I am a little frustrated with the attitudes of some people. Especially those that are representing other people.
Do you remember a few years back when farmers were being blamed for the obesity epidemic in the US? They were growing too much food. Now they are being blamed for high gas prices and food prices. Farmers are indeed having a good year. Why should that be a problem? Why should they apologize for making some money, when most years they don't. And I don't want to hear a thing about subsidies. If you get rid of them now, and a major drought hits before this years harvest, they will not be making any money at all.
And to the woman on Fox News this morning. The chickens you buy in the grocery store are not, Let me repeat ARE NOT laying hens. They are caponized roosters. The only hens that are butchered for sale are the ones that are no longer laying. So the price of eggs has nothing to do with the butchering of hens. The price of eggs has to do with the price of grain, grain prices are determined by fuel, and fuel cost are determined by OPEC.
Let's not rant at the farmers for choosing to grow corn for fuel. That was a demand of the people, and government. Farmers saw money, just like any business man. If your jewelry isn't selling as well as your purse, what product will you be making more of? It's not about greed, its about living in a world where money runs everything. Look to yourself before passing the blame onto farmers. The costs of things has a lot to do with the weakened US dollar, high demand overseas, and fuel costs.
Don't blame the farmers for your SUV.
13 comments:
We are giving you a big high five for this post, Phelan...will link to it by tomorrow from our site. My husband is adamant that you've hit it exactly on the head, and yet the news coverage is a bunch of blah blah blah. THANK YOU, and it's about time folks called a spade a spade.
And more folks should be doing so.
Thanks Robbyn, and high fives right back at your ol' man.
oh, and allow me to clarify on the egg thing. Egg producers do not butcher laying hens. And meat chicken producers do not sell eggs. (there are some that do mix and match, but they would not slaughter a laying hen)
"Fox News" - is not news, it's a tabloid. They and most other news outlets operate on the old principle of "If it bleeds, it leads."
Great editorial, kudos - short and pithy - and illustrative of the fundamental ignorance of most people of where their food comes from, and the big, fat, hairy, kicking and screaming difference between the tiny percentage of our population in the U.S. who are family farmers, and Big Ag i.e. Corporate, monoculture, industrialized, mass-production "agriculture" that accounts for most of our food supply - and of course the chemical fertilizers that have become so problematic downstream. I don't blame the individuals involved in that sphere personally, I blame groupthink and a strange, unintended creep over the past century towards the situation we're in now - from legislation meant to protect farmers who were then *family operations* and were only subsequently corporations - to WWII concerns about national security and food supplies that were an impetus to more changes in legislation, regulation, subsidies and practices as well as ultimate ownership.
It is what it is, and we need to think creatively about how to fix it, precisely because we need to secure our food supply, and not misfire and blame individuals who - shock, surprise - have to make a living. OH YEAH, and consumer culture has a heck of a lot to do with it. We like our neat little packages of food and our SUVs (well, not I, but...)
and now, I'm going to go plant some more seeds in my little garden...
with respect and best regards and total agreement with you,
an "east-coast elitist" ha ha
Margo
the link is not working for me, do you have one strait to the article??? i would really like to see it.
Everyone should be required to read this.
Anyone who thinks farmers are sitting back and getting rich because milk and egg prices have gone up have no concept of how the world works.
and *hugs* I am just catching up on your blog and on your mom's and just heard of your grandmother's passing. I am so sorry.
I miss you babe. :kicks: to me for not keeping up with you better.
I Love This Posts Speaks How I feel.
"east-coast elitist" , thank you :D. Normally I don't watch fox news, I was flipping through and heard this bile about killing those poor hens was the reason egg prices are up. At first I was a little ticked, then thought it was too funny. People need to understand that the price of things are not because of silly things, but because of that whole trickle down effect that oil has.
mommymommyland. The link is to the homepage. I don't know if I could find the commentary on it if I tried. Not sure which host it was, but it was his guest that was speaking. Sorry.
V, thank you. Miss you as well. Still trying to get everything on this new pc. will be back to lj before long.
Survivalwoman, thank you.
I can't believe they still call it Fox "News".
that's cause no one's enforcing the "truth in advertising" laws...silly us.
Though some of the prices are because of growing corn for fuel instead of food---that is absolutely no fault of the farmers. It's the governments because they are idiots to walk this path instead of pushing other alternatives. And of course if I am out plowing and planting I am going to grow whatever pays the best. I'm not going to grow something that will lose me money that's for sure. They say you can barely even find wheat or barley for sale right now. Hopefully that's what some farmers will switch to next year. (or Damn! our beer will go up too :-D )
As to Fox News---they protect, and are a mouth piece, for the rich and powerful few that own corporations and the government (senators and congress people included) Worse part about them---too many watch, believer and then regurgitate the idiotic crap that comes out of their mouths.
Hear hear! I just HATE the way the media spins every damn thing, without providing all the facts. And we say OTHER countries are brainwashed by propaganda...yea, right!
I came back to the post I last read. Sorry I have been gone for so long. Hopefully, no hard feelings.
As for this specific posts. You are so right. People really don't have a clue what they are saying half the time. They rant before looking at the facts or doing any sort of research. Good for you on getting the information out there.
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