Happy 50th Pro Farmer!

[BA Deere]

Merrill Oster and Jerry Carlson gave us the tools and information to not get taken by another "Great Grain Robbery".   Capitalism calls!

snippet from Merrill:

When Jerry Carlson and I launched Pro Farmer in 1973 we planned to deliver real time information that would lift farming from the “mom and pop” stage to one of professionally managed businesses. We believed that if you treat faming only as a way of life you could lose the business, but if you treat farming as a business, you could reap a wonderful way of life.

We realized that a businessman’s judgment is no better than his information sources. So we hired a Russian watcher, a Chinese informer, a Washington watchdog, and a staff of journalists and analysts to deliver current, market-impacting, decision-making facts in the weekly, first-class Pro Farmer newsletter. We accelerated the process by ushering the information age into agriculture with high speed news and analysis hitting farm offices via telephone, video-text, satellite and the internet.

In the newsletter and Pro Farmer seminars we championed the idea that grain companies owned the storage silos that line America’s railroad tracks, but that they were paid for by our own marketing ignorance. As a result, we promoted the use of commodity futures, on-farm grain storage and forward contracting to level theplaying field with the grain merchants who had manipulated harvest time prices to their advantage.

We were there to help farmers navigate the energy crisis of the 1970s, Nixon’s unleashing the dollar from its gold moorings, the Russian grain robbery, and lenders throwing farmers under the bus by raiding our equity in the land price crisis of 1984.

We showed members how to reduce operating risk by employing futures markets, and how to transfer that risk-bearing ability to land ownership. More than 5,000 farmers attended Pro Farmer seminars on land buying in the 1970s and 1980s. Today the largest number of American millionaires reside in rural America as a result of well-timed land purchases.

Looking forward, there are threats to global economic stability and America as a nation that could have both positive and negative impacts on American agriculture. If left unchecked, economic chaos will result from the loss of moral restraint which the American Founders saw as a necessity to maintain freedom. As we debase our moral currency, we debase the American dollar.

There are other forces of evil lurking: open borders, Chinese thievery, fiscal irresponsibility, climate mania, lawlessness and Marxist ideology with its hate for the faith of our Fathers. These are combined forces coming at America like a tidal wave. Unless these threats are resisted, the painful disruptions in global economic activity will likely include widespread famine, bankruptcies, runaway inflation, and regional wars. Some governments and currencies will completely collapse.

For the American farmer who has land mostly paid for, the ride will be rough but survivable. For those who are highly leveraged and financially unprepared to handle volatility, the result will be disastrous.

On the positive side, land price will likely double every 10-12 years, fueled by dollar devaluation, government driven inflation and a higher level of land productivity. Investors will continue to flock to land as an inflation hedge and the world’s best storehouse of value. Globally, food or its digital equivalent will be the new currency.

Robots will milk cows, feed hogs and drive tractors. The farm office will be a pushbutton paradise with artificial intelligence at our fingertips.

The greatest opportunity for farmers now is to use our hard-earned wealth, significant influence and prayer to support causes that advance our founding values. Our Founders held a Christian worldview that presents a golden triangle of ideals: Freedom requires virtue. Virtue requires religious faith. Expression of faith requires freedom.

The largest reservoir of American wealth, passion for freedom and God-loving family values resides in rural America. These powerful assets will be unleashed against the tidal wave of destructive forces that lurk on the horizon. Hundreds of ministries, charities and freedom-loving institutions hunger for investments needed to educate the next generation on America’s founding ideals, and in various ways provide salt and light to a decaying and dark culture.

[sdholloway56]

Oster’s a crook who was instrumental in the ‘70s land bubble,

[bruce MN]

Thumpity, Thump-thump….

I sorta, kinda knew but dang. 

