Locavore
August 8, 2014
California Drought
August 21, 2014Food Chain Radio Show #979
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
RURAL HUNGER AFFAIRS
Guest: John Crabtree, Center for Rural Affairs
This Poll is closed!!
The grandparents farm never did make much money, but it did produce the best kind of food imaginable.
When the children grew up and left the farm, the grandparents sold out to those who wanted to grow government-subsidized sugar beets, and moved into the little farm town down the road.
Today there is little left of grandparents’ farm but a collapsed barn midst acres of government-subsidized crops. Nor is there much left of the little farm town but boarded up storefronts and residents wondering what to do with their time.
The reality of rural America is there are no longer many farms out there producing good food to eat. There are, of course, many farms out there producing government-subsidized crops– corn, soybeans, sugar beets– to be processed into packaged foods. But when one looks around rural America, one can no longer find the farms of our grandparents, nor the foods they produced, in great abundance– those in Amish country notwithstanding.
And so we ask…
Who will feed the rural hungry who no longer feed themselves?
2 Comments
This from prefers to remain anonymous…
hello, Michael:: :
I am sure that you’re weLL aware of the additional stresses of the pending Water Well legislation also in process in the Sacto. Legislature. If aLL this is allowed to be passed by the majority (urban voters) support, [(“legally” resting on basis of CA’s Endangered
Species *junk science*)] then ALL California farmland will lose its $$- equity w/ the added loss of those Senior (ground-)Water Rights.
Before now, I have always had to remain in the Ag-shadows politically & economicly, but
CA-conditions have erroded too far for me to remain silent any longer [(>>see beLow for my professional danger in speaking out..)]. Heap on us the further loss of Valley farm rights due to *illegal* const. of the CA.Bullet Train, additional state ag-agency corruption regarding ag-labor arbitration/immigration & union reps’, and. . . we are dealing with
“Death by a Thousand Cuts” methods being used against aLL of us in Calif’s ag-community — our legal, media marketing & legislative systems are being openly **Gamed by its Insiders** on a daily basis. And our own (farmer- & ag worker-paid) taxes are often -Financing- these very same attacks against Us.
my perspective on these issues is not the usual “Norm” for AG-concerns,
because my personal / professional experience spans +35 yr’s gave me the perfect “inside baseball” insights into those opposing forces now bombarding our Ag-economy
nationally and here in CA. <(:-|}
***I can also assure you, (while listening right now in realtime to your "FEEDING OUR RURAL HUNGRY" show topic) that the very Loss of [self-sufficient] Rural Survival Skills is a Global problem w/in ALL Ag-sectors of economys. Having inheritted the Radio Junky-gene from both of my gramps' & my involvement in various Hb- & BA-radio forums
has me recently discussing this very same Topic with a web-contact in Australia…! You would be amazed by the parallels of damage w/in Ag-markets in OZ that are irreversible under the subversive effects of their own global, Free-trade Agreements alone. Their own domestic farming, mining & mfg. industries have been financially destroyed too by those
irrevocable Trade Treaties signed by various brief administrations in Oz'-parliament.
Once a foreign producer is *certified Viable* as a competing producer, there is no way the domestic producer can compete in Free Market pricing w/ a new competitor allowed **Slave Labor wages**w/in his own mf'g. Balance Sheet… <–this starts our domestic Death Knell for aLL those long-held technologies and workforces. –simple as
that.
re-classifying the domestics as "craft-guild style" products will never regain the $$$-ground lost under those new trade treaties. Craft goods (& even organic products) become a *luxury Budget Item* to our mainstream households' survival – easily deferred for ?-better $$-times-? that likely never return at orig. market percentages.
Imho-? …the only salvation for the global farmer is to remain independent & 100% self-sufficient for his personal family's survival, preferablly in an area where the urban population places *Zero-value* on his landholdings, so long as the farmer can stay ahead of the property & income taxes (so those holdings can't get seized)… Only place I've found stiLL like this so far is in Moravia (nextdoor to Vlad's Carpathian Mtn's).! <–and it's now at risk regionally with Putin's Rusky troublemaking.***
Perhaps I just need to **buy your MetroFarm book** Michael. . .?? It's synopsis strikes me same as that foundational post-Civil War, "5-Acres Enough" booklet i used to own? -before it was kidnapped by assoc's. :-))
Thanks so much for allowing me to Rant this way… and ALL your time and supportive actions-!!
[…] “Today there is little left of grandparents’ farm but a collapsed barn midst acres of government-subsidized crops. Nor is there much left of the little farm town but boarded up storefronts and residents wondering what to do with their time,” Olson said on Food Chain Radio. […]