Farm Aid - Keep America Growing

johngalway

Interesting. This is different from how I have viewed farming in America, where everything is bigger and better. Yet they're trying to keep their family farms, where as here I'm wondering if we're not rushing headlong into getting rid of ours in the quest for expansion, or, progress.

http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.2723609/k.C8F1/About_Us.htm

Some might find it interesting, or a load of bullocks

Casinoking

I suppose we have Declan Nerney and Big Tom and they have Willie Nelson and Neil Young.

johngalway

Casinoking wrote: »

I suppose we have Declan Nerney and Big Tom and they have Willie Nelson and Neil Young.

:pac:

Methinks most people see it as a load of bullocks. Never mind, I'll be proved right yet

flutered

here bigger is better, over there they have been through that, now they are giving the family a chance to live togeather, here a family cannot live on a farm as the are not big enough.

johngalway

Yep I understand all that. What I was getting at is should more emphasis be put on (I hate to use the word) preserving the family farm rather than the headlong rush for growth in acreage. I would be distrustful of "factory farms", I also dislike really large farms, such as the estates in the UK. Will the family farmer who decides to keep on farming here eventually become someones tenant?

Bodacious

johngalway wrote: »

Yep I understand all that. What I was getting at is should more emphasis be put on (I hate to use the word) preserving the family farm rather than the headlong rush for growth in acreage. I would be distrustful of "factory farms", I also dislike really large farms, such as the estates in the UK. Will the family farmer who decides to keep on farming here eventually become someones tenant?

I took a placement year as part of my ag degree in the U.S and IMO they obsessed with size and totally lost the emphasis on quality in comparison to uk and irish farmers. During harvest on >20,000acres (family farm) plus contracting it was not uncommon to come into a massive clearing in a field where no corn whatsoever had taken, drills blocked etc you just dont see that or i didnt anyway on farms over here they were more concerned about having 3 brand new combines running side by side and a heap of shiny trucks at the headland than yield/profit but my god do they love their plant every farm having 1-2 shop men servicing/polishing gear all winter couldnt see how they made money and they didnt.

Same with the cattle, 1600 contract fed beef cattle and all about numbers/ yardage rather quality than but in fairness when they not your own cattle and cheque is there every month what more can you do:cool:

Casinoking

I suppose the sheer scale of things in America makes maintaining family farms more of an issue. Over here if a couple of smaller farms get swallowed up by "big" 300-400 acre units they're still no more than a couple of miles apart. In America the huge sizes of the factory farms, as well as the massive size of the country as a whole, means that the disappearance of family farms means the decimation of entire rural communities and vast swaths of the country becoming relative wildernesses. Hence the situation has a much higher profile, and has done for a long time. Remember the stick Bob Dylan got at Live Aid in '85 for asking people to remember the American farmers when they were making their donations, most people hadn't a clue what he was on about and thought he was missing the point of the concert completely.