The idea that family farms exist is getting closer to saying that Old McDonald had a farm, because "had" is a true statement! The number of farmers that still exist shrinks each and every day. as farming is left in fewer and fewer hands. Rural America is turning into a wasteland of untreated sewage and the soil is being mined like coal to the point there won't be anything left if they don't stop with the large scale operations that compact the soil and do a constant corn/soybean rotation that never restores the soil or its structure. There aren't even weeds to hold the ground together or make the soil hold water because there is so little organic matter left! Corn stocks are being baled for bedding and there is so little field residue left it is no wonder the fields don't hold water in times of water stress and heat waves, when rain doesn't happen as expected. It also keeps the field tile busy draining the land of not only the moisture but the nutrients that are all heading for the dead zone in the gulf! Lets not forget the farm program is set up for high yields and the payments are based on the numbers that created by the "corn base". The more you produce, the better you get paid! That insures the maximum load of fertilizer will be poured on the land. but if it doesn't stay there. and ends up in the water supply, maybe there is a connection between the cancer rates in Iowa and the fact cancer rates are going up here while the rest of the world the cancer rate is dropping! Corporate think is destroying our food supply and with it the water we need to drink! Once agriculture is in only a few hands it won't matter anymore that America has a "cheap food policy" because there won't be any cheap food anywhere!
The idea that family farms exist is getting closer to saying that Old McDonald had a farm, because "had" is a true statement! The number of farmers that still exist shrinks each and every day. as farming is left in fewer and fewer hands. Rural America is turning into a wasteland of untreated sewage and the soil is being mined like coal to the point there won't be anything left if they don't stop with the large scale operations that compact the soil and do a constant corn/soybean rotation that never restores the soil or its structure. There aren't even weeds to hold the ground together or make the soil hold water because there is so little organic matter left! Corn stocks are being baled for bedding and there is so little field residue left it is no wonder the fields don't hold water in times of water stress and heat waves, when rain doesn't happen as expected. It also keeps the field tile busy draining the land of not only the moisture but the nutrients that are all heading for the dead zone in the gulf! Lets not forget the farm program is set up for high yields and the payments are based on the numbers that created by the "corn base". The more you produce, the better you get paid! That insures the maximum load of fertilizer will be poured on the land. but if it doesn't stay there. and ends up in the water supply, maybe there is a connection between the cancer rates in Iowa and the fact cancer rates are going up here while the rest of the world the cancer rate is dropping! Corporate think is destroying our food supply and with it the water we need to drink! Once agriculture is in only a few hands it won't matter anymore that America has a "cheap food policy" because there won't be any cheap food anywhere!