I guess I don't really fit into the whole modern farming network. Ed Winkle is as close as I come to a link with legitimacy and you do have to admit that Ed is not quite mainstream in a lot of ways. Ralph Goff is a real farmer but of course he is a foreigner. (That was a joke) But, you have to admit, Ralph is a bit of fellow odd duck, with his video camera and his IH truck and his Cockshutt tractor.
So what got me on this subject was...
I just got my Capital Press and was about to use it to start the fire when I came across a story on farmers who are getting the word out about agriculture though blogging.
I am completely shocked that The Lazy Farmer is not featured!
The Capital Press also has a blog. It is worth a look. You can certainly see has issues concerning mainstream farming.
I think American farmers need to get over this conceit that it is our duty to feed the world. I think Oregon farmers should just admit that people don't eat grass seed. I think farmers need to realize that when people get stuck behind a convoy of ten brand new combines on highway 18 that they are not feeling love for farmers. I doubt that cutesy blogs by young enthusiastic farmer wives will really help all that much. They think that if city people can see a glimpse of their lives that they will like them. I don't think that is true. There are so many differences in values that an honest view of your daily life gives the city folks a shock and more fuel for their "us vs THEM" view of the world.
Also, pretending to be just one of the regular folks when you are driving a $250,000 piece of farm equipment, or rather, having your Mexican drive your $250,000 farm equipment, doesn't really work. -Even if you wear Romeo's and point out you only had to come up with ten percent down and the rest belongs to Case Credit.
And about this feeding the world thing...
We get paid to do it. Rationalizing that we are feeding the world somehow justifies all sorts of short sighted decisions and questionable ethics. Priorities should be as follows: God, Family, State, Country... Meaning, you should be ethical, you should do the right thing, you should take care of yourself, your town, your state, and then perhaps the big picture. You can't uses feeding the world as an excuse to screw your neighbor out of 15 acres.
Also, the cover story on the Capital Press is about Willamette Egg farms responding to shakedowns from environmental groups. Sure, the article is a positive fluff piece about how this huge factory farm is becoming more transparent and humanitarian and the positive spin continues. That is all fine and dandy now that there are few to none independent egg producers of any medium scale left in Oregon. I'd say it is a payoff situation of some sort. Huge factory farms can change in a click of the policy writing pen. Small farms change through pain and suffering.
I was fortunate enough to meet a few older farmers who farmed because they loved the land and the animals they raised, and their farm was where they wanted to be.
They never had a blog...
I also found The Rural Blog. Interesting for news.
And I was sent a link to this blog: http://www.sondrakistan.com/2014/02/19/gov-thuggery/
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Ah, a fellow voice grumping in the wilderness (if "whine country" is wilderness). ;-)
ReplyDeleteBudde, we complain so much because we are so good at it. I have to admit the media is giving some coverage to the ongoing grain transportation (or lack of it) problem. I could do a lengthy blog post about it but would likely be preaching to the converted. Maybe I will retire and just live off the monetization of my blog and videos.
ReplyDeleteI had to Google what a 'Romeo" was. They don't look too good for mud or cow pies, but look comfortable & easy to remove at the door. A bit pricey! Is that price for one, or both?
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