5 Things You Didn't Know About Farming (maybe)

[KurtNYC]

1. That big corn field you drive past. You can't eat that stuff. It is a variety of corn grown strictly to become ethanol. (Btw, the 10% ethanol added to gasoline, reduces your MPG by exactly 10%.)

2. The farmer who works that big field of corn expects to net only $400 per acre. So for an annual income of $40,000 the farmer needs 100 acres of land plus all the gear, fuel, inputs and labor.

3. More than half the farms in the USA don't make a profit -- 2.1 million farms of which ~1 mil are profitable. The farmer who grew that chicken in your chicken nuggets made a net profit of 15-cents per chicken (or less). The one who grew the potatoes in those french fires got about 8 cents per pound for his potatoes.

4. The average age of a farmer is 58 years old and still rising. Many farmers can't afford to retire or they don't have adult children willing to take on farming. Also the size and scale of a profitable farm is beyond the financial reach of most young adults and this is cutting off the supply of new farmers.

5. In 1900, farming used 38% of the entire labor force of the country and the average farm was 147 acres. By 1990, farming used only 2.6% of the labor force and the average farm was 461 acres. The largest farm in America is 535,000 acres (Waggoner).

[Le Taz Hot]

1. +1 for the farmers.

[snappyturtle]

2. What is your source? Thank you. nt

[KurtNYC]

4. Multiple sources

1. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2011/10/07/the-u-s-now-uses-more-corn-for-fuel-than-for-feed/

2 thru 5: USDA. Here is a good overview of recent census data:
http://civileats.com/2014/02/20/farmers-aging-big-ag-getting-bigger-behind-the-preliminary-2012-ag-census-numbers/

[snappyturtle]

5. Thank you! nt

[reformist2]

3. Farming is perhaps the perfect example of the failure of capitalism.

Who can criticize the hard work a farmer does? And who can criticize the essential value of what they do? And yet, farmers increasingly live their lives on the brink of poverty. The only way they ever truly profit is by cashing out - selling the farm, if you will. And that's exactly what so many have done. More and more farmers today merely work the land owned by a corporation or investment firm, they are mere sharecroppers on land that used to be owned by individual families. In a fair and just economic system, this would never have happened.

[brewens]

6. I live near The Palouse prairie of eastern Washington state. Those farmers are probably

the exception nationwide but really do well. I've been around them and seen their equipment enough to really be impressed. A lot of the kids go to school at WSU or the University of Idaho to learn the business. Their houses, shops and equipment sheds are awesome. They do a lot of their own mechanic work and fabricating.

Go down a farm road out there and you'll come to a nice older home with all the outbuildings where the old man lives, then down the road a little ways a couple more newer beautiful homes where his kids live. Those guys make some serious money raising wheat and barley mostly I think. Peas here huge out there for decades too but I think competition from Canada took that out by the 90's.

[JimDandy]

10. Yes, but those farms also got a lot of help from WSU

and their extension program.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

16. That's sort of our area.

We farm in eastern Washington. The type of farming around here is not like Hollywood portrays it ...you know the hay-seed in his bib overalls, sucking on a stalk, lol.....Or those farmers in that commercial who feed their cows from buckets.

My husband has a degree from WSU. In fact all the farmers around here have degrees, mostly from WSU. Our son ended up going to England to get his degree, but returned to farm when he graduated. When I met my husband, just over 30 years ago, I was surprised that they had a computer, as did their neighbors.

We are hay producers, but if you are interested in how those wheat guys pay for their equipment etc, have a look here.

http://farm.ewg.org/

[drokhole]

7. Another thing you didn't know: Wall Street is starting to buy up farmland...

Wall Street Investors Take Aim at Farmland

[Scuba]

8. Kick for family farmers.

[cyberswede]

21. +1

I have several farmer friends. At least one family's 13 y.o. son plans to carry on with the family farm. Good for him!

[ErikJ]

9. Good. Lower rural population means less Republicans.

Urban America is much more blue than rural which is very red so in a way this trend is (very) good.

[Populist_Prole]

13. While I hate to broad-brush, I agree with you

Of the farmers ( and descendants thereof ) I've personally met, most were conservative racists and seemed to have a superior attitude; like they looked upon the urban or suburban population with bitter scorn. Some never liked me because I wasn't born and raised in East Fencepost USA.

[ErikJ]

14. Without Seattle or Portland, blue Washington and Oregon would be as bright red...

as Idaho which only has small Boise urban area. The rural/urban political divide is stark.

