Re: Rending, tearing, gnashing, etc.
Bo Yerxa (byerxa@cce.cornell.edu)
Wed, 9 Aug 1995 11:29:28 -0400 (EDT)
Mr. Duncan et al,
Having grown up on a three-generation family farm (Aroostook County,
Maine), I think I can relate to some of your frustrations over the recent
interchange by non-farmers (esp. the Hudson Institute, for Pete's sake).
Of the 4 adults & 3 kids in my family, 1 adult (my dad) worked off the
farm & none of we kids now farm (tho 1 brother worked the farm into his
late 20's).
YET, we are ALL participants in the ag & food system...And the reality is
that public policy has played as much or more of a role in the decline of
the family farm & the current structural imperfections of American
agriculture as has economics (look North to Canada for example(s) - good &
bad). Therefore, dispite the non-farm experiences of some of those
pontification hereon, more than the <3% of our population currently
engaged in farming MUST be involved in discussions around that public policy.
I appreciate it when these core differences emerge on SANET...let's just
try & be repectful in the process...
Bo Yerxa