Get Big or Get Out, worse case senario

I’m really sorry to see this happen.

Ahh Geez, what a tragedy. I can’t even imagine the state of mind he was in. That is a lot of work. For his sake I hope it makes the statement he wanted to get across.

:(:confused::mad:

Carl

@lancek 14805 wrote:

You know what really gets me is why the American public allows cooperate america to get away with this If we are smart enough to put a man on the moon why are we not smart enough to figure out that we are paying more in interest than the actual thing we bought! Or that our live should not be governed by a credit score. You would think they would wake up and do something about it and don’t say there is nothing you can do because if everybody just kept our money in our pocket for one week didn’t pay there bills and told cooperate america that unless they changed there ways they wouldn’t get anything than I think they would change there minds !!!!! 😡

Exactly. The USDA is at fault too. Once upon a time, they supported the small family farm, now all of it’s policies are geared toward big ag. Try to be a small time poultry breeder in the face of a depopulation. You won’t stand a chance. Or a 4H kid with a steer trying to resist premises ID and tracking.

I’ve never lived during the times when a small diversified family farm could make a living with a few dozen head of cows, or only a thousand layers, and USDA and big ag have ensured that I probably never will.

This is a tragedy for him and his family and friends. I think your right you can make it on the small farm. The thing that needs to happen is the American farmer big and small and the American people need to tell the federal government to get out of our business. If we are going to ask them to get out of our business we need to ALL stop taking the hand outs (subsidies) (grants) and any other.We built this country on our own lets go back to that. Every time I hear somebody is trying something new the next thing out of their mouth is how the gov. is subsidiesing their project. I dont know if I will ever see this but I hope I do for my children and grandchildren.

It is interesting that this sad situation made the national news and aired on our local news last night. The only comment after the death of the cattle and farmer was reported was that “he had personal issues”, as Erika suggested in her post.

The pisser with that is the dismissal of the situation missing that it may/must have much greater meaning than his “personal issues”. It is like a potentially huge statement being hidden under a dismissive conclusion by media and therefore the authorities, whichever comes first to the viewers mind, the line is blurred…

There is probably a much greater story than his personal issues and even if the personal issues are the same as all the pressures we know are being applied to small producers it shouldn’t be minimized by media. Hopefully someone will do more investigation into this mans life situation and try to understand what was going on in the overall picture of his life. Of course that story probably won’t get air time nationally, but it would interesting that it all be studied for the public good.

I don’t want to dwell on the negative but would be interested in knowing more about what Mr. Pierson was going through, his “personal issues”.

People seem to be doing unbelievable stuff all over the country/world and the details of why they are doing these things are important, just not suitable to the shallow sound bite portrayals that may reflect the depth of the general public’s attention span.

I agree with the posters that say you can make it as a small farmer. I have done it for over thirty years and it leads me to the comment that comes to mind when someone asks –

“How you doing man?”, my answer often is “Surviving! and I feel like I am bragging when I say that”, because what we are doing with our lives as small farmers and small loggers is extremely difficult and if you play the game against the stacked deck of the status quo cards dealt, you are likely going to loose.

So participate within your own place in the economy and community and create your own markets when you can and live modestly, cheaply. Keep your inputs low, don’t buy anything you don’t need and work as much as your body will allow and your heart and mind will inspire.

I am not going to bash the USDA as I have borrowed from them for almost thirty years. I am not involved at a level at this point the requires the reporting and baloney of the older programs, but still do service a loan that has more interest in the annual payment than principle, but I am glad to have this piece of land and the freedom to live as I wish. This is still the land of opportunity. The land of reasonably fertile soils, lush and productive forests and some humans around that actually are neighbors, not just folks that live close by.

Make the most of it as you can. If you get to the point you feel like acting out as Mr. Peirson did, get help because neither you or your animals can clearly make a commonly understandable statement in a violent death. The dominant paradigm will just sweep you under the rug with a dismissive comment like you have “personal issues”. I am sad for him and the farming community at large, as someone else posted here, the suicide rate among farmers is alarming. But there is no fire drill exercised for the lost leader segment of our society, that is spent to insure that food is cheap, so the ignorant masses/consumers can eat nutrition-less food that makes them fat while they set on the couch and watch tv that is trying to sell the stuff they don’t need, as they head back to meaningless jobs soon to be replaced by computerized robots. Modern life does reek of personal misery issues.

It is like the joke about modern times – The problem with being a part of the rat race, is that even if you win, you are still a rat.

Carry on dear farm friends from all over, stay small, stay sane and humane.

I am not one to speak to this in a holier than thou sense, or earthyier than thou – I get down sometimes too. But I also still get excited by the new patches on my overalls or how much manure I have collected so far this winter or how big that one mare’s belly is getting – so take this with a grain of salt, remembering though, that salt is a necessary element to a horses survival…. whatever that means and everything means something….

Anyone else feeling mad and sad about this?

This is a personal post and has nothing to do with HHFF or my signature that is automatically posted at the end of every post here….

~

As I read all the posts and reflect on the current status in agricultural policies I wonder what it really would take to make an impact on the national level.
It is a sad commentary on our current world condition when we can spend billions in bailing out the big businesses and yet the price of milk is set by the government a year ahead of time! With the current system the American dairy will be hard pressed to stay afloat in the coming years. All in the name of “cheap” food. Unfortunately the public has not seen the truth in the agriculture to economy link since the great depression. The modern policies were established then to help get the economy stimulated, with little or no provision for the future.

Just some humble thoughts on our current state of dairy in the USA.

Joshua