Why Fight the Government?

Spring is in the air, or at least the vineyards.

Why Fight the Government?

By Paul H. Betancourt

March 2016

Over the years I have spent a lot of time away from the farm and my family in Sacramento or DC fighting one proposal or another. I am starting to think maybe I have been doing it all wrong. Why fight them? If I am going to spend so much time going to government mandated training session and filling out forms I might as well go to work for them. What was the old ad campaign? “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.”

The nice thing about being a government employee is I would have regular hours, regular pay, benefits and federal holidays. No more fourteen hour days during harvest. No more worrying about paying the employees or if I was going to get paid. How many federal holidays are there? That’s like getting two weeks off during the year. And, no more worrying if Sheryl and I were going to be eating cat food when we retire, or even if we can retire. This idea is looking better and better all the time.

With my experience and years of experience I would be somewhere between a GS-12 and a GS-14. I would be willing to start at the lower end and I sure would appreciate the security.

Now for those of you who this is a ridiculous idea I have one modest request- back off a little bit. Farmers already work 50-60 hours per week. When you add another day or even a half day for yet another training session or wad of forms to fill out, where is that time supposed to come from? How would you like me adding another half day of work to your week? Yeah, not so funny now is it?

On top of that I make my living growing things, not filling out forms. We have lost the idea of the means and the ends. Producing food is the end. Meetings and paperwork are means to the end, not ends in themselves.

I get it, a certain amount of paperwork is needed. Continuing education is an important part of professions such as nursing and there is some benefit for farmers. My concern is the continued encroachment the demand for more and more training and more and more paperwork. If we are going to do this, let’s make it user friendly. Let’s be honest, a lot fo these forms do not conform to logic and plain English. Please remember, you spend all day every day in your paperwork. I might see it once a year. On top of that each bureaucracy has its own system. 

A little history lesson- There are three sections to the Declaration of Independence. The first section says what the Founders are doing. In the second section Jefferson makes the case against the King for abusing their rights. And, in the third section they declare their independence.

Let’s take a look at the second section for a moment. Jefferson has a long list of abuses like taxation without representation. My particular favorite is-

 “He has erected a multitude of New Offices and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

Do you see it? In a supposedly free country we are doing the same thing. I have to pay fees to various government agencies so they have the funds to police me for this and that. These government employees have secure jobs, secure benefits, secure retirement and usually no clue what I am doing in the field. One time I had to show an ag inspector what he was supposed to be inspecting.

I don’t know of any of my farming neighbors who would really want to be government employees. But, most of us would appreciate a little slack. We are working our rear ends off in a difficult profession trying to make a living growing food for you all. If you have an idea of how to do my job better please come and show me, instead of threatening me with fines and lawsuits. Or, offer me a job. If you really want to run my farm, let’s nationalize the farms, make me a government employee and let’s see how that works. I don’t think you will like the results because it has never worked anywhere else. China starved thirty million of its people through centrally planned farming. The Soviets had bread lines. The North Koreans can barely feed themselves today. The genius of our system is free people whose prosperity overflows to the benefit of all.

The guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence believed our freedoms were based in a strong system of free and independent farmers. He said-

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.”

(Letter to John Jay August 23, 1785)

I think there is a better solution than farmers becoming government employees, as tempting as that is some days. How about we take a page from Hippocrates when it comes to government- “First do no harm.”

I Took a City Girl to the Farm Show

This always amazes me. A month ago the trees were dormant and now we already have little nutlets.

I have hired a literary agent to help me sell books. She is so 'city' one of her nicknames is "Hollywood." As part of her education I took her to the Farm Show in Tulare last month. I thought you would enjoy hearing what she thought.

For the record, she really liked the ice bream from Superior Dairy. Apparently they don't have ice cream that good in Hollywood. 

Go Superior and COS! 

You Can Teach A City Girl New Tricks

by Dana Kennon

Guest blogger

If you had told me that one day I’d attend the World Ag Expo, I would have asked, “What’s an Ag?”  As a bona fide city girl, my entire exposure to life on the farm had been limited to watching Green Acres and just driving past them on California’s Interstate 5.  We’d pass farm after farm with nice neat rows of green and I’d try to imagine what life was like and why people always said that farming was such a hard life.  I mean, how hard can it be?  You drop seeds into dirt, the rain waters them, workers do the picking and then you get a check, right?

So here I was, riding along in a white pickup truck, waiting in a never-ending line of white pickup trucks to park in a giant field of white pickup trucks to visit my first Ag event, The World Ag Expo in Tulare, California.  Thank God I had a private tour guide, local farmer Paul Betancourt, who was patient enough to also act as Ag expert and farm-speak interpreter. On to the show. 

My first lesson that day… AG BOYS LOVE TOYS and SIZE REALLY DOES MATTER.  As we entered the Expo, we found ourselves face to face with machinery that could comfortably house a family of four.  It was like being in the middle of a Transformers movie.  The tires alone on these mega-contraptions were bigger than my friend’s Manhattan apartment.  Paul showed me the inner workings of one of the enormous hay machines.  These monsters now come complete with air conditioning, a stereo system, GPS, walk-in closets, fully stocked bar, swimming pool and a putting green.  So I thought to myself, if these things can drive along, cut the hay, scoop it up, smoosh it, tie it and then spit it out again in a tidy little bundle, what the heck do farmers do all day?  Have country folk become slackers?  Perhaps the tough part of farming these days was all about the care and feeding of livestock.  So, onto the dairy exhibits…

What I knew about dairy cows you could fit into the head of a pin.  In the MOO section, booth after booth was set up and gizmos and gadgets displayed.  I listened to people speaking in their native tongue, I call it “farm speak” which I understand is only marginally different than “ranch speak”, but it was all Greek to me.  Thank goodness I had that Betancourt automatic translator by my side.

As we worked our way through the crowd I realized the multitude of milking machines displayed began to resemble terrifying mid-evil torture devices.  When curiosity got the better of me, I paused to ask my guide some questions about these wicked looking things and the poor moos that had to endure them.  Not having been a dairy farmer, Paul deferred to the nearest expert, Wilford Brimley.  No, not the real Wilford Brimley, but a great look-alike (you know… the Quaker Oatmeal guy who also starred in Cocoon with the round head and big hairy handlebar mustache).  My question, “When the cow’s utters stop giving, does the machine stop pulling?  Does it stop yanking, squeezing and sucking????  Does it understand NO MORE MEANS NO MORE???  I suddenly realized I was frightening my little Wilford who was attempting to give a polite response while I stood there crossing my arms in front of my chest as if it was Fort Knox.  Apparently I had subconsciously been protecting the little ‘B’ cups the good lord had given me.  Who would have ever thought I’d be empathetic to a cow?

So what did I learn at the Ag Expo?

Forget about, “Neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night…” you sissy postal workers.  The American farmer is on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through all weather, their spouse’s mood swings and even teenager’s drama.

They have a partnership with God yet they have to compete with Mother Nature and sometimes Mother Nature wins.  So the rest of us, who when we do a good job, follow all the directions and do it on time, we are rewarded, but for farmers, despite their tremendously hard work, it’s a crap shoot.  Every season, every crop and threw every major storm, freeze, and bug disaster they push on.    But, despite these odds, they continue to feed every darn one of us multiple times a day, 365 days a year.  So what did I learn about farmers and AG?  I learned they are truly unsung heroes. 

 God bless them, everyone.