Chris Hurt and Big Pig

[belarus]

Chris Hurt, economist from Purdue, is being quoted all over the placing saying there is a benefit to having a small number of big players because then they can more easily adjust supply with demand.  Did anyone see how well this worked the last three years?  I would think the land grants would have a desire to send out factual information.

[k-289]

Pretty much sums up why we are in the position we have found the ag sector in---BIG risk---2 BIG to let fail---BIG environmental problems---BIG EGG pretty well laid the cards on the table-----don't forget BIG ego--- --DeCooster prayed several times a day--that was his testimony???

[Quark]

Interestingly, if we have only a couple of large entities  controlling the pig indusry, there really is no need for a Chris Hurt because he is then irrelevant. With no job he can go powerwash corporation hog barns as a low paid employee, and struggle to pay his bills every month. Recently, the news media revealed that in the last few years 1% of Americans account for almost 24% of all personal income! Is this really the world we want to live in! Where the largest portion  of financial benefits of an entire industry goes to a handful of people.

[hardnox604008]

Bingo.

And I'm actually not interested in paying taxes to subsidize colleges of ag if they're just PR organizations for the commodity groups (orl foodies of the political type on the other side).

Basically, Colleges of Agriculture are now obsolete- everybody who ever read a Michael Pollan book and has a Farmville subsciption thinks he/she already knows everything there is to know about agriculture anyway.

[jrsiajdranch]

I keep asking someone to rebuild my cow herd cause on farmville I am a winner,,,,(in real life not so much) JR

[belarus]

I farm for the foodie types but I'd still love to see a place for the independent family farm.  I don't see any ag school championing that cause.  They are either the niche market foodie types or the gung-ho industrial model.  No in between.  No doubt in my mind which flag my alma matter at West Lafayette carries.

Did I ever mention I got an A in Chris Hurt's class?  He taught marketing/hedging when I was down there.  Maybe he still does.  I think he told us he was at the university because he used to work for Bunge and he decided he knew which way the market was going and did a texas hedge on their beans and then the market went against him.

[gough whitlam]

Surprise, surprise, that is how the capitalist system works.  I note on here there are many who sing the praises of freedom and liberty. It must give them a warm inner glow when they hear themselves because when it works against them and the position of peasantry is realised, they scream foul play.

The measure of a government is not how much money is collected by a few wealthy pigs, but how the government  raises the living standards of the middle and lower classes.  You have a president who is trying to do that but no one wants to help.  Good luck with Wall street running the country. Lehmann and Madoff are good examples of what can and will happen again.

[k-289]

Don't forget the EGG guy too !?!?  Big $$$$ deficit's didn't show up until NAFTA  -----now the retirement fund caretakers want to play the commodities market's ----wait till this falls out--!?!?

[Quark]

Actually, he wants much more inheritance tax money and much higher capital gains tax, loss of updated basis to redistribute wealth in this country from those who have spent several generations building a family business, this could destroy many middle age farmers who have spent their lifetime working for what is to be and no longer will be if Obama is given a free rein. Farmers aren't among the 1% geting 24% of the income and shouldn't be in the crosshairs of socialist income redistribution.There is a line to be walked between doing what is right and doing what is unjust. Neither unbridled capitalism or socialism are good working models.

[hardnox604008]

Hi Greg,

Yeah, I don't have any problem whatsoever with anyone who is providing a product for someone who wants to pay for it.

You might have taken umbrage but didn't, obviously you get it.

I'm personally not all that interested in buying 100% organic, or heritage mountain goat brisket or whatever.

But if there was a way for me to buy food from farms that support a family, practice rigorous IPM and environmental and conservation standards and avoid the most egregious of animal handling practices etc. I'd be more than happy to buy there as exclusively as I could and to pay a modest premium.

If anything I see the polarities pulling farther away from that in both directions.