The future of farming is organic

[hobbyfrmr]

For ****'s sake.... you may not like the production "method" of the food I produce but it is real food in it's rawest form.... What the PROCESSORS do with it after I grow it and how the "MANUFACTURERS" of "ready to eat food" mix those processed ingredients---is YOUR problem.

The attack is on the wrong sector of the food chain.

God I'm tired of being blamed for something I didn't do!!!

You have a very good point. Farmers do no participate in the recipe of the food. Pre harvest glyphosate may find its way into the food but you dont have to change that practice until it is scientifically proven.

[seabass]

You know sometimes I wonder if that isn't the way to go. U look at the costs and the RISK we all take for what? Nobody cares that isn't in this business. As long as theres food on the shelves you will never gain sympathy from a city dweller. Most have no clue what our costs are and the slim margins we deal with. All they see is the shiney machinery and vehicles we drive and say What does that cost? If u can afford to have expensive stuff like that u must be doing well. Those people have to go hungary in order for them to show any concern for what we go thru. End of whine.

[blackpowder]

Never been to Cuba. Maybe some are organic by necessity.
Would love to stop feeding the beast. But if not chem co then machine and fuel co.
Land costs are my biggest single expense. Organic has never penciled for me. Not enuf paid for acres.
BTW, I still see big bad companies raking all the profit. Always will until you're part of the company.
The future?? Will depend on the cost of the food supply itself and the percentage of income paid.
Watching China and India an indicator. Remember with them, its not what they say, but what they do.

[Partners]

We all should have stayed organic from the fathers/grand father days..There would be alot less grain in the world..Our prices would be through the roof now..Instead we all fell for grow more bushels..make more money..

[farmaholic]

Hobby, I hear your hint of sarcasm loud and clear. "That" day is likely coming but will have little affect on our operation.

[sumdumguy]

The soil must be half to 3/4 weed seeds, as evidenced by the many flushes of weed carpet this year, nursed along by daily showers. The diverse range of weeds included many weeds that reproduce every month or so. My hat goes off to those who can manage those intruders effectively. I'll watch for awhile, but all the local organic producers that started farming when we did are gone.

On the other hand a very successful organic who really stands out in my mind is a grower at Wawota who incorporates exemplary weed-management practices, they add value by cleaning, polishing, small-package foreign marketing. This fine lady and her husband showed me me what a whole-farm organic operation can be with a whole lot of hutzpah. I don't have her permission to use their name on here, but some of us know her by Parsley.

[cottonpicken]

I've been focusing everything on this,for a long time.

Right and wrong has nothing to do with it,well it does but.....

I don't know how many years ago i suggested semi-organic,where we attempt to explain to consumers how we need a few chemicals properly applied and how the fertilizers/minerals where essential to plants,soil and US but that seems like a pipe dream.

I can't even get it through my wives head about her attempting to alkaline her body she is changing the ph of her stomach thus not breaking down the amino acids/proteins and exasterbaiting the gluten(protein) intolerance which ****s up your intestine villa thus limiting the nutrient uptake thus ****ing up everything else and creating a million other problems.The uneducated health nuts got on the cancer and alkaline body band wagon without applying critical thought.

Looks like sugar is on the chopping block now but co2(carbonated) beverages should,because it ****s up the stomach ph,not that the 50% fructose in sugar which is brocken down in the liver isn't bad.

I kind of feel like going to war with food babe today.

[cottonpicken]

See these two "doctors" are ****in morons.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/revitalize/video/two-cardiologists-debate-fat-sugar-and-coconut-oil

[cottonpicken]

Eat olive oil at every meal and i guarantee you will die of a heart attack,to ****in stupid to mention inflammation without mentioning free radicals,god thank god for old farm boys turned vet turned doctor he would have ripped them to shreds.

[hobbyfrmr]

Cotton has a point. Above and beyond organic produced grains and foods the most paramount detail for people is Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. Food companies are presenting the general public with garbage and we eat it. Myself included. The farmer is taking the brunt of all consumer negativity and that is not right.

I do not encourage farmers to change to organic farming. 12 years ago I changed to organic farming for the exact, exact, exact same reasoning describe here by AVer's posts. I just did not see a profitable future without a whole lot of expansion and risk. Real risk, like signing up land to buy inputs then take all the risk all the way to the elevator grates.

If you like this, then excellent. Nothing wrong with being a risk taker.
I spend two nights and a couple boxes of beer at the lake with some conventional farming counterparts and the message is the same. They work like mad, spend more time spraying chemicals than being with their children. It's weighing on them. Our conversations are not about who's production model is right or wrong, it is about making a living. These fellows are my age and they are genuinely stressed out from all of it and what troubles them the most is they can't see any direction. At this time they acknowledge the cost/price squeeze but they don't know what they are going to do about it.

In the meantime I clap trap around with 30+ year old equipment and I am genuinely content. I am not against conventional farming, I try to criticize it in order to stimulate some alternative thinking. It's just life, we are fortunate to be able to choose our occupations. In the end, all I am taking with me is the dirt under my fingernails so I think I better help my wife and have some fun with the children.

We have been spraying weeds for 50 years and conventional guys still go out and spray every single year. I am cool with that, I understand how a good clean field provides the best change at a very good yield and low dockage reward.
I collect my screenings. This year when I sell them, I have chosen instead of making an extra land payment I will take the family to Disneyland.

I was thinking to take a photo of a quarter of oats on stubble that will run about 90+ bu/acre contracted for $7.50/bushel FOB farm. The test sample was 3% dockage. Then my good friend sent me a little reminder to never allow someone waste your time twice.