Zekecorlain on June 5, 2012 at 3:02 PM

God forbid a family be able to keep the wealth they have created for themselves? God forbid the head of a family be able to decide to whom his/her wealth goes when they pass?

@Badger40 hmm I’n in favor of estate taxes, it breaks up family dynasties and makes people work as well as keeping money liquid. Doesn’t “Clean and Green” cover passing family farms down the line? that’s what my family did.

Zekecorlain on June 5, 2012 at 1:56 PM

Did you really just say, to paraphrase “family dynasties should be broken up, except for MY family dynasty”?

Badger40 on June 5, 2012 at 9:39 AM

Badger, where in ND are you?

My father-in-law is a farmer in Wishek.

Badger40 on June 5, 2012 at 9:39 AM

Holy cow! No pun intended. I would not have thought that there was that much difference in price across the country. We don’t drink enough to buy gallon quantities but I believe we are around the $4 range in Florida.

Subsidies are just another way of government picking winners and losers but obviously it will have to be reformed realistically.

Cindy Munford on June 5, 2012 at 9:28 AM

I agree. Like SS & Medicare/caid, we need to wean these people off the teat til they can stand on their own.
If they can’t, they better find a way to exist without nanny Govt.
I don’t take farm payments, & we struggle along.
And I have a feeling we’d probably have lower costs of doing business if the Fed govt got out of the farming biz.

I forgot to say something about this milk thing.
You take away subsidies/pricing schemes for milk & it will level out to an affordable price eventually.
I already pay $6/gallon for milk here in SW ND.
And I imagine a lot of that is bcs of fuel.
You get rid of govt meddling all over the place, regs, EPA etc., & we in agriculture will be able to do for ourselves.
Also get rid of Death taxes.
I can’t tell you how many places this has crippled, families destroyed.
A person should not have to find creative ways, like give up some land for conservation easements & BS like that to avoid a death tax.
It is criminal.

Farming in W. EASTERN ND & SD is what that land was made for.

That’s what I meant.

Badger, sounds like farming in ND is not a good choice. Not so in the State of WA.

And from a food safety perspective organic food would not be my choice. I had to take a food safety class. The stories about organic food were both funny and horrifying. If you are into organic food, just be very sure you know the producer well enough to have confidence in them.

Here were I live, we have a particularly good organic producer. Makes money hand over fist charging extra for organic food.

Voter from WA State on June 5, 2012 at 1:58 AM

Farming in W. ND & SD is what that land was made for.
Out in the W. parts, NO. Other than flood plains.

I lived in Monroe, Fall City, Carnation, Mill Creek, Bothell areas during the late 80s & again in the early 90s.

There were many small farms & ranches in those areas until the urban sprawl started eating everything up & the rich folks wanted away from the city.
Then they didn’t like the smell of poop or having to navigate around tractors on the road & such & I know of at least one case where these kinds of people agitated to get rid of an old dairy.
Niche markets, like the organic you mentioned, are chic out there, I’m sure. They were beginning to be when I left in ’96.
But farm payments work the same way no matter what state we’re talking about.
If a person has established history on a piece of land regarding a crop, then depending on the crop, they will receive payments whether they plant anything or not.
We have some wheat acres on our property somewhere & FSA always wants us to sign up to get paid, like $80/year, for them. And nothing has been planted anywhere on our land since the late 80s.

Farming is beholden to the federal govt programs. And I don’t care what you’re planting, somewhere, somehow, most farmers are gaming that myriad of rules & regs to make a buck.
What they don’t realize is that life would be freer & easier on them if they quit that game.
But unfortunately, the Fed has made it very difficult to farm on your own without them.
And WA is not much different than ND, or any other state that way.

Caustic Conservative on June 4, 2012 at 10:54 PM

The only way to opt out of the CRP contract is to repay all of the rent payments made by the government to the previous owner..in my case this would be over $75,000 plus interest and fees. I’ve had the property for 1 year and have received only 1 payment from the USDA. I’d glady pay any fees or admin costs to void the contract but repaying 17 years worth of payments made to the previous owner makes no sense.

Voter from WA State on June 5, 2012 at 2:04 AM

How many actual farmers are there working at the USDA?

Abolish the pricing regulations on milk ! ! !

listens2glenn on June 5, 2012 at 12:24 AM

Yeah, let’s pay $7 a gallon for milk. That’ll teach them.

And from a food safety perspective organic food would not be my choice. I had to take a food safety class. The stories about organic food were both funny and horrifying. If you are into organic food, just be very sure you know the producer well enough to have confidence in them.

Here were I live, we have a particularly good organic producer. Makes money hand over fist charging extra for organic food.

We DO need to end subsidies, but it has to be done slowly so markets and producers can adjust. And so we can stop burning food as fuel. And stop destroying generations of orchards and vineyards for a damned fish the size of your middle fingers.

I don’t want to see all the little family farms go under. Many generations worked to hang on to them. The land is all they have. They also have debt, it is very expensive to run crop or dairy farms. Our state is one of the best dairy states in the country. Your eating our cheese and drinking our milk.

wi farmgirl on June 4, 2012 at 7:19 PM

.
I’m with you ‘girl, but do we agree as to the solution?

Abolish the pricing regulations on milk ! ! !