vision2020
Re: corporate farming consequences
>
>You're still elevating farmers to some status above those of us with "other,
>less important" lifestyles.
Not elevated, just different. Most office workers don't live their jobs,
nor do they pass on their jobs to their progeny, nor do they consider the
job (not their 401K) their retirement funds, nor are they responsible for
large tracts of land that the rest of us consider, to some extent, ours.
Right or wrong, no other sector of our economy has a history so
romantically linked to our culture. Different does not necessarily mean
more or less important but it does mean that different factors need to be
evaluated when comparisons are made.
>This is a capitalist economy, based on forces of the market. Professional
>sailors lose their jobs,
> government workers lose their jobs, businesses fold every day, so what's
>so different about
>farmers? In a world where everything can be bought and sold, isn't
>farming just a job like any other? >Kind of cynical, I know, but it's the
>system we have.
This is a topic unto itself and worthy of an extended conversation. To
keep things brief, I'll say that, no, farming isn't just like any other job
and the industrialization of farming is the result of this kind of
thinking. In spite of the fact that I'm an economist by education, I am
intensly opposed to the concept that everything can be bought and sold,
that effeciency is the highest good, that profit is the highest goal, and
that price equals value. This kind of thinking deeply offends my humanity.
>From my readings, I'm fairly certain that the fathers of market economics
would be offended also. Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marshall all wrote that
the forces of greed should, and they believed would, be moderated by an
equally strong concern fora greater, higher good, by a moral society. I
feel it's our responsiblity to live up to those expectations rather than
submit to the degradation of our environment and our morality by saying
"this is the system we have." Democracy and market economics depend on the
vitality of opposing forces.
On the other hand, I was a professional sailor and would have loved to
have my job subsidized by the government and lobbied for by huge, monied
interests. I'd still be sailing if that were the case. There's not doubt
that farmers have had advantages that the rest of us could be jealous of.
P.
Peggy Adams
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