The stories about what farmers make and how much M. Jordan and T.Woods make
demonstrate very graphically that the money made in ag today is in the
marketing sector and not the production area. Whether fair or not that is
the way it is. Farmers make 1-3% on investment if lucky and the marketers
often make 15-20% on investment. For people in the production end it is
not sustainable at present and we continue to see farmers leaving ag.
There is not a level playing field folks and the overproduction-low price
scenario is all over the industrialized world. We have a cheap food policy
at the farm gate and from there the price goes up very markedly. I suspect
that if the price for food on the farm was zero-nothing it would still cost
about the same as it does when the consumer bought it. The concentration
of economic power off the farm in corporate ag and the long term govt.
policies are against the family farm having a level playing field.
Bill
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