When It Comes to Farmers- One Size Does Not Fit All

   Another busy week on the farm. The almonds are all up. Yay! We are done irrigating the cotton. Now it is time to wait for the crop to mature. It is looking good. We already have open bolls which is early for Pima. It won't be too long before we fire up the picker.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright June 2012

            You want diversity? Then come on down to the farm.

We have-boy farmers and girl farmers

            Short farmers and tall farmers

            Smart farmers and, well the system has weeded out the dumb ones.

We have farmers from different ethnic groups.

We have farmers on big farms

            And farmers on small farms

            Part time farmers and full time farmers

            Farmers who only grow vegetables and farmers who only grow meat.

And, therein lies the problem. We have folks in Sacramento and DC doing one size fits all farm policy. It doesn’t work because of the diversity we have in California agriculture.

            I have to admit, there is another side to the diversity among farmers. You may have noticed this yourself. We are kind of an independent bunch.  If you have three farmers, you can get five different opinions. Not only are we diverse in size, crops, gender and ethnic background. We differ on politics, sports and just about everything else.

I hope you all have a good week.

P