Agriculture 1984, 1994 to 2004

[Muttley]

I brought up this discusion at coffee row as well. One comment that got me thinking was this.
With the trend to off farm jobs and folks moving to the "country", we may see more and more smaller farms starting up again. People need more income and this may result in smaller farms, it could be more for income than for a hobby.
I think this comment has some merit, and perhaps we will see this in some area's.

[cakadu]

Muttley - my husband and I were having the same discussion in the past couple of days - maybe this will help us move away from big farms and back to those that were self-sufficient because what they did was fill the domestic supply. We weren't worried about being big enough to compete globally because it was a noble cause to feed our own country and make sure we didn't starve - first.

We seem to have really bought into this notion of feeding the world, when in reality we should be looking after our own.

In recent years we've seen a push to bigger is better, but I think we are beginning to see that ain't necessarily so. If you can't make money on 2,000 acres - you won't make it on 4,000. Yes there are such things as economies of scale, but they eventually have a limit and then efficiency decreases.

As we've gotten bigger, margins are getting thinner - if they exist at all - we're forced to do more and more at another's bidding - is it what we really want?

Recent events have shown us that we should become self-sufficient. I wonder about sending our resources elsewhere when in time, we are going to need them ourselves. At present we act as if everything is going to continue to be there in the future - is it really?

We won't ever go back to the days when there were more farmers on the land and rural areas were more populated, but I don't think that having these huge farms - whether they be owned by companies or by family units - is or has been the way to go. Where will we find that happy medium and what will it look like?

[boone]

cowman: multi-nationals can farm all right but they can't vote (yet) so governments pander to them for three years and the electorate for one year every political cycle. The trick is to bring them (multi) to bare when the time is in the peoples favour. I too have been taking stock in my community and it is going to be another hard winter of attrition. We won't have to worry about political landscape soon it will be a desert. I'm moved to record it as Steinbeck did. New Wrath same old G****s. Any way "LIFE is Either a DARING ADVENTURE or Nothing"-Helen Keller

[cowman]

Boone I like that "winter of attrition". That is definitely a good description of what is happening. If our pool of farmers was perhaps twenty years younger they might put up a better fight. It is discouraging to see our small towns dying and our rural population either dying or moving away. Sort of like the bumper stickers you used to see around "Would the last one out of Saskatchewan, please turn off the lights".
There is no solution really. Our governments just let things slide for too long. No real public support like there is in Europe. We are like the last free Indians about to be sent to the reserve. I guess that is progress?

[enough]

Indians should never have been put on the reserve. If farmers took better care of nature they would not be in this problem now. All they do is **** the land and scare wildlife and want me and other taxpayers to bail them out.

[cowman]

How would you know if I **** the land? You probably spend two weeks a year camping in some little camp ground and think you know something about the land. Who the hell do you think feeds all that wildlife? Well I do, not you. And no one pays me for it. So I guess until you get out your check book and pay me it really isn't your wildlife anyway?
You need to educate yourself about the facts of the food you eat. You are pretty ignorant about the whole process.
Get a job? Hell, I've had a job just about all my life besides farming. My taxes go for all your "subsidies" like UI, CPP, Workmans comp., welfare, municipal infrastructure, and most importantly cheap food!
Bitch like hell when you have to pay $10 for a steak while you think nothing of buying a $50,000 motorhome so you can be one with "nature"! You don't have a clue.

[farmerfudd]

affimativly said cowman.chances are "enough" has been motivated by groups like peta and such.

[ivbinconned]

O come on cowman...you give Enough to much credit. He isn't old enough to drive a motorhome and besides it would use to much gas. Nor would he have the time...he is to busy watching the SUBSIDIZED CBC.

[countryguy]

From Countryguy's dictionary:

"Raping the Land"

Definition:Aquiring land that was previously used to produce food and support wildlife and covering it with asphalt and cement for the purpose of constructing houses and shopping centers on it and be void of sustaining any kind of life until the end of time.

[Muttley]

Holy Crap Batman!!! Where are you from enough. I just made a posting on your post in Beef. Go check it out, you'll see what I think of you.
I usually don't condemn users on this site but you are just what I needed to vent on in the start of 2004.
You got our farming blood a pumping, and I do realize you are entitled to your opinion. It's just that it stinks!!