Originally Posted by djs
Originally Posted by Orion2000
Let's start off with some simple things like farmers, ranchers, growers, dairymen, food processing... Ya know, simple stuff like FOOD !


Food - YES, but small farmers or the large farming operations that supply the bulk of the production? Can we afford to support small farms?

Granted, the largest number of farms are small farms, but larger farms provide over 75% of our food production. (source: Dept of Agriculture)

All producers. Our area is +95% what the USDA would consider small to mid sized producers. Our cattlemen do not need bail out money. They simply need the packers to start paying a reasonable price for animals at the stock yards. We have grocery chains and super markets RAISING the price on meat and dairy claiming shortages. Yet producers are loosing money on each animal. And dairymen are dumping milk. Something is "broken" in the middle of the supply chain. Fix that "break" and our producers should be able to get back in the game.

To be clear, farming and ranching are always a crap shoot. And cattle in our area were at or approaching the bottom of the 10 year cycle before Covid. However, the current situation wreaks of price fixing and market manipulation. As noted in another thread, no one seems to want to enforce the anti-trust laws anymore. Producers don't need a bail out. Just a level playing field.