[Populist_Prole]

17. Tell me about it

I'm more or less "losing" two 20+ year friendships due to largely to this. They used to be centrist union democrats, now each moved from suburbia out to rural areas and become bitter conservatives. There's no official end to friendships, it's just that over time they have not much to say to me and I just don't have much to say to either of them.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

24. See post #20

and it'll give you an idea why rural people don't care for "city slickers" all that much.

Apparently rural folks like myself are full of jealousy and fear when it comes to "city slickers'.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

18. So you think I'm a conservative racist with a superior attitude.

The longer I live the more I understand why things are the way they are.

Carry on with your gleeful broad brushing..

[ErikJ]

20. "City-slicker" fear and jealousy might be more of it

I think it might be more to with ruralites' wariness and jealousy of the big city which they imagine to be all sorts of things. More crime, more culture, more shopping, more intellectuals, more poor minorities, more big businessmen, and worst of all more liberals! etc etc.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

22. Jealousy of the big city?

Fear?

We farm/ranch in eastern Washington. We are educated. We travel. We are cultured. I know London like the back of my hand. All the growers around here have degrees and travel abroad.

You are extremely ignorant and offensive.

[ErikJ]

25. I'm saying generally, just like they are generally conservative....

or do u deny that nearly every rural county in the US votes strongly red? Historically there has always been a divide between urban and rural, Farmers and merchants etc. That doesnt mean there arent some very rich and/or very liberal people living in the countryside. Connectictut might be a good example of that.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

35. I understand why there is such a divide between city and country

after reading your post and others like it.

[Eleanors38]

39. Interesting, when progressives try their hand at prejudice.

[ErikJ]

40. All I know is if it werent for the cities McCain would be president now.

For some reason rural life in America turns (MOST!) people deep red. My parents and grandparents were from rural America. So I dont hate rural people just for being rural. Some of the coolest people in the US live rurally.

[Populist_Prole]

29. No I don't

My "evidence" may be anecdotal, but they are my own experiences. Don't take it personally.

[Skidmore]

31. What an asinine thing to say.

Perhaps urban America would prefer to forage for all of the goods rural Americans bring to their lives.

What an absolutely hideous thing for any liberal to say.

[ErikJ]

34. Environmentally its not

The less people on the land and concentrated in the cities the better environmentally. Lots of our farmers are subsidized by the govt to stay in business anyway. Too much food being produced.

70-85% of the voters in the big cities in the west voted for Obama and it was just the opposite for the rural counties in the west. I believe Idaho which is very rural voted 72% for Romney.

[LumosMaxima]

33. My grandparents and great-grandparents were all rural people and Democrats.

My parents and their siblings who moved to cities became Republicans.

[jwirr]

11. Wondering if those items include the types of farms we call alternative. The coops, hobby farms, etc

[politicat]

12. 6. The next generation is getting out.

We're watching rainfall trends, warming trends, costs for fuel, land prices and land rent rates, machinery and inputs (organic or not) and seeing everything going up except price per bushel. Price per bushel isn't even keeping up with the inflation rate, and that's low right now.

So we are selling off the land because the current model is unsustainable. We agonize over it -- we know we are necessary to everyone else, but we cannot survive. Which means that conglomeration is going to continue because our choice is stay in the fields and become indentured to the bank, or get out. And we agonize over our peers who stay in the field out of misguided hope, and keep buying into the red-state bullshit. They've so internalized the sunk-cost fallacy that they can't afford to change their minds without destroying their entire worldview.

There is no support for small scale, local and humane farming. There's no support for getting out of destructive strip-mine crops like corn and soy and into integrated beyond-organic systems.

[riderinthestorm]

30. +1. My kids won't farm our farm. My oldest is already gone - a medieval archaeologist

My youngest graduates this year and probably won't look back either when she's gone - wants to get a conflict studies degree and work overseas with NGOs.

Its such damn hard work (especially if you're not a big corporate farmer). My kids put their shoulders to the wheel when they lived here, helped with every aspect of our operation - worked HARD.

Which is why they're never going to do this. They know how hard we work and how much we make in return.

"There is no support for small scale, local and humane farming. There's no support for getting out of destructive strip-mine crops like corn and soy and into integrated beyond-organic systems. "

Preach it sister. Agreed. I'm an oasis surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of thousands of acres of Northern Illinois corporate farms - all corn/soybean operations.

[politicat]

32. I manage my grandmother's farm.

I have an on-site manager who actually does the hard work (for us and several others) but I keep the bills paid (from 1000 miles away), the regs followed and handle the purchasing. And I'm selling off a chunk at a time, as someone can come up with the money to buy out 30 or 50 acres. I won't sell to the big speculators or the investors, I carry the notes, and I negotiate with the buyers, but I feel bad about it every time I sell. I know that the buyers (often our manager or a cousin) are getting a raw deal and getting sucked deeper into the trap every year. And every time, I remind them that this can't go on... And they reply that they can't see another way of life. S they buy the land and keep hoping, and I wish they could farm what they really want to, rather than what will bring in a few cents more and a big check in April.

