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To: ShoppinTheNet who wrote (104)	5/13/1998 12:31:00 PM
From: Chip McVickar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3536

Hello SK Good post...you caught many of the weakness's in my argument. Interested to know you grew up in the family farms of MN and know the structures of the Mennonite communities. If you have ever spent any time in the northern sections of Vermont and New Hampshire you will find that same friendliness and congenial community spirit that is so common amongest the western people. But in all fairness there are alot of problems that prevade those small towns that should not be over-looked. It is not a perfect world. I cannot agree with you that the small farmer should be allowed to fail because they cannot compete on an economic level with the conglomerates. Subsidies and low cost loans should be available to support these people when weather and crop problems jeapodise their livelyhood. It is not very expensive and as you point out politically profitable....although nolonger as dynamic a force. To do so will cut the crop capacity of our country and further increase our dependence on foreign markets over which we have little control of quality. I do not believe that economic effency should be the sole driving force of agriculture in this country. The lead cans of the civil war is still a valid discourse. Small farmers made the product but the requirements of efficiency in getting the goods to the soldiers and commercial markets was created by the middleman suppliers. Time and time again this is where the cost problems begin and end. I have no doubt the sceptic sludge spread over the crop fields derived it's existance from cost cutting marriages between fertilizer concerns and agri-business producers. The same problem exisis in the nations poulty farms, pig farms, dairy farms and cattle pens. Nodoubt small farmers are attracted to these methods...that is also a product of applied price effencies. This argument is far more apparent in the struggle between "organic" growers and non-organic producers of all kinds of produce. In this area the validity of each method has an opportunity to flourish. Given the choice is what most consumers want....putting aside the problem of healthiness and crop qualities....it is important that both be allowed to compete on the same grocery shelves. Most organic farmers are the small producers in the niche markets. If subsidies are totaly removed the available "healthy food" will also deminish. That is apart of the effency problems not of the growers but those who run the store shelves. Here in the northeast, California and probably many other areas the demand for organic foods has grown-up to compete with the large chain food markets. This is causing the commetitive instincts of the "Big Handlers" of food to want a piece of this growing market. Bread and Circus is a great example. In responce to this increasing demand agri-business has sent there deal makers to Washington and have bought themselves a share of the new "National Organic Food Act"....they have sealed a deal to allow the use of treated sceptic sludge to be used in the growing of organic produce. That will deminish the seperation between the two and allow large concerns (perhaps small also) to enter a market where they can reap significant profits and not use the time consuming tileage that organic crops require. This is an example of misplaced effencies targeted to circumvent the efforts of small niche growers to benefit and compete for any shelf space with another product. (Leaving aside the argument of quality, healthiness) There was a recent story of a co-operative meat packing plant in Minnesota that has attempted to raise/butcher and market organic beef - in order to save their ranchs. Trying to get loans for this venture has almost been impossible beause of the lobbing pressures and the economics envolved. Here in Vermont a group of dairy farmers being driven into the ground by the falling milk prices....caused by technological advances in reconstituted milk solids.....banded together, refused to participate in the hormone injections of their animals....created a co-operative, produce organic, hormone free and antibiotic free milk. Which is then segrigated from other milk products at a Hood processing plant and marketed on the same shelf next to the reconstituted milk products. They are going to make it and survive....Hood gets a cut of a new market and those who are interested get a different and healthier product. All of this discussion has a lot to do with how we value our lives, how do we balance the demands and pressures placed upon our daily lives. Demographic studdies are showing a large migration of the subarban populations moving back into those areas where they had fun as Kids. Ski Resorts like Aspin-Jackson Hole-Stowe-Lake Tahoe...towns like Bozeman, MT and other smaller townships accross the country to raise families. They are taking with them the technology and skills that have become available. Small business's owned by women are the fastest growing sector of our economy....most will not make-it, but the change is already taking place. A small high tech milling concern is now generating most of their income from break-off Russian countries. I believe we are seeing a seperation of the capitalistic tendencies towards monoplolies...(this is cyclical in nature as in the steel and railroads of earlier centuries)....from the concerns of the smaller citizen. It is happening in all aspects of our countries life from politics to farmers and after the next big down-turn from economic prosperity to hardship...(cyclical by nature)...we will see a further acceleration in this process of decoupling. As your son may have percieved...there maybe something to living in smaller communities where the "stores were more interesting, and they gave you better service." By-the-way....ECU will have the same problem if the people of different nations percieve their 'smallness' is threatened by a single currency. They may give it a good running start and a chance to exist....but take away their sense of national identity and cultural roots by allowing massive movements of populations and it will not work-out. Going to be very difficult to pull-off...I agree with Kissenger. We shall see Chip