Rural Development

[flatbroke]

rhg; some intriguing ideas! I guess we never consider such things as "commodities", but why not? If hedgerows, wildlife etc. are what the public values more than conventional crops, perhaps we owe it to ourselves and them to explore this!

[ValueChainFX]

Seeing a community come together is something to behold. We are moving into 2003 with many challenges ahead, but as you all can see from the posts here, many of you see the challenges already.

As individuals it is going to be hard to work these challenges out, but when you have many people working in the same direction (on a positive note) then you can identify the problem and work on a solution. Never will you have everyone agree with a single solution, but when you offer choices then it is easier to buy in.

Working together I can see our input costs drop, we see this in some of the solutions in other forums where people are looking at more direct ways to cut costs, cut out middle men and market more directly to their customers what they want. Aligning yourself with like minded people and sharing information makes you stronger. Yes we have a me me me group of people in our agriculture community but if that me happens to have a choice that fits his / her desires then we can move forward. We all pay for subsidies one way or the other, but then do we make subsidies work for us or against us? How can we restructure our operations and make the industry strong and respected again?

Time for more solutions? Do YOU have some?

Happy New Year all!