The one option not addressed in this "money in ag" thread is farmer owned,
value-added processing/marketing facilities. Cooperatively owned firms
provide the opportunity for farmers to move up the food processing ladder
and retain the profits from value-added processing on the farm - becoming
part of the "15-20% on investment" group. The value-added co-op becomes an
extension of the farm, and when production and processing are coordinated,
the consumer benefits (Dakota Pasta Growers makes the best pasta I've ever
tasted!)
For more info on value-added processing co-ops (also termed New Generation
Co-ops) visit the UWCC web site: http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/ - Audrey
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Liebhardt <wcliebhardt@ucdavis.edu>
To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu <sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu>
Date: Monday, January 24, 2000 12:01 PM
Subject: money in ag
>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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