Cutting the use of corn for ethanol so significantly will have a direct and negative impact on the price of corn, driving it further below the cost of production.
We are throwing it back for #TBT. This post was originally posted on our blog on May 22, 2014.
There are so many myths that buzz around about the agriculture industry. It is time to put a few of those myths to a rest. Even if you are not a farmer, I can help you decode a few of these myths, and help you make better food choices.
- GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms) are less nutritious than non-GMO products.
This myth is one of the largest agricultural movements sweeping the globe right now. Many people believe that GMO products are less nutritious that Non-GMO foods. There have been many studies conducted on GMO foods, and no evidence has been proven that GMO foods are less nutritious or unsafe. In fact, it has been proven that growing GMO crops can result in better-tasting fruits and vegetables that stay fresh longer and are naturally resistant to pests. A genetically modified organism is an organism in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. It creates an avenue to transfer genes from one organism to another. Here is a great video that explains more about GMOs.
- Meat is full of antibiotics and other drugs.
There are times that antibiotics are used in livestock production, when needed. They are never used in meat production. The FDA (Federal Drug Administration) does not allow farmers and ranchers to medicate livestock prior to taking them to market. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) monitors meat processing plants where they test animal carcasses and organs to insure there are no traces of antibiotics or other drugs. The fact is that there are rarely any violations of drug contamination. You can now rest easy, knowing that your meat is antibiotic and drug free.
- Labeling our foods creates healthier food options.
Food labeling can be deceiving to shoppers in the store. Many food labels are used as marketing techniques to influence a buyer’s decision on a product. The majority of Americans will be influenced to buy something that is “gluten-free”, “GMO-free”, and “Antibiotic-free”. When in fact they most likely do not know what gluten, or better yet what a GMO is. The movement make our food labeled by law is a way for companies to use marketing techniques to influence your buying decision. As you can see a low carb gluten free salad in the picture, however it is not necessarily healthy.
- Gluten is unhealthy for humans to eat.
Gluten has recently turned to one of the largest health and wellness myths in America. Many people today hear the word gluten, and automatically place it as the new food evil. The interesting thing is, most people don’t even know what gluten really is. Check out the video below to see people who support a gluten-free diet, yet have no clue what gluten is. Gluten is a protein found in wheat and related grains. Gluten gives elasticity to dough, helping it raise and keep its shape. This protein can be harmful to people if they suffer from celiac disease, which is an intestinal disorder that causes you to be sensitive to gluten. Don’t just cut gluten out of your diet, it can cause you to become deficient in fiber and many other essential vitamins and minerals. If you feel you are sensitive to gluten, be sure to do your research and see your physician.
The next time you hear of a new fad that demotes conventional agriculture, make sure to do your research. You can find out answers to many of your food questions here at Common Ground, or just ask a farmer.
After the long stressful days of watching the weather, avoiding as many break-downs as possible, and moving equipment from field to field are over a grain farmer’s work is over, until harvest, right?
That is just the beginning.
Planting is a stressful and vulnerable time for farmers, not only because Mother Nature does what she wants when she wants to, but because they are about to risk a large chunk of change by planting little seeds into a big black field of soil. Many weeks, if not months, go into prepping for planting. Farmers must pick their seed variety, purchase the seed, cultivate their fields (unless they no-till), and eliminate all the weeds they can before nestling the seeds into a cozy bed.
Here’s a list of what farmers do after their planting is finished. As you will see a Farmer’s work is never truly finished.
Check for sprouting/ swelling seeds
Farmers must keep a close eye on their seeds and the amount of moisture they are taking in. If a seed takes up water it will begin to swell and if temperatures aren’t high enough the seed will not germinate and will rot in the ground.
“The seed will take up water with soil temperatures cooler than 50 degrees. The seed imbibes the water, takes it in, but doesn’t germinate because it’s too cold,” says Jim Fawcett, an Iowa State University Extension field agronomist in eastern Iowa.
