Why small farms can not feed the world anymore...

You are talking about direct subsidies. When the corn industry was competing against imported sugar they got ADM to lobby to have a tariff imposed on imported sugar...hence why everything sweet has corn syrup in it these days instead. That is an indirect subsidy that gave the corn industry a competitive advantage...same with ethanol requirements.

There are hundreds....thousands of laws, and regulations that give certain large business interests a competitive advantage. They lobby for them. These things warp the market and create artificial demand for products. They also stifle competition and prevent entry into the market. The raw milk prohibition is another example, as well as the laws requiring the use of state approved processing facilities. On top of it all, there are also direct subsidies. These things are happening more and more across every industry in the US, but nowhere is it more blatant than in agriculture. Success in business is no longer the result of filling a natural demand with a quality product at a competitive price, it is now dependent on lobbying the government to give advantages over competition, or in some recent cases, forcing people to buy your product or creating an environment where no other option can legally exist.

what does a guy growing 1000 acres of corn have to do with a guy trying to move 1/4 acre of lettuce.
I don't think any homesteader is looking to try to compete with the big corn guys.
Give that old tired subsidy excuse a break..

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

But you can't.

A room full of guys who all grow crops; if half of them are subsidized, it totally changes the dynamics.

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They are not selling eggs at 30% of the cost of production. They have economies of scale. They buy feed by the carload, and you buy it in a 40 pound bag. They have 2 workers taking care of 100,000 chickens and you have 2 workers taking care of 6 chickens.

Their chickens get 1.5 square feet of inexpensive land, and your chickens get 100 square feet of land that is probably more useful and more expensive.

They are automated so they don't pay for time and labor for many of their business tasks, while you have a human out there shoveling manure, measuring out feed and hand scrubbing the waterers.

There is also an extremely good chance that they are buying much better productive chickens than you are and they are paying 5 cents apiece because they buy 100,000 chicks at a time, while you pay $2 each plus shipping because you buy 6 of them.

Also, grocery stores sell eggs as a loss leader. They aren't marking them up and use the low price to lure customers into their store.

I buy feed by the ton straight from the combine.
I have no workers.
I have 8 dozen hens.
I have never included land cost do not go into this.
My chicks cost me $1.50 each.

I understand 'economy of scale', there is more to this.

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http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

There's more to this, sure, but economies of sale do play a factor.

Think about the other end of the process ... the markets.

Can you take your fresh eggs to the local grocery store and sell them? Most of us can't. Even if it's legal, the local grocery store doesn't want them. They have arrangements already with those big suppliers.

In many cases, the big suppliers have rigged the legal system to keep out the small competitors. So even where they aren't getting subsidized, they've set up the government as a gatekeeper to protect their market share.

Look at the raw milk issue as an example.

We take our extra eggs to friends who have hwy frontage and they sell firewood, homemade pies, jams, jellies, plants, and produce. They are licensed, too.

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

isn't it wonderful to live in a place where there is such abundance of people growing and making stuff and learning NOW how to do it! and building community and good vibes so that when it does crash--because it will, because the system is way out of balance--you can hand someone a shovel instead of tell them "you're stupid and lazy, you're SOL, too bad so sad"

thank God for all the people waaaaaaaay out in the front of the pack, beyond the pale, making a new world that can shift into "major production"(ie add mor bodies to the mix) because we've worked out a lot of kinks already. Be the change you wish to see.

See you soon Baby!

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THE BEGINNING IS NEAR
5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

Hey, Wyld thang, aren't you coming next week? We need to discuss the date due to a boat getaway, DH's birthday, and his middle DS's wedding (yep, all in the same week).

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

I know a lot of you read the bible and a few do not. However hope is in the bible for the near future of the OP post

concider;

Micah 4:3-4
4 And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making [them] tremble; for the very mouth of Jehovah of armies has spoken [it].
Isaiah 65:21-24
21 And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage. 22 They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. 23 They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are the offspring made up of the blessed ones of Jehovah, and their descendants with them. 24 And it will actually occur that before they call out I myself shall answer; while they are yet speaking, I myself shall hear.

