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WKBW-TV reports:
Some new numbers are showing that the U.S. has more than 2.5 billion lbs [1.1 million metric tons] of meat in cold storage warehouses, and it's all because Americans aren't eating enough to keep up with supply.
Another reason is that the trade situation is chipping away at global demand.
[...] The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects the industry will produce a record 102.7 billion pounds of meat this year.
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2.5 Billion Pounds of Meat is Piling up in the US as Exports Slow Down
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< nobse> bleh... last night I had a dream... someone NMU'ed vim...
nightmare
-- in #debian-devel
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday July 26 2018, @07:30AM (12 children)
how many of the farms producing the surplus were subsidised?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:04AM (6 children)
Everyone that is owned by big business.
Small family farmers are screwed.
(and... does this mean that I am more cynical than MostCynical?)
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:07AM
Nope. Just realistic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:31AM (4 children)
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2015/03/17/family-farms-are-focus-new-agriculture-census-data/ [usda.gov]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:43AM
Note that this isn't necessarily how it is, just how it looks on paper.
For instance consider chicken farms. The farms are indeed owned by families. The product however is owned by big business that gives the farmers chickens to grow for them. (ie: family farm gets to own everything that costs money (land taxes, repair/construction costs, etc) but the businesses own everything that make money. (The chickens.)
I wouldn't be at all surprised that other types of farms are similarly controlled.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:47AM
Ergo...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by leftover on Thursday July 26 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)
Maybe true but really misleading. Try looking at acres farmed, commodity product sold, annual revenue per "farmer" for ADM, etc. vs. all family farms.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @05:54PM
My friend's family bought a farm when his parents retired. The way it worked is they did all the farming then sold the harvest to the big company who acted like a co-op and bought all the food to be processed and distributed.
None of the farmers had global, or even national distribution networks. And as people here like to point out, there are great efficiency gains in scaling. Can you imagine a grocery in Japan finding, much less negotiating with a farmer in Ohio. And then having to do that for every item they sell. And having to do it every week because that's how long a harvest lasts. And coordinating with storage warehouses because your plums have a shelf life of two days unrefrigerated?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 26 2018, @05:57PM (4 children)
Before, or after, Trump's additional $12 billion in farm welfare?
To Ease Pain of Trump’s Trade War: $12 Billion in Aid for Farmers [nytimes.com]
If they can't compete aren't we supposed to let them go bankrupt? Sounds like wealth redistribution to me...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @02:41AM (3 children)
It is only wealth redistribution if the farmers are not white. Just like rural infrastructure isn't welfare (winkwink) this isn't either.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Friday July 27 2018, @04:39AM (2 children)
"Just like rural infrastructure isn't welfare "
Cities are already solar powered. Solar energy is delivered in concentrated form called food. Try getting it from the fields to the cities without roads and bridges. So, they're really subsidizing your dinner plate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @07:38PM (1 child)
So much stupid here.
I pay for that food via my paycheck. Not a government handout. So subsidized by me. And to well run farms at a profit.
And if what you claimed was near valid it would apply to farmers. Not to vacation homes and everything else that exists out in rural areas.
Utilities in rural areas are not profitable without government handouts. You really are a welfare queen.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Saturday July 28 2018, @01:58AM
Compare the cost of food in the US to in other places. It's heavily subsidized via taxation and spending on the infrastructure to produce/transport it. If you had to pay directly the cost to your takehome pay would be higher (though taxes across the board might be lower. Might be. Government economics has its own rules, yet seems to defy them regularly). It's one of the arguments brought up in the debates about local food. If I'm stupid for saying that, so be it. Every time I learn something it's an exercise in seeing how stupid and ignorant I am.
I often see people talking about how this place or that place is such a drag on society. A lot of rural types say it about cities. It's all bullshit. Society is an integrated system. Cut off a part of it and it has systemic effects throughout. You need concentrated population for economies of scale for some things. On the other hand, you also need less heavily populated areas because you need to have the space to grow food without eating it all up on site.
Yes, I know about vertical farming, but when it comes to mass production of food having a lot of area for sunlight without having to lift everything to heights is at least currently more efficient. (The fact that Dick Despommier (look him up if you don't know the name) is a great guy and I love his parasitism podcast work notwithstanding. He just hasn't convinced me on the vertical farm front.)
Usually this argument boils down to "The desirable people, like me, versus the less desirable ones like them." It's artificial and often used to try to get a rise out of people. Good luck with that. I've been called far worse than welfare queen. ;)