The Evil of Supermarkets

[TylerDurden]

Here are 2 articles , one on the dire state of British farming and one on the desperate need to encourage the production of local food, not food transported across the seas for 1000s of miles:-


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/6958013/The-dairy-farmer-reduced-to-tears.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/6958025/Is-this-the-end-of-food-as-we-know-it.html

[Sitting Coyote]

You could find nearly identical articles on farming and food self-sufficiency here in the US, if you had a mind to.  I live in Vermont, a dairy state.  Times are tough.  Milk prices are low, oil and feed prices are high, and farmers are folding left and right, dairy, grain and otherwise.  I'm happy to see the grain and dairy farms go as there are better things to do with land than raise milk and grain on it, but it is nonetheless sad to see people who invested their heart and soul trying to make a living in a particular way finally forced to throw in the towel.

Not sure if you can really blame this on supermarkets.  At least in the US the reason commodity prices are low is because we have excess supply.  This is particularly true for dairy.  If prices are too low, you need to get rid of the less efficient producers.  Unfortunately more efficient producers are often industrial producers, and I have a wealth of ethical objections to the industrial "production" of animals and animal products.  And besides that, my stupid government would rather institute some scandalous price support scheme to keep inefficient producers in business for another year rather than let them fold. 

I'd rather see the farms allowed to start turning back to forest, and allow hunters to use the land come fall.  But that's my bias... 

[alphagruis]

  I'd rather see the farms allowed to start turning back to forest, and allow hunters to use the land come fall.  But that's my bias... 

It's my bias too. Won't the farms be forced to turn back to forest or at least grass rather than grain with rising oil and energy prices in future?

[Sitting Coyote]

I'd like to think that they will, but most likely after a farmer closes up their dairy or farm, they sell the land to a developer who then turns it into a subdivision with McMansion-style houses.  Here in Vermont the housing market is strong despite troubles nationally.  A house that might sell for $100,000 in Illinois or $75,000 in Michigan would sell for $200,000-300,000 here in Vermont.  People want to live here.  I don't blame them. 

In order for an old farm to be allowed to go "back to nature", it would almost have to be bought by a land conservancy or a particularly altruistic private landowner who doesn't mind paying outrageously high property taxes without getting an income from the land.  There are people like this here, but not as many as I would like...

[TylerDurden]

Allowing the "more efficient" agricombine farms to flourish would be a disaster. By definition, the bigger the company the lower the quality of service/product, partly because of economies of scale and profit-margins. Simply put, agricombines aren't interested in low-cost items such as organ-meats as they bring in less profit per kilo, they prefer to do everything in bulk(meaning fewer grassfed farms, and lower quality for grassfed animals as the latter don't get a variety of herbs, enough space etc.) I've seen this with organic, free-range eggs in the UK, for example. The mass-produced organic eggs one finds in some supermarkets are far more watery and less nutritious than comparable eggs sold by some small-time free-range egg-farmers I know of.

One obvious solution would be to heavily tax any food transported from other countries. That would cut down on the competition big time. Perhaps the US could do something similiar, but also tax foods imported from other US states.

[alphagruis]

One obvious solution would be to heavily tax any food transported from other countries. That would cut down on the competition big time. Perhaps the US could do something similiar, but also tax foods imported from other US states.

Again, rising oil and energy prices in future will force us to produce locally what we need. The present system has no future.

[jessica]

are farmers turning to raw dairy in vermont?  there is a small market for it where i live but i try my best to get the word out, preach the benefits(health, community and sustainability wise) to support the local farmers who are willing to produce it, you still have to "buy a share" of the farm to bypass the fda regulations, but i like that idea, much like community supported agriculture you can better see your steak in the success of the farm/dairy

also what about maple in vermont?  i have heard that because of the climate and weird frost patterns that the trees are not running as normal and that the prices for pure maple are sky high?  do you ever harvest it?  its not something i even think about consuming but there are trees here to harvest sap from  and although it is the right tempurature right now that is not to say we wont have a few more waves of arctic air so i have to wait until the "real spring" to go harvest.  just to know how

[djr_81]

also what about maple in vermont?  i have heard that because of the climate and weird frost patterns that the trees are not running as normal and that the prices for pure maple are sky high?  do you ever harvest it?  its not something i even think about consuming but there are trees here to harvest sap from  and although it is the right tempurature right now that is not to say we wont have a few more waves of arctic air so i have to wait until the "real spring" to go harvest.  just to know how

Maple syrup has gone sky-high in the northeast in the last year and a half to two years. I'd guesstimate a 200-250% increase in price. Even the local stuff here in New York is astronomical.
Making syrup, even from Maple trees, is a tedious and inefficient process. It takes 10 gallons of fresh sap to make a gallon of syrup. Not worth the trouble IMO.

[Sitting Coyote]

Some people are turning to raw dairy here in Vermont, and there have been laws passed that allow small farms to sell it from their farm, although it is not legal to sell raw dairy in stores.  But the market is small, and being a primarily rural state dairies specializing in raw struggle to find enough buyers to make it worth their while.  And for whatever it's worth, I've tried both raw milk and raw yogurt and I can't tell the difference between the taste or texture relative to pasturized organic milk or yogurt.  Saying as much is sacrilegious among those who like raw dairy, but I see no sense bowing to that pressure.  I'm mildly lactose intolerant anyway, and I don't think Homo sapiens was designed to consume dairy beyond the age of 3-4, and certainly not dairy derived from other animals...

And regarding maple syrup, yes prices have gone sky high but costs have gone sky higher.  It takes a lot of heat to turn maple sap (or birch sap, or hickory sap, there are many hardwood trees that yield sap you can boil down into syrup) into syrup.  Here in Vermont cordwood prices have doubled in the last few years, fuel oil prices have doubled, natural gas prices are high.  I'm consistently amazed that maple sugar operations stay in business, even with the higher prices.  A friend of mine set about making a few gallons for himself last March, and when it was all said and done he only got 3/4 of a gallon, used half his year's supply of firewood and made one hell of a mess.

And the end product is obviously not raw so not on my menu.  I've thought about trying to concentrate some down by dehydrating it in large, flat, shallow pans, but so far that's just an idea and hasn't been attempted.  Even if successful, what would I end up with?  A concentrated form of sugar, basically.  It will have some nutritional value, but it's primarily sugar.  I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I'm not sure what I'd do with it all, and I can't imagine it would be a profitable thing to sell.

[jessica]

yeah i am not a fan of milk myself( i have not had any form of dairy for atleast 10 years/totally allergic), but see things as kind of a stepping stone for people who are not as forward thinking about diet/nutrition.  if they see the benefit in raw milk (intact enzymes and bacteria) i hope that they will recognize this in other areas, as well as the social and economical implications of direct support to the farms/farmers.

as far as maple(we dont have maples but certain pines), i will be glad to have the skill to know where to get any form of energy, carb or otherwise, from nature and by my own hands.  thank you for sharing what you know about these things though, i had thought i was some environmental factor(weather temp) driving the prices high but now i see it is about more then just that.....

[TylerDurden]

Well, I noticed a distinct difference between raw and pasteurised dairy re taste, and the result was that I became even more addicted to raw dairy than I had ever been to pasteurised dairy. I suspect that the hormones in raw dairy are not so harmed as in pasteurised dairy, and so are actually more harmful in the long run than the  pasteurised version.