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Post by atash on Jan 14, 2011 4:25:30 GMT -5
Joseph, just tread water best you can.  The problem, as has been discussed at some length here and also on my website, is that farmers tend not to have enough negotiating leverage in the market even during the heat of an extreme bull market in commodities! I'm not sure what the solution is and I'm open to creative ideas. This is not an unusual situation. During the Great Depression, farmers were throwing milk into drainage ditches while many people who stayed in the industrial and financial cities did not have enough to eat. And contrary to conventional wisdom, prices rose after 1933. "Stagflation". Prices go up but businesses still go out of business. During Perestroika in Russia there were farmers who could not sell their produce, while people in Russia were desperate to buy it! The market channels themselves collapsed, hurting both producers and consumers at the same time. At least it's not that bad, and you're unlikely to run out of business any time soon. Plus you can cut your own costs by eating what you grow. Hang in there.  |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 14, 2011 6:55:32 GMT -5
Joseph, just tread water best you can. The problem, as has been discussed at some length here and also on my website, What's your website address? |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jan 14, 2011 6:59:49 GMT -5
My fondest hope is to become a sustenance farmer: The problem is the violence that my neighbors are willing to do to me to prevent that from happening. (They make me pay property taxes...) You are not speaking of actual factual physical violence are you? I've pondered this myself. For now, we can (and do) pay the taxes. For now at least, we don't grow enough to help anyone but ourselves and then, we need to buy more. Still, the time is coming soon when that will have to change. What sort of strategy will work to insure that you have the cooperation of those with whom you come into contact. THAT is, I think, a very important question. |
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Post by honeydew on Jan 14, 2011 11:32:15 GMT -5
This is not an unusual situation. During the Great Depression, farmers were throwing milk into drainage ditches while many people who stayed in the industrial and financial cities did not have enough to eat. And contrary to conventional wisdom, prices rose after 1933. "Stagflation". Prices go up but businesses still go out of business. During Perestroika in Russia there were farmers who could not sell their produce, while people in Russia were desperate to buy it! The market channels themselves collapsed, hurting both producers and consumers at the same time. I just can't comprehend how this could happen! |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 14, 2011 14:19:09 GMT -5
I can understand how farmers would not want to take their crops to market, (or not be able to take them.) It is my intention this year to not take my crops to market.
I have a medium-sized market 12 miles from the farm, and a large market 90 miles from the farm, but I'm just plain old tired of the huge expense of maintaining a truck large enough to take a reasonable amount of produce to market. The gasoline is too expensive. The insurance is too expensive. The licensing fees are too expensive. The maintenance is too expensive. The loss of freedom and privacy associated with having a driver license and vehicle registration is too expensive. They eat me up and consume any meager profit I might aspire too.
So this year I intend to take vegetables only to the small market two blocks from my farm, and the world outside my village can either come to me, or they can fend for themselves.
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Post by garnetmoth on Jan 14, 2011 15:04:00 GMT -5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMLwsCykqIY I have no affiliation with the folks at patriotshelpingpatriots (MRE s) I just ordered some strawberry seeds- fruit is one thing I dont have a big variety of, but Ill have several new items this year!
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Post by castanea on Jan 14, 2011 20:07:36 GMT -5
This is not an unusual situation. During the Great Depression, farmers were throwing milk into drainage ditches while many people who stayed in the industrial and financial cities did not have enough to eat. And contrary to conventional wisdom, prices rose after 1933. "Stagflation". Prices go up but businesses still go out of business. During Perestroika in Russia there were farmers who could not sell their produce, while people in Russia were desperate to buy it! The market channels themselves collapsed, hurting both producers and consumers at the same time. I just can't comprehend how this could happen! Right now there are macadamia nut farmers in Hawaii who don't bother picking their crop. The nuts just fall off the tree and rot on the ground. Their problem is that imported macadamias have slashed prices so much they can't afford to pick their crops. |
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Post by castanea on Jan 16, 2011 11:26:56 GMT -5
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Post by bunkie on Jan 16, 2011 14:50:22 GMT -5
I can understand how farmers would not want to take their crops to market, (or not be able to take them.) It is my intention this year to not take my crops to market. I have a medium-sized market 12 miles from the farm, and a large market 90 miles from the farm, but I'm just plain old tired of the huge expense of maintaining a truck large enough to take a reasonable amount of produce to market. The gasoline is too expensive. The insurance is too expensive. The licensing fees are too expensive. The maintenance is too expensive. The loss of freedom and privacy associated with having a driver license and vehicle registration is too expensive. They eat me up and consume any meager profit I might aspire too. So this year I intend to take vegetables only to the small market two blocks from my farm, and the world outside my village can either come to me, or they can fend for themselves. joseph, have you thought of doing a CSA, where people come to you for produce, or having a market stand near where you live? i agree about the property taxes. in Russia i heard they can pay them with a pig instead of monies! |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 16, 2011 18:03:43 GMT -5
joseph, have you thought of doing a CSA, where people come to you for produce, or having a market stand near where you live? I tried the traditional CSA where the customer pays up front for the year's vegetables... Couldn't sell it. I didn't like that either... It assumes that I will be healthy, not imprisoned, etc. Our water has never failed in 160 years, but it could fail tomorrow. What did work though is offering a weekly basket of vegetables, which is paid for and picked up weekly at the farmer's market. And gate sales are always nice. I expect to offer vegetables by priority mail... They are typically delivered overnight within 120 miles. |
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Post by castanea on Jan 18, 2011 0:49:21 GMT -5
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Post by garnetmoth on Jan 21, 2011 10:23:35 GMT -5
I have skimmed some parts of it, but this is an amazing book. If you arent concerned yet, you will be by the time you read this book!
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bev
gopher
Posts: 34
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Post by bev on Jan 21, 2011 14:44:12 GMT -5
I downloaded this book yesterday (free PDF file) and was glued to my computer several hours reading it. I, too, skimmed quite a bit of it but plan to go through it again. I believe it paints a very vivid picture of where we are at and what needs done to turn things around (if that is possible). |
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Post by atash on Jan 21, 2011 14:49:17 GMT -5
I agree that there's a crisis but I won't be buying that book. The author appears to be using a real crisis to push a globalist agenda, which really won't help the situation. People with a solution are always on the lookout for a problem to apply it to. In any case I am already aware of the issues--figured them out while doing research for investing a one-time windfall I received for my time in the software biz.
I think Chris Martenson has a website that can explain the situation without using it as a pretext for a hidden agenda.
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Post by honeydew on Jan 22, 2011 11:46:30 GMT -5
joseph, have you thought of doing a CSA, where people come to you for produce, or having a market stand near where you live? I tried the traditional CSA where the customer pays up front for the year's vegetables... Couldn't sell it. I didn't like that either... It assumes that I will be healthy, not imprisoned, etc. Our water has never failed in 160 years, but it could fail tomorrow. What did work though is offering a weekly basket of vegetables, which is paid for and picked up weekly at the farmer's market. And gate sales are always nice. I expect to offer vegetables by priority mail... They are typically delivered overnight within 120 miles. Joseph do you raise your food prices accordingly as food prices in the grocery store rise? Or do you according to your costs? Or do you raise your prices? At what point does it become to expensive to produce food? I just can't imagine there being some sort of solution, even if it doesn't involve the use of paper money. |
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