[rsbs]

"If left unchecked, economic chaos will result from the loss of moral restraint which the American Founders saw as a necessity to maintain freedom. As we debase our moral currency, we debase the American dollar. There are other forces of evil lurking: open borders, Chinese thievery, fiscal irresponsibility, climate mania, lawlessness and Marxist ideology with its hate for the faith of our Fathers. These are combined forces coming at America like a tidal wave. Unless these threats are resisted, the painful disruptions in global economic activity will likely include widespread famine, bankruptcies, runaway inflation, and regional wars. Some governments and currencies will completely collapse. For the American farmer who has land mostly paid for, the ride will be rough but survivable. For those who are highly leveraged and financially unprepared to handle volatility, the result will be disastrous. On the positive side, land price will likely double every 10-12 years, fueled by dollar devaluation, government driven inflation and a higher level of land productivity. Investors will continue to flock to land as an inflation hedge and the world’s best storehouse of value. Globally, food or its digital equivalent will be the new currency.

The greatest opportunity for farmers now is to use our hard-earned wealth, significant influence and prayer to support causes that advance our founding values. Our Founders held a Christian worldview that presents a golden triangle of ideals: Freedom requires virtue. Virtue requires religious faith. Expression of faith requires freedom.

The largest reservoir of American wealth, passion for freedom and God-loving family values resides in rural America. These powerful assets will be unleashed against the tidal wave of destructive forces that lurk on the horizon. Hundreds of ministries, charities and freedom-loving institutions hunger for investments needed to educate the next generation on America’s founding ideals, and in various ways provide salt and light to a decaying and dark culture."

BA, I shortened it up to highlight the ending part that has the tourettes twins upset. Anti Marxist, Pro Christian, Anti Woke......did you ever think that any of this would prove to be controversial? 

Good essay, and it echos what I have been posting about the need for a national movement to clean up the Marxist enclaves in the USA....and to root out the "woke" teachers before they poison another generation. You chop off the head of a snake, and you kill it. Better to eliminate a few than to have an entire nation destroyed.

[BA Deere]

Hey Red, the "twins" never discuss the message, only try to personally attack the man with the message (straight out of Saul Alinsky`s book).

I`m of course not a fan of Eleanor Roosevelt, however she said something pretty profound here:

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Eleanor Roosevelt

[bruce MN]

It’s been interesting observing you pick up on the various fields in RW ideaology over just a couple of years.  From a perfectly benign political animal to a student of Freidmanites, Hayek, Rand, Buchanan, now Tucker etc. . And, of course, course your proselytizing big-box inspired  Thumperness. 

Now implying that “elimination” of undesirable factions and individuals is desirable. That’s a significant step. 

All of your late night studying up and eagerness to get to the next step brings to mind the now elderly retired 1st and 2nd grade teacher who told us that in her career in a relatively small NE Iowa town up near BA  in the 50’s and 60’s (she had been raised in Chicago) that she was blown away by the incredibly curious and eager to learn little farm boys that came in to her 1st and 2nd grade classes. 
Went on to say that by the end of here tenure they came in dead certain that they knew everything they would ever need to know.

I can vividly picture you as one of the former. Bright little kid who sucked everything up.  And now obviously going through a phase of intense continuing Ed.

[BA Deere]

The Russian grain robbery in the 70`s was a case that USDA and various government agencies dropped the ball on information given to farmers.  Merrill Oster and Jerry Carlson saw that farmers have a need for time sensitive market analysis and filled that niche.   We criticize the Pro Farmer Tour however it has to be taken in context that sample sizes aren`t  the magnitude of NASS and USDA however it covers the bulk area of where corn and beans are grown.  More importantly (beyond criticism) hopefully inspires farmers to walk their fields, count ears and measure ears and compare their farm to what USDA says,  It`s a good thing and now with social media we are all "pro farmers".  

[sdholloway56]

Whether he was a crook, as I asserted, or just an aggressive young guy who ended up contributing to the harm of hundreds of thousands of innocent persons, I don’t know.

[sdholloway56]

The guys with shiny shoes driving around the countryside offering low jnterest, non-recourse contacts with high nominal prices were the equivalent of various crooked operators who nsde the GFC possible.

[sdholloway56]

Actually, distant history,

Not so much a matter of pointing fingers  as it is to understand what happened in the past and perhaps do better.

Although it looked a lot like the GFC in a microcosm snd I’m not sure d as nobody learned anything.