My great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather didn't intend for any of us to farm this way. They built an integrated farm, but they also sent their children to college and expected us to do anything but farm. They were able to send their children to college on the produce of 300 acres. Now, I can barely keep up with the taxes, the maintenance and costs of doing business. The only thing keeping it all going is the income from selling the land.

For us, it's not essential income, but for the farm's neighbors and my cousins, it is the difference between eating and not.

I want to find Ear Butz's grave and have a good, long pee. I hold him personally responsible for breaking our farm system. I can see the failure in the business records -- the trend has been falling since the never empty granary was abandoned.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

37. As I said in a post above

every farmer I know has a 4 year college degree. Farming is considered a business where we live and degrees in animal science, accounting, engineering etc are all very useful in farming and ranching.

Education is as important to farming and ranching as it is to other businesses.

[politicat]

43. That's not my experience, but it may be generational.

I'm GenX, my sisters and cousins are Millenials, but the farmers in my family are all late Boomers or Jones (born 1955-1965). When they were adolescents, there was a lot of community pressure to send the most academically nimble off to medicine, law, business, engineering -- anything but ag school. I'm not arguing that farming requires brains -- it does, and academic study of botany, chemistry, geology, meteorology, logistics, planning and finance -- but fifty years ago, the kids that are today's farmers got their farming education through 4H, apprenticeship, county extension and vocational ag programs, not college. Eye got limited or no business ed, and very little critical financial skills. And they have repeated the process -- they sent their kids into the professions rather than to ag school. Cuz that's where the money is.

The way this worked out is that we who are coming into ownership via inheritance are totally disconnected from the land. We have no emotional interest, and none of the education for it. I can't imagine anyone spending $40-60K for an ag education at today's rates, then another $1M for 100 acres for a gross rate of return of about $900 an acre for conventional corn and soy. There's no point -- setting the money on fire would be a more effective means of financial destruction.

With hindsight, I can see where the error was made and yes, we should have put those kids through at minimum business ed and agronomy, but they didn't, and now, they're vulnerable to everyone from the banks to the sales departments who DO know how to manipulate stats and advertising. And sunk-cost is a thing.

[KurtNYC]

41. Had to look up 'sunk costs fallacy' -- their prime example is Farmville (!?)

Interesting and liberating concept:
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/

[politicat]

44. Yep.

It's the principle behind why people gamble. And it's a huge problem because we do think more with our emotions than our logic, so we get stuck. (Also, tribalism -- why we can't leave an actively broken group or relationship.)

[DirkGently]

15. Screw ethanol.

Mucks up engines, kills efficiency. A ludicrous boondoggle helping us not at all.

[pokerfan]

23. +1,000,000

EPA’s list of vehicles that should not be fueled with E15:
• Motorcycles
• Vehicles with heavy-duty engines, such as school buses and delivery trucks
• Off-road vehicles, such as boats and snowmobiles
• Engines in off-road equipment, such as lawnmowers and chainsaws
• Model-year 2000 and older cars, light-duty trucks and medium-duty passenger vehicles (later changed to model-year 2007 and older)

http://www.cycleworld.com/2013/07/05/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ethanol-fuel-and-your-motorcycle/

[KurtNYC]

28. an "alternative fuel" which requires lots of petroleum to generate

is like a lifeboat that is designed to sit on the deck of the Titanic.

[NickB79]

19. Actually, you can eat field corn

You just can't eat it as corn on the cob, because the sugar content is far too low to taste good.

It is, however, fully edible once ground into cornmeal, or made into hominy.

[HereSince1628]

42. I'm old enough to remember eating 'roasting ears' from field corn...

The corn was picked while still in the milk stage...when a kernel is broken with thumbnail, and 'milk' oozes out. This usually is about 2 weeks after silk first shows.

It's definitely true that field corn isn't as sweet as sweet corn.

Eating roasting ears was a thing among my older relatives. Now it's usually sweet corn, and very often 'super sweet' varieties that gets roasted.

[liberal N proud]

26. Most feild corn becomes food for livestock

and much more of it is used in other food products.



http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn/background.aspx

[Boudica the Lyoness]

38. Here field corn is put up as silage.

It's excellent feed for cattle.

[jmondine]

27. Is Vick there?

(extremely obscure Monty Python reference)

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. interesting. kick