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The theory is that we should sacrifice our farmers

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HAY MAKER

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The D.C. fat cats are talking about "The Farm Problem" once again in Congress. The real farm problem is Congress. And the President. And the multinational conglomerates who want to trade away our future and flood our market with foreign food so they can sell their computers, Hollywood movies and "intellectual property" overseas. Although, becoming dependent on countries who hate our guts does not sound too "intellectual" to me.

Abandoning domestic production and importing more foreign food may look good on paper, but you can't eat paper ... or DVDs and hard drives. And Disney movies aren't exactly a staple of life.

The theory is that we should sacrifice our farmers and depend on foreigners for our food because we are now just one big worldwide happy family. If Chinese farmers earning the equivalent of $15 per month can produce food cheaper than our own in the fertile fields of California or Iowa, then by all means we should do business with them. Even though China wanted to nuke us off the face of the earth just a few years ago.

I don't know when we lost our respect for farmers and ranchers in this country. It seems like yesterday that we'd sit down to a bountiful dinner and thank God and the farmers for feeding us. Now we blame them for the budget deficit, greenhouse gases and for fouling their own environment. We take away their water for more important uses than growing food, like golf courses and sucker fish.

In America's eyes, farmers and ranchers have gone from being the salt of the earth to the salt in the wound. We seem to prefer foreign farmers over our own homegrown ones and want our landscape filled with wildlife preserves and subdivisions, not farms.

The nation that taught the world how to farm now wants to buy its oranges from Chile, its beef from Brazil and its grain from the lowest bidder. As a result, the heartland of America is changing from the breadbasket of the world to a basket case. We talk about homeland security and then buy that most basic ingredient of life — food — from foreigners.

I don't get it ... in one short generation, America lost its fondness for the farmer. Perhaps it's because that generation never went hungry or wondered where their next meal was coming from.

Forty years ago I remember visiting my father's Missouri folks. All they had were the simple pleasures of agriculture and each other. Security to them was a family and a garden close by. Their pump house was full of canned peaches and their cellar with jars of green beans. A freezer held half a beef with another in reserve still chewing its cud. They saved back a little seed every year, for they'd learned their lesson well.

You see, they lived through a time we call the Great Depression. A natural disaster mingled with a political one, and the crops withered right along with a generation's hopes and dreams. My grandparents were temporarily blown out of the Dust Bowl to the land of milk and honey, only to find that the milk had gone sour and hunger stung worse than any bee. America's larder was empty. People went hungry. Dinner was tightening your belt another notch.

It's hard to believe now, but it happened here, and it so scarred and scared a generation that they vowed their children would never go hungry. They didn't, and so food and the farmer were taken for granted.

I hope that terrible time will never come again in this country. I pray there will be no more world wars. But I fear when Congress discusses "The Farm Problem" in the future it will be because there aren't any. The ag schools will all be teaching marketing, Nebraska will be a Buffalo Common, there'll be no room in the condo for a victory garden, and a generation that knew how to farm will be planted in the ground or living in town, getting by on food stamps. They'd be the only welfare farmers I know.

But it can't happen here. Can it?..............Lee Pitts,author
 
is well received here, although not a depression baby, I remember how tough it was afterwards. My thoughts are that a nation that cannot feed itself cannot defend itself! :(
 
everytime i have to take road trip to Bozeman (aka "Bozangeles"), i can only sadly shake my head...all of the beautiful black, fertile ground that only a few years ago was filled with wheat now full of condos!!! :cry:
 
Pitts, in his zeal to blame "Congress, the President, and multinational conglomerates" (that's big business isn't it?) for the move to outsource the "messy" side of agriculture should recall that Al Gore and his liberal environmental extremist friends were the ones with that bright idea! Their goal was to keep and/or return the USA to a "pristine" state of scenic splendor which probably never really existed. Mother Nature, after all, is a very "messy" lady! Just look at the hurricane and other "natural" messes if you don't believe that!

MRJ
 
Theres enough blame to go around for all the politicians,MRJ. But just which goup has been in power the most over thelast 15 years?
 
