Farmer's Return

I heard an interesting report~ The farmer gets about 20% for every dollar spent at the grocery store on his/her produce. Who gets the rest? Some is spent on regulations, trucking, store overhead, marketing, and... The list goes on. The really interesting thing is this is down from the 1994 levels where a farmer recieved about 25% of every dollar. High input costs have dramatically decreased the profitability margin of farming. Then you add on to it the increase in regulations, fertilizer costs, land costs and niche marketing issues. Doesn't seem like a very profitable way to go... So where is this big business agriculture that is just in it for the money? I dunno!

Ceasar Chavez Day

Tomorrow is Ceasar Chavez Day in California. He is either hailed or hated by many people. Ceasar Chavez was against the mechanization of agriculture because it put many migrant workers out. It was an interesting time in history with tomatoe picking by machine at the forefront.

It is amazing to look how far we have come in many aspects of agriculture in just the last 50 years. In cattle production, carcass fat has decreased from 35% to 27% and beef production per head has increased 80%.

I don't know if it is for the better. We now have subdivisions, ranchettes, and labels. You can go to the grocery store and decide if you want free-range, organic, natural, or traditional eggs. The choices are immense but so is the impact.

Dogs

I was reading bits and pieces of the Micheal Vick drama and pit bull rescues etc. It is heart wrenching to think of the way people used and abused these dogs. One blogger commented on the scars, missing teeth, and limp ears. Called these dogs weapons and soldiers taught to fight not pets.

That got me to thinking about my own dogs. They have scars, missing teeth, one has a split tongue, and all the other various maladies and limps that come with being a tool, pet, and part of the family at our house.

So what is the difference? Someone could look at Pancho and be upset, but they would probably be more disturbed at his howls when it is not his day to work. We rotate our dogs so they all get used and have time off through out the week. But they hate their days off and live to work cows. Pancho has this stupid, goofy look on his face when he puts one back in the herd. You know " I did good huh, I showed that beast who is boss." Weapon? Maybe not. Tool? Definitely!

They are also part of our family.

Big Ag Business

I have been thinking... Scary huh? OK, so "big" ag business is bad. Little farmers are good. Tractors are bad, garden plots in cities are good. Grass-finishing is good, grain-finishing is bad. So basically, the loudest consumers want us to go backwards about 100 years? Am I understanding this right? We are supposed to go back to the days of each farmer producing enough food for 10-15 people. What are we going to do about the other 130-135 that today's American farmer feeds?

It would be fun to start tearing out fences, season long grazing seasons, and feeding with teams. But what would it do for the environment? Especially if we took out fences around riparian areas, the ones which prevent cattle from loafing in sensitive areas? Hasn't science research the value of rotational and deferred grazing systems? But who cares, we will have quintessential, small, farms, for local consumption.

Sorry, Montana you will no longer be getting citrus fruits, grapes, bananas, etc. The good news is people on the East Coast are going to have a reduction in the amount of beef they eat. Should make all the "red meat is bad" people happy.

Costco giving a leg up to Family Farms

http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201007#pg25

Is your local warehouse grocery store helping the agricultural industry? Yes, I think so. Check out the link to see an article in the Costco rag. It contains a nice description of how Foster Farms a family owned and operated business was started. Practices used in chicken production and how it changed the author's mind on production practices.

I wonder where the author got the information about "factory farmed" chicken? Maybe from the B.S. ads ran by HSUS in 2008 to support Proposition 2. It is nice to see big business supporting one of the 85% of family owned farms in California. Just for facts sake- 10% are single ownership (?) and the remaining 5% are coporate owned.