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actually i aint paying myself anything. what the heck are you crying about. so if i sell my extra stuff to my neighbors i aint paying a living wage? go away
Perhaps you need to go back and read the first post in this thread again. You seem to be confused with what the grownups are talking about here.
I'm all for having standards but I don't want the standards to be cost prohibitive for smaller farmers.
I think if we elected less corrupt politicians, we could see the changes we want to see. It's so sad that corporations have pretty much bought a large majority of our Congress.
I'm not a big egg fan but I'd gladly buy from you.
When you buy produce from a farmer you see that farmer up close.
That farmer sells and lives by his/her reputation.
You buy produce in the super market you have no clue where it came from (maybe state of origin) and that farmer has no clue who you are.
If anything is wrong with the produce who do you think will suffer more ?
Joe the Farmer who makes money by his rep and return customers or some big AgriFarm out in California that sources their produce from Mexico ?
Joe the Farmer will go out of his way to make sure his goods are GOOD because he sells direct to the customer.
Organic was good and practiced by many until Big Ag got wind of it and convinced the government to take it over and then "allow certain chemicals to be declared organic". All to make an extra buck at the supermarket.
I trust small farmers any day of the week over any "regulated industry" run by fat cats sitting in corner offices.
Sorry I rant here but I'm looking from the other side of the coin.
If NAIS had been mandated then I would have had to register my place and put expensive RFID tags on my 15 chickens and pay to register each one of them just so I could sell my extra eggs. And God forbid one of the chickens die or one of the eggs hatch..the forms I'd have to fill out.....
I already had a plan B in place if NAIS got mandated. Those dozen eggs would have shot up to $15/doz just to cover all that government regulation crap. Way higher than the $5/doz in the supermarket. That would have put me out of competing with the big boyz of the egg business..wouldn't it ? Remember I only have 15 chickens, not 15,000 like those big egg farms.
I love eggs in the morning but my thoughts of getting some laying hens here on the Texas High Plains have been hampered by a coyote who has now taken one dog and one kitten. Not sure how to proceed but with a fence which is not to my liking.
I have coyotes and hawks to worry about. I got the Fort Knox of chicken pens
40x40 yard with 6ft posts. Henhouse is in the middle (10x8 Home Depot shed fitted for chickens with windows and their little door) and there is flight netting covering the top. This is where they sleep and hang out during the day when I work. When I get home I let them out of their yard to free roam since hawks don't like to see screaming, yapping humans flapping their arms and leave them alone. Once it gets dusk..they all go back to their chicken house by themselves and I lock them up until the next night.
Works great as I've seen coyote footprints near them and have seen hawks skydive towards them until they see the netting. Haven't lost one yet to predators.
If your paying someone a "living wage" as the OP stated, you're not going to be selling corn at 5 ears for a buck. Sorry, but it ain't happening.
It's not an employer's responsibility to pay an employee a "living wage" whatever the hell that is......it is the employers reponsibility to compensate employees for services rendered. The employer and employee decide what the compensation will be. This is why many people get fired when minimum wage laws go up.
If your paying someone a "living wage" as the OP stated, you're not going to be selling corn at 5 ears for a buck. Sorry, but it ain't happening.
You're talking small farmer here, not these mega farms that hire migrants to harvest.
I buy corn off the back of a truck all the time (once you have fresh you can never buy supermarket again) and I don't pay $5/ear ...lol.
Have you ever bought fresh food from a farmer at the farmer's market ??
Take it one step further, spend your weekends hunting, fishing, gardening and raising livestock(a few chickens can be raised in even the most modest of yards.) Way better for the environment, way tastier, possibly cheaper(hunting trips can be expensive.)
If it was grown organically and it helps keep more Americans employed, why not?
Are you serious? I buy my organic corn from a local farm and it costs me $.50 per ear. I grow my own leafy lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, green peppers, yellow squash and zucchini. You charge $5 for an ear of corn NO ONE with any COMMON SENSE (or a pocket that does have an end to it) will buy it.
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We should be demanding higher wages for these people that work in these industries. It isn't an easy industry.
Who are "these people"? How much should a person who picks potatoes for a living earn in a year?
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I'd personally rather see the government subsidize healthier foods than corn and high fructose corn syrup.
I don't think corn is the only government subsidized crop. I'd personally rather see the dairy industry double check itself. But we have hollyweird celebs wearing their little "milk mustaches" in "Got Milk?" campaigns. Let's stop pushing milk. You need some calcium? Eat organic green and leafy veggies. You need some vitamin D? Crawl out of your cave once in a while.
Industrial farming feeds the world and will continue until the price and availability of energy and water outpaces the ability of consumers to buy food from industrial farming. At that tipping point, many people will be starving.
Organic farming is wonderful, and I'd love nothing more than community farms supported by local consumers, but that model will not feed the world. There are too many people depending on every square foot of corn and wheat grown by big agro, and those two crops are just the tip of the iceberg.
Right now, we all (most of us) have two choices. We can support local farms where they exist or buy land and start our own farms. Urban dwellers can join one of the many green house / urban gardening co-ops springing up. But, big agro is here to stay for a long time.
I live in Texas and my place backs a corn/sorgham field as the farmer alternates his crop.
There are no migrant workers picking corn..lol. There is "Joe Farmer" with the help of his neighbors and their machinery and they harvest his corn. Then they all go down to the next farm and harvest "Jim Farmer's" field of corn.
Who is it that you want to "demand higher wages" for ?
The migrant workers who come here for seasonal picking and then go home ?
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