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Stan, I'm not so sure that anyone would have blamed American farmers for world hunger. Not if they had their heads screwed on straight.

It's a wonderful idea to think that American agriculture can wipe out world hunger. But here's the problem: Somebody has to pay the farmer for the crops and livestock he produces. And it's usually not the starving masses in the Third World, nor is it their governments. It often ends up being OUR government, which means the American taxpayer. And that concept only goes so far--as in how much can we afford to simply give away to feed the world? It's like asking how much can we afford to spend on defense to play the world's policeman? Same concept, different problem.

Most people--if they ever knew in the first place--have forgotten that when CRP started back in 1985, it was at least as much an attempt to reduce an oversupply of grain etc which had driven prices down--and more than a few farmers out of business--as it was a conservation plan. Carter caused part of the problem when he "punished" the Soviet Union for invading Afghanistan by slapping an embargo on grain (and keeping our Olympic team from participating in the Moscow games in 1980). The Russians were a big and reliable customer back then . . . until they weren't. And that was more or less the start of the farm crisis in the 80's--because you can't solve a surplus problem by giving away the surplus and not putting any money in the farmer's pocket. So we took a whole bunch of land (over 30 million acres) out of production. That's one way to deal with a surplus--but you have to pay the farmer for the land that's now growing grass or trees instead of corn or soybeans or wheat.

What DOES work for farmers is to focus on products that go to paying customers. As income increases, people pretty much all over the world tend to put more meat in their diets--because they can afford it. In the 90's, the so-called "Asian tigers" were doing very well. And it was not a coincidence that about the same time, we started seeing big hog confinement operations spring up all over Iowa. A growing marked for pork . . . or at least there was until the Asian tigers slipped into a recession. Then it's hello oversupply--and hello lower prices.

So it's not just who's hungry where, and for what--but it's also who can pay, and are we going to slap an embargo (or maybe a tariff) on agricultural commodities?

Gets really complicated in a hurry. And anyone who thinks the American farmer should be blamed for not producing enough to feed the world is thinking about the whole mess at a very basic level. And the devil, as usual, is in the details.

I was fortunate enough to live in probably the best place in the country to hunt pheasants from the late 80's to the early 2000's. And I probably killed 95% of my birds on private land. So I've always been very respectful of farmers, and living in a big farm state like Iowa (and paying more attention than most people who grew up in a city--although John Deere tractors put clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads, and food on the table when I was growing up), I was lucky enough to see a couple million acres of great pheasant habitat spring up almost overnight. And when most of those big fields went away, I understood that it was Washington--not the farmer--that was to blame. DC has been mucking around with ag policy at least since the Depression. And sometimes it's been good for both the farmer and for wildlife, and sometimes it's been good for one but not the other. I like the win/win times when there are a lot of birds, but I understand it's not really the farmer to blame when there aren't. The farmers don't make the rules, and they do the best they can in a business that can be very volatile and has to put up with a whole lot of interference from Washington.

I'm not going to argue that worldwide starvation would ensue if there were no more crops grown in America, but I believe it. There are millions of people worldwide that are able to eat because the American farmer can produce grains and oilseeds cheaper than anybody else, per unit. The point is that the American public expects cheap food, and government programs have been designed to keep it that way. Ag Sec'y Earl Butz was the one who said "Plant fence row to fence row boys, and we'll (government) sell it for you". Well, that worked great, albeit at the cost of wildlife habitat, until two embargoes singled out agricultural products and we lost the Russian market, then others. (They never came back, either.) Once again, American agriculture carried the weight for everybody else in America. Those two were unilateral embargoes, that affected no other American produced products except for agricultural.

Just say it once Larry, and I won't mention it again............ "The loss of wildlife habitat is not all farmer's fault. The consumers' demand for cheap food is partly to blame, too".

SRH

You'll get no quarrel from me on that, Stan! Anyone who travels in other developed countries and sees what they pay for food (and gasoline, for that matter) can't help but understand that we have it pretty good. Tangled relationships between farmers and Uncle Sam, but damned straight the consumers benefit from it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/anim...m=.5f047d37ce4d

13 bald eagles found in a field in 2016 poisoned.

That is very sad. The product name is Furadan. It was only legal to be used in underground application. I have used it in the past, applied it properly and according to the label, and never saw any evidence of toxicity in any animal or avian life. It is a federal offense to use this product above ground.

Like so many other tools which have the capability to kill, misuse results in the tool being blamed, and not the perpetrator who misused it. Whoever improperly used the Furadan should pay the penalty, and it should be harsh.

Thanks for the link, Gil

SRH

You can "so call" me anything you want Stan...

I was referring to King Brown the licensed pesticide field jockey...sorry you thought the shoe fit you.

Hard to deny that some very bad pesticides were within the law for years and years.

And its also hard for quail to compete against the easy way out for the 'so called' modern farmer.

No till...poison the weeds then plant with mostly genetically modified seed then poison some more and more and more...then harvest.

In my opinion the modern farmer has been made lazy by the chemical companies...but what could a "so called" know ?

Convince me the chemical companies give a damn about a quail.

Farming is back braking work with long hours. These people aren't lazy but must be more and more efficient to provide affordable food to increasing number of mouths. Two things politicians have to be worried about are price of food and price of energy. If those rise quickly the electorate will actually go out into the streets and demand real meaningful changes. Those politicians and individuals who pull their strings can't afford that especially since despite their best efforts the masses are still armed.

And I'm sorry I misunderstood you.



Won't try to do that, 'cause I agree that the only reason they care if a quail dies is that it might cause repercussions that would cause them to lose sales/money. It is up to the individual licensed applicator who uses pesticides to use them properly and according to label, just the same as it is up to the user of a gun, explosive, or truck to use them legally and properly, and not as a tool of human death. However, blaming the manufacturer of Furadan for the eagle's death is no different than blaming the manufacturers of ammonium nitrate for the death of 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing.

When we blame the object instead of the (mis)user, we go awry.

SRH

+1

fwiw, insect populations seem to be generally lower than ever using the "windshield census" method advocated by some. In 4 trips to Missouri, 2 to central Wisconsin, 1 to central Michigan, and 2 to Kansas, plus lots and lots of miles around Iowa, I've washed my windshield about 3 times. And most of the bugs that are spread-eagle on it, are gnat and mosquito sized critters - useless as bird food for developing pheasants.

My two new hives of honey bees seem to be doing poorly as well.

I don't think anything good is happening out there.