If it has rained, check the soil for crusting
A soil crust forms after rain droplets cause the soil to break into individual particles. The small particles then get washed together and join together into a hard crust, preventing moisture from going in and seeds from going out of the ground. Farmers need to be aware of a crust forming and will have to use appropriate tillage equipment to break the crust if necessary.
Confirm the seed population
Many pocket knives are used for this job. I remember watching my PawPaw get down on one knee and dig through the rich dark soil to look for seeds. Farmers do this to authenticate that their planters released the right about of seeds, not to overcrowd the plants or not use the land to its full potential.
Monitor plants for insect damage
Insects want to munch on the corn and there aren’t many options to prevent this, except spraying pesticides. Check out what this farmer has to say about using pesticides to protect his yield.
Look for weed pressure-if present decide if spraying is necessary
Weeds are a huge hindrance on the growth of a farmer’s crop. Therefore monitoring the amount of weed growth is important, if they are overcrowding and stealing nutrients from the plants a farmer will need to consider spraying his field.
Check color of plants
This may seem strange but the color of the crop will tell you a lot about how it is maturing. Yellowing crops aren’t healthy and need attention, or possibly less rain.
Take a deep breath and relax
I doubt this will be very easy for farmers as they follow grain prices on the roller coaster until the crop is ready to harvest. They can take this down time to get all of the equipment ready for the approaching fall.
This corn was planted on 4-15-15 and emerging on 4-29-15. Conditions for planting in his area of Piatt County have been excellent. Most in the area are done planting corn and beans. Virtually all the corn has emerged and looks very good with little to no stand loss due to poor germination. Many bean fields have emerged and also look very good. He said they are starting to feel a little dry as of 5-7-15 so they are hoping for a little rain over the next several days.
Americans have questions about farm subsidies – and why shouldn’t they? Americans deserve to understand what their taxes are paying for and why. So here’s the top five questions we get on a semi regular basis and the best, short answers we can provide. Do you have more questions on farm subsidies? Ask away in the comments!
1. Why should tax payer dollars fund farmers anyway?
The government got involved in helping farmers stay afloat because they were interested in food security. Our country needs to guarantee a safe, affordable, DOMESTIC food supply and not put ourselves in the position to have to import food because American farmers go out of business. The food security portion of this equation is what makes government payments to farmers different than other businesses or industries that are also reliant on weather or market conditions.
Helping farmers stay in business also supports American rural economies that are built on farming and agriculture. Without farm subsidies, rural communities would be completely desolate and Americans would be forced to urban areas to find work. In essence, farm subsidies that keep farmers in business help many more Americans that don’t farm, but live in rural communities.
2. I don’t want to pay a farmer to not farm! That’s not right!
There was a time in our history when farmers were paid to leave their land fallow. The “set aside” program sought to control supply and increase commodity prices. But we haven’t done this since the 1990s. The “set aside” program was unauthorized in the 1996 Farm Bill.
3. I don’t really understand what farm subsidies are paying for then.
Government payments to farmers currently come in the form of subsidized crop insurance. Because farming relies on the weather and is so unpredictable, farmers must insure their crops or face investing a ton of money to plant a crop only to have Mother Nature ruin their crop and leave them with no income for the year. Crop insurance protects farmers when this happens.
But private insurance companies find the proposition too risky. No private company can withstand a weather event like the 2012 drought we experienced here in IL. So the government subsidizes crop insurance, making it available for farmers and encouraging them to protect themselves.
Farmers do pay a portion of their premium AND what amounts to an average of a 20 percent deductible in the event of a loss.
(Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at crop insurance and what it means to farmers in the near future!)
4. Farmers are small businessmen and should compete in a fair and free market just like all other Americans, without government assistance.
Yes. And that would be amazing.
But consider that farming is a different business model than most. In most other small businesses, the business buys inputs at wholesale prices, builds a product or completes a service, and then determines the cost for the product or service based on the input costs. Farmers do not have this business model.
