. They are busy with trying to balance their household debt. They really cannot spend much time concerning themselves with the problems of primary ag production. I dont talk about my farm around family much. It usually ends up with unpleasant feelings for both sides.
If i dont like it, the neighbors would be more than happy to rent or buy me outand i can join mainstream society.
It is what it is.

[farmaholic]

Gust, you're right, it's the "Consumer" that needs the Thank You. Others between the Primary Producer and Consumer are just....

If you want an awareness program, make them aware of the value of the farmer's portion of their food dollar. Maybe they'll realize we don't "whine and pine" for no good reason.

[fjlip]

X 2, That's the education consumers need, farmers get SFA of their $$$, 10 cents a loaf, 1 cent a beer, 3 cents a cereal box...

[wakopa]

Like one woman from murder city said on the news , why would I care if farmers went on strike , I will just get my food from the coop grocery store.

[furrowtickler]

All valid points, the educated consumer should be thanked - the ones that have a clue about real life.
This could get to be an interesting thread.
Yes thank you consumer ...... But absolutely everyone involved in the Ag industry should be 100 X more thank full for what they have from ****ing farmers the past few years. Farmers may think we are powerless to change - all we have to do is one thing - not spend a dime till April ... Think about that - we could bring a cocky industry to it's knees in 2 months - I know that's crazy talk. But really wtf do we need till April - absolutely *** all if you think about it.

[rockpile]

Interesting to observe these comments. 7 years now at the Grain Academy (Board, not staff, though I spend a lot of time there helping out when needed) I've had first hand experience with urban folk and their level of knowledge and interest in where their food comes from. And I think there is a lot of misconception on the part of farmers as to the level of interest, concern and knowledge city folk have. They are eager to learn.Don't think for a second they aren't grateful or understand the costs and risk associated for farming. When they see that the cost of a combine today is the same as a house, never mind the land and all the other stuff, I've laughed at some of the comments like "how do you sleep at night?" Sure, that's not all urban people, but don't think for a second they don't respect you. Look at any survey done and you'll find farmers are usually in the top 3 highest trusted professions. Why don't we get more attention? Well, in Calgary it's all about oil, construction and consumer sales. And new figures released today, all agriculture amounts to 1.9% of provincial GDP so no surprise. So I feel we do owe some thanks to all of the consumers of our products everywhere in the world and I shall drink many toasts to them on Monday, lol.

[grassfarmer]

I agree Rockpile, the number of consumers in Calgary that are eager to learn about agriculture - how their food is grown - and keenly support our efforts to supply these food products is growing exponentially.

Not only does would their knowledge of agricultural production surprise many of you, their understanding of the difficulties we face due to over powerful input suppliers, grain handlers, meat packers etc is very good too.
They are the best supporter of the family farm and more producers need to engage in a dialogue with them.

[farmaholic]

You can't blame the Consumer for such a small portion of their food dollar making it back to the farm gate. And I don't expect them to pay more either. I think we all know where we need to look....

[ALLFARMER]

Hobbyfrmf

Your a smart guy. I used to talk farming at family (non farmer) gatherings. Things never ended well. They couldn't understand the work/life balance. The necessary commitment to getting things done on time ie. Calving, seeding, combining. The debt and risk inherent with farming. In their minds we were either using junk machinery or being acting rich and flashy. I don't know.. they just never got it.

[Klause]

Yup.


And here's what we are working on...


Importing liquid 28-00-00 fertilizer, then filling the container with wheat and shipping it back to China.


$300 a tonne or better liquid fert and $8 or better wheat.

[dave4441]

Math may work better shipping peas back in the container. Kinda doubt you will compete vs bulk vessel re wheat but hope I am wrong.

I looked at the whole container of wheat sales and didn't get very far. The logistics is so much cheaper that you really need to get out of commodity grain to make it work.

[hobbyfrmr]

Cool......