I was reading an interesting article in the American Vegetable Grower. It was pertaining to food safety concerns and possible new rules. There was some concern from the large "factory" farms that the same rules should apply to all. This is crazy! I can understand some rules could apply to both; however, most family farms are no where near the scale of these huge farms. With the exception of the few farms involved in the raw milk issue, to my knowledge there have never been any family farms that had to recall produce. It seems that these huge farms are the ones causing the problem. I believe in the method of don't fix it unless its broken. The third party audits that they want every farm to have done would put most family farms out of business. We sell to a produce distributor that will require it in the coming year or so. Currently we are at the point of deciding on how much it will cost us to meet these somewhat ridiculous standards. There was one lady, I forget from where, that was quoted saying that everyone should buy produce from the supermarket anyway. How crazy is this. Farmers markets have long been the backbone of bringing fresh produce into the community. I just don't understand this liberal thinking. Not to divulge too much into politics but when will all this regulation stop? America will soon no longer be the land of the free but will become the land of regulations. One day maybe we can get back to the times when people decided what was best for them not a bunch of poorly elected bureaucrats. The Discovery had a show on the other night that said its estimated that the current world population will have doubled by 2040. I believe not only this country but the world in general is in for a rude awakening. Farming has been on the decline for a long time now and that will have to change in order for all of our survival. I am damn proud to be a 5th generation farmer and wouldn't have it any other way. Sorry for the vent, I'm just dead tired of all the crap that these other groups give us.
I am in total understanding of how you feel. Regulations stacked on top of regulations and this will be the way it continues with the way everything is set up now. People who have to much time on their hands can sit down and think up all these crazy ideas and then try to force them onto companies, business and individuals. They have not the slightest idea about the way things work and what it takes to keep these small businesses going and they are to ignorant to learn.
I urge everyone to contact your congress man(woman) and express your feelings of these types of laws. We need to vote them ALL out and start over with people who can decide what is right for the country - not their own pockets.
This country needs to get back to what we were once good at. Agriculture. Industry. Technology/Innovation.
YEAH! I don't know how it is with fruits and veggies. But i see all this organic nonsence with small grains. I know the conditions of those fields. Nutrient starved, weed choaked, bug infested crap. And people will eat it up, thinking it is good for you because its orGanic. I know that is off subject but the whole world is overpopluated thing made me think of organics. WE cannot feed the world by organic means, it cannot work. And here i am from montana, with an organic farmer in the senate. (who i voted for by the way).... at leat he is a self made man, and a farmer. But most of these pricks in office have no real world experience. They went to their Ivy league school, and never have anything bad in their past. Make votes based apon who gives them contrabutions, or their own opinion. Rarely is it what their constituants need or want. Its all BS. REVOLUTION whos with me.... oh crap the FBI is at the door. That was fast. NOO. it wasnt me..... aaaugh.
I understand the frustration with organics. Personally I think its a crock, but people buy into it. I was at a meeting a couple months ago and we received this study from the USDA explaining that organic is not better by far. These "organic" items generally use twice as much approved chemicals as conventional practices. I agree that organic will not feed the world unless we go back to the 1900's when 98.9% of Americans were farming. I'll try and find the study and post it on here. Kevin I'll be your campaign manager for the next presidential election. haha we couldn't mess it up anymore then what we have now so....
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