Is farmers income dropping in your country ?

[Ellipse]

This morning I was hearing at the radio that, here in France, farmers income had drop from 20% for 2008 and they expected another drop this year. All category seem affected (breeders, cereal growers, agriculturists). Some lost money each month since a year.

Is it the same in your country ?

Thanks.

 

[alphonse]

Hi Ellipse

I know nothing about cereals and wheat crops but I work for fruit farmers from many different countries representing them in the UK. and Europe. Fruit prices have been incredibly high in the last 6 months, and farm-gate returns on most fruit lines have been keeping the farmers happy. Crops have been short from the most recent seasons in soft fruits, mainly because of poor weather. Unusual rains in Brazil and Northern parts of Chile, and a variety of conditions in South Africa's Orange river and Northern Transvaal, have made harvesting late, creating gaps at the shoulders of season between various sources and driving prices higher.

However, unpredictable exchange rates and rising oil costs, mean that sea freight prices and all their "fixed costs" have been eating away at their returns, but on the whole, fruit farmers in the Southern Hemisphere and North America consider they have had a fairly good year.

European farmers have had mixed fortunes., but on the whole, again not a bad year. French apple farmers are struggling though, the main problem still being rising costs but stable or slightly dropping prices, the strength of the Euro is not helping their exports either , as prices seem higher at retail level, but this is almost entirely eaten up by the exchange rates.

Just my perspective hope I didn't send you to sleep

 

[Nienna]

Here's and article that is on Sott. Although it's main thrust is not about how farmers get less than before, the first paragraph shows you just how much the farmers are being juilted and being underpaid.

Is Walmart the Future of Local Food?.

I don't know if this answers your question, or not, but I think this article shows just how little the farmer is getting.

fwiw

 

[alphonse]

...a sad footnote, I just had a call from a once very busy and first rate citrus fruit growing cooperative in Seville, in Spain.
that has gone bankrupt. Great, hardworking people but Spiralling costs and losing their competitive edge to other is taking a heavy toll on an already struggling part of Spain. An area rich in beauty and culture but struggling terribly economically..

 

[Satori]

Hi,

I'm a pig farmer in the UK, been breeding rare breed (middle white) pigs for 7 years. This year is the first that we actually made a profit, prices have been good since the start of the reccession on meat and livestock. One of the "old boys" mentioned to me that when there is a recession farmers do well and when it's boom time for everyone else things go bad for farmers

 

[sankara]

Hi Ellipse,
I think it was monday, a woman called on the Daniel Mermet's answering machine talking about more than 50 % loss. The situation is catastrophic for dairy producers. The organic market is already endangered, yesterday I was with friends working with a kind of amap, they had never been selling so few... So the crisis is real.

PS for non-French: Daniel Mermet has a show on the national radio France Inter. Actually it is the last free show and it does provide very good informations. It has been years since the PTB tried to stop it, but it has one of the best audience and this "modest and of genius audience" can mobilise to protect this great program. Daniel Mermet has also invited the people to gather in the whole country to meet and talk in real life.

http://www.la-bas.org/

Amap: During the last decade, many farmers around the cities have offered a "basket formula". Every week they would provide a basket with vegetables, dairy, meat etc...

This great initiative removed the need for reliance on our local 'wallmart' and was as beneficial for the consumers as for the producers.

 

[Lilou]

My husband and I own land in the Middle East (Jordan) and we also have a private water well. We recently did a feasibility study on dairy farming, looking to start some sort of business that we can retire on and leave the frequency fence here in the USA! It was looking like a fairly good idea, up until uncontrolled corruption led to imports of cheap Chinese powered milk . They flooded the market. Dairy farmers were devastated. Factories were not buying their milk. Instead, purchasing the milk powder but still labeling their products as being made with fresh, whole milk. (I can only imagine melamine and all manner of god knows what in this milk power).

This operation was very covert. They would bring the milk powder in at the port city of Aqaba and had reconstituting stations in remote locations between the mountains of Aqaba and the capital city of Amman. They would add water and deliver it as fresh milk.

