Supreme Court ruling re Monsanto's GMO alfalfa

[DrakeMaiden]

FYI, the easy way to quote others is to hit the "quote" button at the bottom of their post, instead of just hitting the "reply" button.

 

[Icu4dzs]

FYI, the easy way to quote others is to hit the "quote" button at the bottom of their post, instead of just hitting the "reply" button.

Many thanks for your help here...OK so I am brainless on some of the technical issues here but then I have to ask, "how did you folks learn to use this?"
All the best,
Trim

 

[ducks4you]

Icu4dzs, I KNOW what you mean about the price of food not changing. I am NOT a farmer, but as a horse owner, and a 5 acre "farmette" owner for the past ten years, I know a lot of farmers, my property is surrounded by farm fields, and I've seen the price of corn, oats, hay and straw pretty much stay the same since 1985. I am also a member of our local county Farm Bureau.
I used to drive 2 miles (from where I boarded my horses in the 1980's-1990's) to an elevator where I bought whole corn and oats for my horses. At that time the corn was about $3.00-$3.50/bushel (which is 56 pounds) and the oats were about $4.00-$5.00/bushel (which is 32 pounds). Today it's pretty much the same price.
In 1985 I bought alfalfa mix hay for $2.50/bale. Although I paid about $7.00/bale a few years ago because of a bad growing season, hay usually only costs me about $4.00/bale.
EVERYBODY's cost of living has risin in the last 25 years. The cost of cars has gone up. Groceries--necessities like milk and bread costs us more, certainly meat is more expensive. But I hear the farm reports on our local radio station and every year the price is pretty much the same as it was the year before.
It is a crying shame that we have people unwilling to work--we are at generation #5 by now--in this country, but happy (through welfare) to steal food from farmers who work just as hard every year, but are forced to make less.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Hey, no need to call yourself "brainless," I think it took me a while to figure it out too. I just noticed it one day and experimented and it worked!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

EVERYBODY's cost of living has risin in the last 25 years. The cost of cars has gone up. Groceries--necessities like milk and bread costs us more, certainly meat is more expensive. But I hear the farm reports on our local radio station and every year the price is pretty much the same as it was the year before.

Isn't it because the middle men are making all the profit on the groceries? My husband and I were talking about this . . . why when the demand for milk goes down, do the farmers lose money, but we the consumers are still paying the same?

ETA: I have more of a problem with the fact that the farmers suffer for it, than that we pay the same amount for the end product.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Icu4dzs, I KNOW what you mean about the price of food not changing. I am NOT a farmer, but as a horse owner, and a 5 acre "farmette" owner for the past ten years, I know a lot of farmers, my property is surrounded by farm fields, and I've seen the price of corn, oats, hay and straw pretty much stay the same since 1985. I am also a member of our local county Farm Bureau.
I used to drive 2 miles (from where I boarded my horses in the 1980's-1990's) to an elevator where I bought whole corn and oats for my horses. At that time the corn was about $3.00-$3.50/bushel (which is 56 pounds) and the oats were about $4.00-$5.00/bushel (which is 32 pounds). Today it's pretty much the same price.
In 1985 I bought alfalfa mix hay for $2.50/bale. Although I paid about $7.00/bale a few years ago because of a bad growing season, hay usually only costs me about $4.00/bale.
EVERYBODY's cost of living has risin in the last 25 years. The cost of cars has gone up. Groceries--necessities like milk and bread costs us more, certainly meat is more expensive. But I hear the farm reports on our local radio station and every year the price is pretty much the same as it was the year before.
It is a crying shame that we have people unwilling to work--we are at generation #5 by now--in this country, but happy (through welfare) to steal food from farmers who work just as hard every year, but are forced to make less.

Dear Ducky,
You got it. In 2003 diesel was about $1.5/gallon when gas was more expensive. I decided to get a diesel car and for the next few months, was getting 50 mpg on diesel in my Jetta. Shortly thereafter, diesel went higher than gasoline and stayed higher. I was convinced the OTR truckers would go into armed revolt over the increase in cost but they didn't and I still can't figure out why. However, the farmer is still having to pay outrageous prices for fuel. Last season I paid $2.89 for Number I diesel for my tractor and that was Ag diesel, not OTR diesel. As I said, my corn field cost me $2500 to grow and they offered me $900 for the entire 1025 bushel because it was high moisture and low weight. We are having way too much rain here. Last year some folks didn't harvest the corn till this spring. Most couldn't get in the field because of the mud for the entire winter. Things have changed and the "buyers" in the market are still "sticking it" to the farmer. In fact everyone in the industry is "sticking it" to the farmer. They say they want to eat, but make the production of food nearly impossible as a business particularly if you have a mortgage. Then it becomes out of reality.
We buy rolled bales of hay for $35 here. $4.00 for a square bale is outrageous but no one will buck the supplier and the horses have to eat. Where do we start? If we don't buy gas from one dealer for a week, (I mean all of us) he will go broke and out of business. We don't want him broke but the big oil company could care less. We, the people are caught in a conundrum here. Any ideas?

 

[Icu4dzs]

EVERYBODY's cost of living has risin in the last 25 years. The cost of cars has gone up. Groceries--necessities like milk and bread costs us more, certainly meat is more expensive. But I hear the farm reports on our local radio station and every year the price is pretty much the same as it was the year before.

Isn't it because the middle men are making all the profit on the groceries? My husband and I were talking about this . . . why when the demand for milk goes down, do the farmers lose money, but we the consumers are still paying the same?

ETA: I have more of a problem with the fact that the farmers suffer for it, than that we pay the same amount for the end product.

Apparently, the "market" is a "closed shop" and only those in the current trading scheme have any ability to negotiate the price/cost of food to the buyer at the wholesale level.
Dairy farmers are unable to sell their milk because they have to "schmooze" the agents of the milk bottling plant and the cheese factory. Certainly, we can't have anyone flood the market with product, but then there are so many "regulations" regarding the sale of food and produce which are ostensibly designed to protect the consumer from substandard products but the truth is that they end up "hog-tying" the farmer so that he can't sell his product. I've seen farmers spill the milk on the ground than take an inadequate price for it. The buyer's seem to think they can control the market and therein lies a big part of the problem.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Icu4dzs . . . and is it just too expensive to get set up, and are there too many hoops to jump through, for the farmers to sell directly to the consumers? I know there are some dairy farmers out there selling directly to their customers, including doing milk deliveries. Seems there should be more of that.

 

[Farmfresh]

I agree DrakeMaiden! We have a number of farmers around us that have come to that conclusion. Thank Goodness!

 

[Wifezilla]

If you get a chance read "everything I want to do is illegal" by Joel Salatin. A lot of it is regulation. Part of it is that you have to be a marketer of sorts to sell directly. Some people do not have marketing skills.