Farmers As An Endangered Species- Part II

For the last few weeks the fellow in the top center right of the almond tree has greeted me with a cheerful song each morning when the dogs are taking me for my morning walk. 

On the farm we have started irrigating cotton. Things went from the cool 70's to the high 90's in little more than a week. That was quick.
   Timing the first irrigation is a challenge. If we water too soon the plants will go to stalk. If I dawdle too much, I will get behind and we will stress the cotton. Just another reason I don't need to go to Vegas.

   The almonds are developing fast. We should have hull split in a few weeks.
   The wheat is drying down quickly and will be cut soon.
   The onions are growing quickly too.

Spring is nearly over and summer is upon us.

Farmers As An Endangered Species Part II
by Paul H. Betancourt
May 30, 2015

A few weeks ago I wrote about farmers as an endangered species. Since then I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Matthew Jendian of Fresno State. Dr. Matt told me that 10% of the US work force works for non-profits. Really? You could have knocked me over with a feather. [Insert joke about farming also being non-profit. ;-D )

Think about it- less than 2% of our workforce lives and works on our farms producing our food. Meanwhile over 10% of our workforce works for various non-profit organizations. That is amazing. What does that say about our economy? I think it is an amazing expression of our nation's wealth when that many people are freed up and not needed to produce products or provide services.

That got me thinking about other professions. There are an estimated 3.5 million truck drivers in the US. That is almost 5% of the US workforce. [I think I was behind most of them this past week, but that's another story.] Bless those men and women, they get our stuff moved around the country.

Our active duty military is around 1.4 million, even with the post conflict draw downs.

According to the government itself, 4.1 million people work for the federal government alone. That does not include state and local government employees.

OK, I think you get the point. Farming is our primary occupation. Without farmers, the rest of a modern civilization cannot exist. Our economy has matured to the point where less than 2% of our people live and work on farms. That has freed up millions of people from the drudgery of subsistence farming I have shared this quote before, but I think former Washington Governor Dixie Lee Ray sums it up best,

     Sometime in the future, when all the accomplishments of the 20^th century are       recorded for posterity, it will finally be acknowledged that our greatest achievement by far has been the introduction of high-tech, high-yield agriculture. Measured in terms of benefit to human society, an adequate diet of nutritious, abundant and affordable food eclipses all other developments of this most remarkable century. Neither computer technology nor transistors, robotics, advances in communication and transportation, life saving antibiotics and modern medicine, nuclear energy, synthetics, plastics and the entire petrochemical industry rank as high in importance as the advances in food production. And all these other wonderful breakthroughs probably would not have happened without a well fed population (Ray 67).

                                                                        

You're welcome.

Now I will get back to work.

Hope you have a great week.

P

                                                                        

Sources-

Non-profits:http://grantspace.org/tools/knowledge-base/Funding-Research/Statistics/Number-of-people-employed-in-the-nonprofit-sector

Trucking:http://www.truckinfo.net/trucking/stats.htm

Military: http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=united-states-of-america

Lawyershttp://www.wisegeek.org/what-percent-of-the-us-population-do-lawyers-comprise.htm#didyouknowout

Federal government:http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/historical-tables/total-government-employment-since-1962/

Ray, Dixie Lee, Environmental Overkill, Regnery Gateway, 1993.

                                                                        

How Much Water Do We Consume in Our Food- Part II

First I'll give you an update on last week's Death of Common Sense Experience.

 I cleared the first hurdle. Our home is on Williamson Act ground, which protects farmland. The Williamson Act people liked my letter. I had to certify we owned the house and the solar project was for our home and not as a commercial project. Of course my signature was not enough,the letter had to be notarized. But, now they say we can put up the solar system. Yay.

Hoop Two-The cargo container is now earth quake proof. We got the footing and the man door in. So, I went to finish the permit. Then they told me I have to submit a letter and a site plan. WHY DIDNT MENTION THAT WHEN I WAS IN LAST WEEK? Geez. So, I have to go back on Tuesday.

So far I have about ten hours and a few hundred dollars into this.
I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, back at our water consumption-

The state of California is arguing about the couple of hundred gallons of water we use in our homes each day. Apparently we now shaming people about lawns. Geez.

Below is a link for calculating your personal water use.

http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/personal-water-footprint-calculator/

I suspect I may disagree with these folks on some things, but I support careful water use.  This is a worthwhile effort.
   You will need one piece of information. The magic number is 264. There are 264 gallons per cubic meter.

There is another number to remember- 800 gallons per person per day to produce your food. That number is from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
     Again, we are going quibbling over a couple of hundred gallons per day for our lawns. That is not the issue. In California we have a water system designed for 19 million people and we now have 38 million people. There are not enough low flow toilets to solve this problem. We need 800 gallons of water per person per day just to produce our food! We need a larger and more stable water supply.

Hope you all have a good week.

The Death of Common Sense

I wish I could tell you how pretty this is to me as a farmer, watching the cotton pop up in rows. We worry and pray during planting seasons because we really only have one shot. Sure, we can replant if there are problems, but it would never be the same. Getting a good start is critical to making a good crop. There are so many variables, so many things that can go wrong that are out of my hands. This view is the morning after the recent rain and hail storms passed. Rain is no problem, but just a little bit of hail can crush seedlings at this tender stage. So, it is really nice to see them happy and strong.

This week I had another ‘Death of Common Sense’ experience.