In response to all the upheaval this created, among other things, King Abdullah dissolved the parliament and appointed a new prime minister. Many dairy farms are for sale and the livelihoods of many people have been affected. Needless to say, we are not going into the dairy business!

Here in the US, we also looked at a few dairy farm operations. Three years ago, dairy farmers were making windfall profits. Today, the cost of producing milk is more than what they sell it for. In addition, if you are not running a Mega-Farm, regulations are making it nearly impossible for the small dairy farmer to survive. If the cows are grazed, you are required to have one and a half acres of land per cow! However, in a mega farm, the cows never leave the barn and the manure is pumped to holding reservoirs. The whole system is quite nasty and with bovine growth hormone mixed in, the milk is probably not fit for consumption!

So it seems, the push to run small organic farmers out of business happening in many areas around the globe.

 

[sankara]

Salam LissyLou,

Yes they have almost succeded in destroying small scale farms and self-reliance. Then the corparate propaganda apparatus a spreading their lies without allowing us to demonstrate how stupid their claims are. last week, I had the infortune to read an article in a French Zionist magazine (Marianne (sic!)), telling the readers (most of them being urbans and having no knowledge of agriculture at all) that organic farming wasn't productive enaugh to feed the world. This kind of B...t remains unchallenged because they won't allow us to have a debate.

Of course that would expose them as the corporate whores and the corporates as plain criminals.

Maybe we should keep trying to grow stuff wherever we are, it is a resistance, even if it would be one carrot ;).

 

[Lilou]

We plant a garden every year and freeze and can the produce for the winter. I also rely on Amish growers in the area to buy fresh fruits and vegetables that are organically grown and free range chicken and eggs. Unfortunately, I just learned my favorite Amish family is packing up and moving west.

I also grow many herbs - sage, thyme, cilantro, parsley, etc... Herbs are so easy to grow and with the price they ask for them at the supermarket, I'm surprised more people don't grow their own. Many greens are very hardy, and even do well in the northern winters. In fact, I just cut parsley out of the snow last week for tabbouleh salad!!

As for Wal-Mart, I refuse to buy any fresh produce or meat from them. Last time I picked up a bunch of parsley at Wal-Mart and sniffed it, it smelled like sewer water. I asked an employee if she would eat it....she sniffed it and said ewwwww. Exactly!

The "system" is set up to prohibit self reliance. Monsanto does its best to spread "suicide seeds" so farmers are at their mercy to buy seed every year. It's a big mess, and I can say, I am doing my part to resist this with each seed I plant! My hope is more folks will start doing the same.

 

[sankara]

Hello LissyLou,

Many people do realise but everything is done so that the legislation forbid even the traditionnal knowledge and practice. A couple of years ago, the Agro-industrial mafia had succed a law that would have forbade to even write about nettle spurry! Something our ancestors had always done!

My mother baught a book in defiance like hundred of thousand of people who were not conscious of the rotteness of Monsanto like 'squids' and who started petitioning and for the first time really stand against that law. We won (for a while).

i could tell much more, but it's enaugh and I sit by your side to light one

Respect

 

[Ellipse]

Thanks all for your testimony. At he moment we have :

- on the whole, fruit farmers in the Southern Hemisphere and North America consider they have had a fairly good year. (alphonse)
- 40 percent of every dollar spent on food went to the farmer or rancher while the rest was split between inputs and distribution. Now? 7 cents on the dollar goes to the producer and 73 cents goes just to distribution (Dec 2009 article)
- first rate citrus fruit growing cooperative in Seville, in Spain. that has gone bankrupt. (alphonse)
- I'm a pig farmer in the UK, been breeding rare breed (middle white) pigs for 7 years. This year is the first that we actually made a profit (Satori)
- The situation is catastrophic for (France) dairy producers (radio show)
- Many dairy (Jordana) farms are for sale (LissyLou)

Well... insufficient to conclude, especially in Europe. Simply the trend seem not good.

I was asking the question because I ask myself if there's a will to remove auto sufficient food production for North countrys.