Kathianne
04-08-2018, 05:55 PM
There's good reasons I am a small government conservative or a 'traditional liberal' as is Gunny's wont to say:
https://twosparrowsfarm.com/the-end-of-the-road/
...
What happened? Who is to blame for the demise of an entire way of life? For the collapse of rural America?
The answer – the 1970’s. No, really. The 1970’s ushered in a radical change in the government policy surrounding agriculture and subsidies.
Policy that interferes with the natural rules of supply and demand and encourages farmers to “get big or get out.” Moreover, our government farm subsidies prioritize the growing of commodities – non-perishable food products that can be stored indefinitely in grain-bins and traded on the world market to increase our nation’s GDP, thus giving the government more borrowing power to stem off its eventual debt-defaults from bloated budgets and out of control spending. The deeper you look, the farther the rot penetrates.
The farm of days gone by – of Old MacDonald with his diversified farm of edible crops, cows, pigs, and chickens – has been replaced with endless rows of corn and shiny-new grain bins that stick out of the countryside like cathedrals paying homage to holy corn.
But the rot has spread to these now, too. The price of a bushel of corn was $3.58 on Dec 2, 1974. In January of 2018, a bushel of corn sold for $3.56, down two cents from 44 years ago. The farmer who planted his first field of corn in 1974 can expect the same prices for his corn as he retires. All the while the price of seed, land, equipment, fertilizer, and fuel have grown exponentially.
It’s unbelievable. It’s an insult. It’s downright sinful.
...
Ethanol, government telling what to grow, etc. "Protectionism."
https://twosparrowsfarm.com/the-end-of-the-road/
...
What happened? Who is to blame for the demise of an entire way of life? For the collapse of rural America?
The answer – the 1970’s. No, really. The 1970’s ushered in a radical change in the government policy surrounding agriculture and subsidies.
Policy that interferes with the natural rules of supply and demand and encourages farmers to “get big or get out.” Moreover, our government farm subsidies prioritize the growing of commodities – non-perishable food products that can be stored indefinitely in grain-bins and traded on the world market to increase our nation’s GDP, thus giving the government more borrowing power to stem off its eventual debt-defaults from bloated budgets and out of control spending. The deeper you look, the farther the rot penetrates.
The farm of days gone by – of Old MacDonald with his diversified farm of edible crops, cows, pigs, and chickens – has been replaced with endless rows of corn and shiny-new grain bins that stick out of the countryside like cathedrals paying homage to holy corn.
But the rot has spread to these now, too. The price of a bushel of corn was $3.58 on Dec 2, 1974. In January of 2018, a bushel of corn sold for $3.56, down two cents from 44 years ago. The farmer who planted his first field of corn in 1974 can expect the same prices for his corn as he retires. All the while the price of seed, land, equipment, fertilizer, and fuel have grown exponentially.
It’s unbelievable. It’s an insult. It’s downright sinful.
...
Ethanol, government telling what to grow, etc. "Protectionism."