I m not sure if either governments on either side of the border care about the people who make there livlihood to feed the nation. The farm ranch folk are really taken advantage of now a days. Had a neighbor mention to me the other day that he remembers back when farming was all manual labor, and now there isnt as much manula labor but it is more tireing dealing with the stress of trying to keep the operation running.
 
Horseman said:
MRJ said:
Pitts, in his zeal to blame "Congress, the President, and multinational conglomerates" (that's big business isn't it?) for the move to outsource the "messy" side of agriculture should recall that Al Gore and his liberal environmental extremist friends were the ones with that bright idea! Their goal was to keep and/or return the USA to a "pristine" state of scenic splendor which probably never really existed. Mother Nature, after all, is a very "messy" lady! Just look at the hurricane and other "natural" messes if you don't believe that!

MRJ

You people and your agendas will sell out everyone around you for a little power. Liberal environmental extremists have yet to have a major impact on my being able to produce nice big calves and sell them for a profit. Gas prices, wars, and low commodity prices have. If you really want to get down to it most ranchers fall into the liberal environmental extremist group. We plant trees, fence blowouts, control grazing, rest pastures. You are already doing more from common sense than any gov org could regulate you to do. Maybe if your weren't so brainwashed into Dem hating you could educate the opposition on what you are doing instead of just telling them to shut the hell up. The Republicans had a good thing going about 4 years ago but that wasn't good enough and now they've went to far. You can't alienate everyone but your kind and still remain in power, but by god they're sure giving her hell.

What a total crock! The environmental extremists would have us not raising cattle at all in their perfect world. You know, their farts cause global warming, use LOTS of water, and piss in pristine streams. Funny how the real hate seems to be coming from your direction.
 
Cal said:
Horseman said:
MRJ said:
Pitts, in his zeal to blame "Congress, the President, and multinational conglomerates" (that's big business isn't it?) for the move to outsource the "messy" side of agriculture should recall that Al Gore and his liberal environmental extremist friends were the ones with that bright idea! Their goal was to keep and/or return the USA to a "pristine" state of scenic splendor which probably never really existed. Mother Nature, after all, is a very "messy" lady! Just look at the hurricane and other "natural" messes if you don't believe that!

MRJ

You people and your agendas will sell out everyone around you for a little power. Liberal environmental extremists have yet to have a major impact on my being able to produce nice big calves and sell them for a profit. Gas prices, wars, and low commodity prices have. If you really want to get down to it most ranchers fall into the liberal environmental extremist group. We plant trees, fence blowouts, control grazing, rest pastures. You are already doing more from common sense than any gov org could regulate you to do. Maybe if your weren't so brainwashed into Dem hating you could educate the opposition on what you are doing instead of just telling them to shut the hell up. The Republicans had a good thing going about 4 years ago but that wasn't good enough and now they've went to far. You can't alienate everyone but your kind and still remain in power, but by god they're sure giving her hell.

What a total crock! The environmental extremists would have us not raising cattle at all in their perfect world. You know, their farts cause global warming, use LOTS of water, and p*** in pristine streams. Funny how the real hate seems to be coming from your direction.


:lol: :lol: :lol: Poor Cal. Horseman's right: the price of gas is hurting more farming and ranching operations than environmentalist ever have.
 
Disagreeable:
Poor Cal. Horseman's right: the price of gas is hurting more farming and ranching operations than environmentalist ever have.


Gee, don't suppose all of the stifling regulations against refining, and all of the roadblocks to exploration and production could be the result of environmentalism, do you?
 
TSR said:
Theres enough blame to go around for all the politicians,MRJ. But just which goup has been in power the most over thelast 15 years?

The most power, collectively, has been in the hands of liberals......and their power crosses party lines.

MRJ
 
So none of the conservative's power crosses party lines? Just the liberals? That dog just won't hunt for me. How many liberal republicans are there? How many conservative democrats are there?
At this site, Reagan has always been touted as one the greatest Presidents having being able to get more done during his two terms than most Presidents in recent memory. Was he a conservative or a liberal.
Who held the power in Congress during the Clinton years-primarily Dems or Reps? Then comes our current administration for 2 terms, who has held the power during these terms Dems or Reps?
 

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