They must buy inputs at retail prices, pray for great weather, and accept whatever commodity price the market dictates for that month and year. Yes, opportunities exist for farmers to mitigate risk, but they should not and can not be compared to all other small businesses because they do not get to dictate market prices that cover their cost of production.
Also, back to the first point, guaranteeing that we have affordable access to domestic food supply is somewhat different than guaranteeing access to barbershops or photographers.
5. Farmers made so much money last year. I don’t understand why farm subsidies are still needed or even considered by Congress.
Yes, farmers did have a great year in 2013. Commodity prices were high because of the low corn supply after the drought, but farmers still grew a lot of corn. They did well and they didn’t need/use their crop insurance.
But like all American families know, you have good years and you have bad years. Farmers are well versed at saving money back from the good years like 2013, to pay for the bad years like 2014 (and probably 2015!). Government subsidized crop insurance is still needed because bad years always happen no matter how good the good years were.
If you’re still curious about farm income, read ARE FARMERS RICH here!
I am very excited to answer your questions about farm subsidies and crop insurance. Please leave a comment!
ICGA/ICMB Marketing Manager
“Nothing brings a community together like their team making it to the high school basketball state championship game. Rural communities can get pretty serious about their sports. They are also very serious about their agriculture. Community pride and agriculture go very seamlessly together, and you almost can’t have one without the other.”
It was the state 1A, Division II championship basketball game—two small town teams battling in a big arena. The last time the two teams played was in the state championship game last year: Wallace County, Sharon Springs vs. St. John’s, Beloit-Tipton. To say the feeling was electric, was to diminish the excitement.
The previous year, St. John was able to win by two points. The rematch had all the makings of a good sports story.
I, however, am not a sports writer. I write about agriculture, and that’s where I saw more going on at the game than the 3-point shots and steals.
A few rows below me, the Wallace County student section was going wild. They had crazy blue wigs, neon zebra print headbands and signs—the kind of signs that said things like, “Hammer Time!” in support of my friends’ son who just happens to have the last name “Hammer.”
As they waved the signs at the court, I laughed. Not because of the clever saying on the front of the sign, but because of the back of the sign. It was a seed sign that had been repurposed.
If that doesn’t scream small-town, rural-living at its best, I don’t know what does.
On the court were two teams from small towns in Kansas. By day, the boys go to school, play sports and horse around with their friends. By night, they feed pigs, breed cattle and plant sorghum or wheat or corn. They lift weights, but they lift seed sacks as well. They run drills on the court, but they run wheat drills in the field. They study game film, but they also study cattle pedigrees.
The families in the stands drove back and forth to the games every day, not because they wanted to—but because everyone wanted to go to the game and there were farm chores to do. And while they were at it, they stopped in the big towns along the way to pick up parts, supplies and seed.
And the hometowns? It was rumored anyone could have stolen anything in the county he wanted the day of the championship game—because there surely wasn’t anyone around to see it stolen.
At halftime, cheerleaders from Greeley County High School performed. They didn’t have a dog in the hunt because Wallace County had defeated them to advance to the state playoffs. They didn’t have to stick around. And they certainly didn’t have to join their neighboring county rivals in the stands, cheering them on. But they did. And I’m sure there were similar stories on the other side of the court.
It never ceases to amaze me how agriculture and community go hand-in-hand. A sense of community pride is so interwoven into the agriculture industry, it is hard to separate the two.
When you grow up in community, where generations of your family have tended the land, and your neighbors have done the same, there’s a bond that cannot be denied. When you grow up being taught to respect God’s creation, and what it will provide, you can’t help but have the same respect for a community across the state.
In the end, the seed sign did the trick, and Wallace County came out on top this year, winning its first-ever state boys’ basketball championship. As medals and trophies were passed out, applause on both sides of the court for both teams showed more about community respect and pride than the score.
When our friends from urban areas wonder what is so important about rural America and keeping it viable, I vote we send them to a 1A state championship basketball game and hand them a seed sign.
Holly Martin can be reached at 1-800-452-7171, ext. 1806, or firstname.lastname@example.org.