It is probably news to most of the population, but small farmers in the US are in deep trouble. http://www.fb.com/today/watch/index.html

A petition is now circulating in support of a notice and demand upon the President, and Secretaries of Agriculture and the Treasury to evoke current emergency statutory authority to provide parity pricing for farm commodities; parity of currency issues to maintain parity prices; supervision of concentrations and monopolistic practices in the market by vertically integrated corporations; and maintenance of fair and equitable foreign trade.

Besides how this might effect the price of beans in boston, recession projections, etc., just ruminatin' on the "emergency powers" issue and how things might get started through the rear barn door.

-- gotbeans (gotbeans@ruprepared.com), April 15, 1999

Answers

the petition is going to be fighting an uphill battle with agribiz folks as well as with food importers...unless the petitioners have BIG BIG BUCKS to spend on lobbiests, don't expect to see anything come out of it.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 15, 1999.

I do not understand how farmers can survive at current prices. This is a shame. My dad was a farmer and we were poor until he retired, sold the farm and moved to Florida. Then he was prosperous and too old to enjoy it. He talked about parity back in the 1950s when corn was $2 a bushel, a new big tractor was $5300, a car was $2500, a self propelled combine was $5500 etc. Now the grain prices are about the same as then but equipment is 10 times higher, labor is more expensive and price supports are gone. Farmers are going bankrupt and it does not make sense that a baby maker who is jobless in a big city collects more net income than the people producing the food for the citizens. The problem with farmers is they do not have the votes, campaign contributions or economic system to fight for their needs. When farm prices fell,did grocery prices fall? Didn't happen.

-- Tom (sad@poor.farmers), April 16, 1999.

There are two problems with farmers (three actually) 1- We're only 2 % of the population (no voting power). 2- We take the prices we're offered for our food and pay the prices everyone else asks for what we buy in town. 3- Everyone figures we must be having so much dammed fun to do something that earns us so little, that we shouldn't need to get paid to do it...

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), April 16, 1999.