Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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the consumers' viewpoint. “I am the one who buys the groceries. I'm the
one who looks at the apples. If there is an ugly apple there, I don't care if it
is certified or not, I'm not buying it. As a consumer I am going to buy the
pretty stuff.”Of course, she won't sacrifice taste, either, so there are multiple
concerns in terms of food quality.
Summarizing all these consumer demands, Phil notes the variation be-
tween conventional and organic food: “I hope consumers realize how im-
portant their food supply is. At least organic consumers perceive they are
getting more, and they are willing to spend more. I think they realize the
extra value. Either they think there is value because there are fewer pesticides,
or they think that organic farmers are doing something better for the ground
long term. So people will pay more.” The question is whether organic food
will follow in the path of the entire U.S. food system and become so cheap
that quality doesn't matter. The organic marketing specialist in California,
Terence, sums it up: “Americans always want everything cheap. The goal
would be: how can I put organic in people's hands as cheaply as possible?
Rather than: how can I treat the soil and the earth in the best way possible
- so this land will be good for 10,000 years?”
[169],
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Rural Regions
Speaking from experience in grain production on the plains, Naioma points
both at farmers, for their inability to adapt, and at the agricultural system.
She says, “Farmers have a 'prove it to me' mentality. I've read that it takes
farmers twelve years to adopt a proven practice! It's true. It's also driven by
economics; bankers control what we do. In the late 1970s, credit was easily
available. Bankers went door to door offering loans. Then crash! The 1980s
bloodbath in agriculture. In 1983 to 1985, foreclosures were high. We lost
lots of people from agriculture. Then it evened out for a while, but now it's
bad again. A lot of farms are going under.”
In Corn Belt agriculture, Joel notes, “Everyone around me, I think, is
farming over a thousand acres. So I have set as one of my goals to make
as much money - net - as the guy farming a thousand acres. I hope I can
attain it. I know I will. That is my goal on three hundred. And I know that
is going to be possible. But that is the beauty of it. I don't have to buy bigger
equipment to farm more land.” He won't try to keep up with the “bigger
is better” mentality of conventional agriculture, which depopulates rural
regions. Instead, he's making it on less land.
As neighboring farms are much larger than his, Steve speaks of the land
pressures in upstate New York agriculture: “Since we are in a fairly com-
petitive area for ground, vegetables are a way to expand without expanding
[169],
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