Paul H. Betancourt

May 2015

We are trying to put solar on our home. As part of the permit process the County found out I have a cargo container in back of the house. We put is out there years ago when I got tired of the garage being cluttered with farm tools and supplies. There is no water or electricity to it. The county says we need a permit AND we have to make it EARTH QUAKE PROOF. Take a look at the picture. It is eight feet high and eight feet wide. Any earthquake that rolls that over will leave California about six inches tall.

            Not only do I have to make it earth quake proof, which will take about a half a day and four sacks of cement, I have to install a ‘man door.” I don’t really object to the man door. That would be handy. I have just been too cheap to do it for my convenience. Yes, I really am that cheap. What got me was there is an exemption for the ‘man door.’ Take a look.

Can you see where it says there is an exemption if your door does not close automatically and you have ventilation? Well, our door does not lock automatically and it does have the appropriate ventilation. When I brought that up all they could say was, “it has to open from the inside.” OK, that makes sense. But, their paper work does not say that. It says, ‘automatically lock .’ They just dug in their heels.  SMH. I keep telling Sheryl I come from that funny world where words mean things. Apparently the permit department does not come from there.

I’ll put in the door, dig the footings and jump through all the hoops. But, can you see why we get a little cynical and skeptical about the system? I was prepared to go down and pay a permit fee and be cheesed off about that. Now I have to spend a few hundred dollars and at least a half day’s worth of work to no real end.

Phillip Howard wrote a book years ago titled, “The Death of Common Sense.” He illustrates case after case like this. My favorite was when New York City drove Mother Teresa out of town because they insisted she put an elevator in a building that would never get used. The nuns would use the stairs and the clients would never go upstairs. New York City insisted on the elevator. Mother Teresa wouldn’t waste the money and she left. Don’t you think New York would rather have the Sisters of Charity doing their good works for the poor rather than have us tell this story decades later?

OK, rant over. I hope you all have a great week.

Farmers As An Endangered Species

It is hard for me to tell you how good this looks to me as a farmer. 

For over twenty years we had trees around the house. A year and a half ago we took them down. Last year we had open ground as we let the ground rest. In February we planted these trees and it looked soooooo much better just having sticks in the ground. Now they are growing out. It is looking more like an orchard every day.

Farmers As An Endangered Species

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright July, 2012

                  I’d like to talk about another endangered species—our farmers.

            There are fewer and fewer of us every year. For example, this past year dozens of dairies in our area have been squeezed out.  And, while I hate to admit it, some of us are getting older. Many of our kids have looked at what we do for a living and said, “No thank you!”

            One of the biggest surprises my last year as Farm Bureau president were the number of academics, politicians, regulators and journalists who said, “If we can’t grow our own food, we’ll just import what we need.” Seriously? We’re over a barrel importing oil, Do we really want to import our food too? These are the same guys who say they support family farmers and want to make farming harder by piling on new rules and regs for this and that.

            Farmers don’t need much—just an opportunity. If we see a chance to farm and keep our noses above water we will work our fannies off. But, right now, the mix of increased regulations and tight economics make farmers an endangered species.

This piece was written three years ago. Since then more farmers have gone out of business. Tens of thousands of acres have been fallowed with the drought.

   The one thing I would add to this piece is the story of one of our neighbor families. The father went to high school with Sheryl's Dad. His three sons farmed with him. They were good farmers. Thirty years ago they looked at what was happening and made a decision as a family. They quit farming. 

   Two sons went into law enforcement and one went into education. The eldest has already retired with a secure pension. That is something he would not have done at this age, if ever, if he stayed farming.

   I can't argue with this family's choice. They made the right choice for themselves. But, look what happened to the rest of us. They went from being producers and taxpayers to government jobs. No, there is nothing wrong with government jobs. But, can you see the difference? We lost some good people who otherwise would have been increasing prosperity for all of us. Just another example of farmers as an endangered species.

The Real Value of Farming to California's Economy

Yes, it is cherry season in our neighborhood. While last week's rain was welcome, it cost the cherry growers dearly. Any rain near harvest is a problem. The cherries will split because of the moisture. One neighbor figures he lost 10% of his crop.
   We need the rain so bad we will take rain anywhere, any time. But, please remember that someone is harvesting something every day in Fresno County. So the answer is- rain will affect someone's crop.

The Real Value of Farming to California’s Economy

By Paul H. Betancourt

            There has been a fair amount of chatter the last few weeks that agriculture is only 2% of California’s economy. It looks like they want to say if Ag dries up and blows away it will be no big deal. Really? If we stop making surf boards there may be some disappointed surfers, but everyone will get fed. If we stop growing food…

When I was Fresno Farm Bureau president UC Davis came out with a report that 1 in 3 jobs in the Valley were directly related to Ag; 1 in 10 jobs state wide. A recent UC Davis report says the number is 6.7% of jobs state wide are directly related to Ag. What would happen if those jobs were lost? UC Davis reports there are over 450,000 jobs in Southern California alone that are directly related to Ag. What would happen to the So Cal economy if another 450,000 people lose their jobs?

            As I said a few weeks ago, Farming is not an optional industry. At the risk of repeating myself, once again here is an Farming Is Not An Optional Industry

     This past week I have seen more comments about how the drought will not hurt the California. Let me remind you of what three time Democratic candidate for the Presidency William Jennings Bryant said a century ago-

“Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.”

Look up the details yourself. You can find the data at-http://aic.ucdavis.edu/publications/moca/MOCAbrochure2013.pdf