"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo)
03/28/2019 at 08:44 • Filed to: None
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"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo)
03/28/2019 at 08:44 • Filed to: None | 2
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It is raining outside of Tenaya Lodge, right outside the gates of Yosemite. It is just above freezing, and Toby appears to be in no rush to go for a walk.
Ii am speaking today at the Western United Dairymen Annual Convention. I have been doing this event for over 15 years. These are wonderful people - family farms.
California is hostile to them on all fronts, and the industry is really struggling. We have such a hostile climate to business here that it has become difficult or impossible for them to survive. Consolidation seems to be the trend. Older dairy facilities are knocked down to plant orchards for almonds and pistachios. (You should invest in pistachios, I am planning to). Newer facilities are bought up by the larger dairies, and we are seeing bigger ones for economies of scale.
I drove the GTI up here last night in a horrific thunderstorm. It handled like a champ. I remain extremely pleased with this car. And if you buy one, I urge you to purchase the manual. It is at least half of my enjoyment of the car.
MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
> ImmoralMinority
03/28/2019 at 09:27 |
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Consolidation seems to be the trend.
Every government seems to be doing it’s best to help those poor corporations make it. Wisconsin’s dairy farms have been hit hard and for years the number of small family farms has been shrinking while large corporate ones grow.
https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-lost-record-breaking-percent-dairy-farms-2018
Some of that blame get’s placed on the Republican policies aiming to increase milk production while demand was shrinking...and well what do you know, suddenly milk prices are through the floor and the small guys can’t survive
https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2019/03/13/data-wonk-how-walker-trump-hurt-dairy-industry/
The cynic in me says this was the end goal from the start...
jminer
> ImmoralMinority
03/28/2019 at 09:50 |
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It’s not California. If you actually have small family farms still around the state has been nicer to them than most.
I’m from Missouri and farming an d livestock had always been a big part of the state but about 20 years ago the consolidations started happening. Big companies would gobble up farms, undersell the neighbors to drive them out of business and then buy them too. Especially with Dairy farmers. I used to know a dozen families who had run a dairy farm for generations and not a single one do anymore. Same with hogs and chickens, all run out of business by Tyson and the like.
It’ s hard to farm on a small scale today anywhere. I have cousins that farm in n orthern Mississippi, but they’re not small scale. It’s still family owned and ran, but something like 20 k acres of cotton and corn last I talked to them.
fintail
> MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
03/28/2019 at 10:02 |
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I think wealth consolidation in general is the goal of every “business-friendly” trickle-down policy. And looking at socio-economic trends of the past 40 or so years, it is working.
Also amazing how any businesses survive in CA at all, with so many claims from so many people about the supposed hostile environment, maybe it isn’t so bad for everyone? I can easily turn around and say the US as a whole has a pretty hostile environment to those not born to the right parents.