16 Mar Tue 2010
When big agri business goes out of business what happens next?
Some big agri business apply for chapter eleven and claim bankruptcy .The main stream media courts news about big farmers when they go out of business but never bother to let us know the state of small urban farmers.Take this fictitious scenario:"Big F1" has been farming in sincethat long and lately went bankrupt.They went through a similar move back in so and so year and went out of business to come back later in a different name as "Big F2 " Now it is claiming bankruptcy with millions owed to creditors that will disappear after chapter 11 filing.Some say chapter eleven is good business to shut down for now and come back later after getting rid of all debts!
XYZ county is known for being an Agricultural County and a home for three commissioners imprisoned and indicted in fraud charges mainly in connection with developers land frauds..Who is going to replace those big farmers who are exiting the farms one by one and selling their lands for developers?Are we protecting farm lands for the next generations?Are we heading towards an imported agriculture that depends heavily on produce from Mexico?.We have lost so many manufacturing business to China and Mexico thanks to NAFTA and because we ignored the small business enterpreneurs .The stimulus money went to bail out the banks who are now stripping home owners of thier homes in a tsunami of foreclosures and no one is bothering to stop this fiasco.I envision an exodus of migrant farmers back to Mexico to work in the booming organic agriculure that is fuelled by migrating American Agriculture big business to reap the benefits of the growing demand for organic produce in US .On the other hand,there are a continuous decline in farms and farmers here in US.We need a wake up call not in the wilderness but in our educational system to start teaching farming and gardening in :elementary,middle and high schools the least to say!There are blockages in the educational system and a monopoly that favors special interest educational system which caters to the Fertilizers and Pesticides chemical industries.There is a bias period in doing business as usual.Our health care system needs to switch towards prevention and naturupathic natural nutrition from the organic "farms", away from the allopathic pills and manufactured medicine from the synthetic "farm-aceutical "industry that gives one a pill to supress a disease while at the same time causing fatal side effects to the human body and sometimes followed by death .It makes sense to follow the common sense of prevention and stop the carziness of pain killers and pills that have a chilling effect on our economy and a killing effect on our health!Small organic farmers and CSA are the next growing business of the future.