DeadEye_Dan wrote:(MT)Montanafowler wrote:one2many wrote:so you want all small family farms gobbled up by the large "corporate farms". the small family farms are the ones that cant compete and are disappearing!
i would like your definition of a corporate farm.seeing as almost all family farms are INCs and LLCs and the like.
and what do you feel the states should regulate?
quite the contrary, I think that small farms are held to a standard that they can't survive in, hence why they are going under and being bought out. How are you supposed to grow crops when Monsanto can sue you for everything you're worth because of seed (genetic) drift? The farmer doesn't see more than 8 percent of the profit, most of it goes into the market. I consider farms in excess of 10,000 acres corporate. Places like that are diverse enough that they should be able to stand on their own, without subsidies. Farming practices need to change if we're ever going to have sustainable farming, we need to foster the ag industry by supporting and buying from the smaller farmers who are working toward sustainable farming practices and integrated agroecology. States should regulate whatever the federal system currently regulates, Like jehler said, the federal government is for protection and interstate commerce, we probably can't get back to just those, but the closer the better.
This is quite possibly the most backassward thing I've ever read on this site.
I've got news for you. The govt isn't keeping the 10,000 acre farmer in business. Those guys are sharks. They would love nothing more than the govt to stay the fuck out of their way and stop subsidizing everything. If they did that, the little farms would be gone faster than a blink of an eye.
The big are going to get bigger and the small are going to be acquired and or pushed out. Agriculture is no different than any other industry when it comes to economics.
what i mean is that they need two different levels of regulation. The system in place favors the large "corporate" farms. I'm saying stop subsidizing the farms over 10,000 acres. They are diverse enough to hold their own.
Dan, you and I are in agreement. maybe i worded my last post poorly, and granted, i am not a farmer so i don't know all the ins and outs. But to protect the smaller farms from being absorbed, we should break it into two separate entities of the ag industry. You can't compare a 450 acre farm to something like the Wheat Montana corporation. there are two totally different playing fields that need to be evaluated.
if i'm totally off base, let me know.