John D. Giorgis wrote:
<me>
>>Hi, John. I'm a low wage worker- below the poverty line, in fact. I
>>produce your food, without which you would die. Obviously, a low-value
>>product.
>
>Actually, Kat - I think that I can say with a high level of confidence that
>you have not produced a single bite that I have ever eaten. (Of course,
>if you were are below the poverty line, I would strongly question how it is
>that we are conversing over e-mail..... maybe you're at a library or
>something.)
I admit the below the poverty line thing is decieving. It's true that my
parents' net income is very very low, but since we grow most of our own
food we get along comfortably, if a little skimpily around Christmas and
so on.
As for the computer- this is the second computer I've ever bought, and
the first new one; both were bought with other people's money. My
immediate family is quite poor, but my extended family is upper-middle
class, which does make things easier on us than on other farmers. My
grandparents bought our current farm for my parents and still give them
money on a regular basis. My first computer was bought with gift money
from my great-uncle and my second (as well as my air fare to NZ) was
bought with inheritance money from the same great-uncle; my college
tuition is being paid by my mother's brother. I hope to get off the
family dole sometime soon but, then again, my parents have been trying to
do the same thing for the last twenty-odd years and they haven't made it
yet.
>Rather, Kat your occupation is an anachronistic and inefficient process
>that results in a byproduct of a marginal amount of surplus food. If the
>amount of food produced by your farm (as I seem to recall it) disappeared
>from the world market, the supply and price of food would be completely
>unaffected. Therfore, the marginal value of your production is of very low
>value, compared to larger and more efficient farms. Virtually all of the
>food that I eat almost certainly comes from large and efficient farms that
>produce large quantities of food very cheaply. Most farmers that run
>these farms are actually fairly well off.
I'm going to assume that this paragraph was *not* meant as a personal
insult, and reply accordingly. But, in the future, please do try to avoid
telling me my way of life is worthless.
Taking this one from the top, I don't deny that my family produces a
fairly insignificant amount of food, but I do object to your phrase "low
value". We don't produce great *quantities* of food but we do produce
high *quality* products, which more and more people are coming to
recognize has a pretty significant value to their lives and their health.
You eat food from those large farms, I eat food from my small one: care
to compare doctor's visits and number of tooth fillings, John? Not to
mention the degree to which I actually *enjoy* my food.
I also find your phrase "large and efficient" very interesting. No
offense here, but what in the *hell* makes you think a large farm is more
efficient than a small one? It's not, John; exactly the opposite, in
fact, because my family doesn't have the sort of overhead that can absorb
inefficiency, whereas a large farm can shrug that off easily. I can
guaruntee you that my family spends less money per gallon of milk
produced than any large farm ever has, and I count the amount spent on
food, vet bills, fossil fuels, labor... the lot. A large farm doesn't
*care*. We do. We have to.
And, of course, most of those "large and efficient" farms are large and
efficient because they're using *massive* amounts of fossil fuels, raping
the soil, polluting the water, and killing off the wildlife. Were you to
pay the true cost of the food you eat, I think my family's food would
suddenly seem rather a lot more affordable... and those large and
efficient farmers would be *broke*.
And, of course, this brings me to your last sentence: "farmers that run
these farms are actually fairly well off." Allow me to correct your
slight error. You meant to say "farmers that *own* these farms." Owners
of farms such as you describe are undoubtably quite well off, in part
because of the low wages they pay the people who do the actual
harvesting, milking, or what have you, which brings me back to my
original point: contrary to what you seem to believe, low wage workers
are *not* producers of low value (read: insignificant) products and
nothing but. They produce everything you couldn't live without.
Kat Feete
-------------------
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is
that people will insist on coming along and trying to put
things in it.
--Terry Pratchett