Certainly something I am looking forward to.

Sounds like a perfect recipe for peace.......

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

You still get subsidized crop insurance, tax writeoffs and direct payments if you have "historically" produced commodity crops. So what they do is plant corn/soybeans/wheat a couple years then produce cabbage the next years and still receive their direct payment. Heck, you don't even need to farm the land at all to receive the payments and long as you have a "historical usage" of commodity crops.

Your "very little" equals BILLIONS of dollars.
Livestock Compensation Program
Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance
Livestock Emergency Assistance Program
Livestock Forage Disaster Program
The Emergency Food Assistance Program
Environmental Quality Incentives Program

The USDA purchases hundreds of millions of dollars worth of eggs and poultry to support the prices and they qualify under alot of the same programs described above.

Also, tax incentives are another form of subsidies. If i go out and purchase a truck to use 10% of the time on the farm i cannot write it off as a business expense. Although if a big farm goes out to buy a truck he can write it off 100%

If I wrote off all my gardening/building supplies and what not I would probably be close to a 0% tax liability, how many on here can say they have a 0% tax bill?


This is all social engineering at its finest, aren't you glad we let government decide on how we live our lives?

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U.S. Constitution -10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

No they don't. Once veggies are grown they are off the gravy train.

All of which you can get hold of as a small producer

Whine if you want but overall big ag subsidies are not getting in the way of smaller guys making it in niche markets.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

Nope.

That's where health departments, zoning boards and insurance requirements, etc. step in.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the huge dependence on diesel from the large scale farms. Production and transportation use up huge quantities of fuel that is frankly pretty cheap.

Yes I know at 4 bucks a gallon it cuts deeply into the bottom line, but if you consider the man-hours the fuel represents... it's a bargain.

Big ag depends on a reliable supply of relatively inexpensive fuel. Works great as long as the fuel is available as needed.

Will the fuel continue to be available at a price that enables a profit? That's the $64000 question.

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An herbicide company selling seeds makes about as much sense as a doctor's office selling cigarettes.

No, the math does not work that way. You're bringing in an infinite supply of new people to marry into the family who have no land. You're doing division with infinite numbers while not adding the new resources that would be brought in.

In the real world it doesn't happen that way. In the real world our kids marry partners who may well, neigh, are likely, to come from families who also have farms, land or other similar assets. This makes your division game not work.

Yet there are plenty who don't work off the farm. Our farm supports our entire family. I know of many other families that only work on their farms, no outside jobs. This proves it is not just possible but that many people are doing it.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Actually, beef, pork, chickens and vegetables are all heavily subsidized. They are subsidized because petroleum is subsidized and that is used intensely to produce factory farmed meats, plant and harvest grains & veggies, etc.

Furthermore, the factory farmed pork and feedlot beef gets another subsidy because it is eating subsidized grain.

Yes, there might not be direct subsidies, but there are massive indirect subsidies that are warping the costs of production and the market place.

The reality is meat and vegetables are heavily subsidized.

Write your congressional critters and ask them to end all subsidies. Including the home mortgage deduction which is another subsidy - it warps the housing market and jacks up the price of houses.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

If a farmer has 2 children, both may be expected to marry but only one would inherit the farm if it were to remain intact. If not, then it would be divided equally between them. The system which prevailed in some European countries for centuries was such that only the oldest could inherit the land and all others had to look elsewhere for a home or occupation. In a few cases, only the oldest male offspring could inherit the land, not the female. In the figures which apply to my family, it is only considering the sons remaining to divide the original farm into smaller farms. All daughters would have to leave to wed or live elsewhere. The only outsiders would be the wives of the sons. Thus there would be no massive influx of non-family members but merely a division of property among the sons which would result in ever-decreasing individual parcel size. That's how it would work in a primarily agrarian society.

Martin

In this area, it used to be mostly large farms. But they were all divided. A few of our neighbors today are on small lots that they inherited. Their grandparents owned huge parcels. That eventually got divided for inheritance, so today nobody has a large farm.

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http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx