Except that when you charge more, you tend not to be able to sell your crop at all. The pricing limits are pretty tight, and it's often a matter of taking what you can get for what you produce -- and like I said, if you have a good harvest and produce more, you're increasing the overall supply enough that the demand doesn't support the price anymore, so you end up making about the same thin margin.
It's also different because there are a large number of variables that are pretty far out of your control, unless you spend *more* money on irrigation (and the water to run it, and these days, a lot of areas are slapping meters on *water wells* and billing for that too) and give up on your 3-5 year bid for organic certification and start soaking your crops with chemicals .. at which point you end up at the mercy of ADM or Monsanto or whoever when you give up and buy their GMO seed and you can't save your seed anymore (thanks to biopatents). If you're really genuinely farming the traditional way, there are far more ways for you to get screwed than there are to actually make money. The risks in other sorts of businesses are fairly hard to calculate, but they're at least predictable to some extent. The risks in farming are largely related to weather, and even today, meteorology is doing really well if it can predict 2 weeks in advance .. and we're talking about an investment that's counting on knowing what the weather is going to do for a full growing season. There are entire colleges at rural universities like Texas A&M dedicated to figuring some of this stuff out, and even the IRS acknowledges that farming is economically unique -- look closely at the 1040 package next year when it comes in and notice the special exceptions and rules that apply to farm income/ loss. And, again, the basic reality is that the business sector that most if not all of our food comes from, either directly or indirectly, is not one we can afford to play games with or risk having it collapse. Last estimate I heard was that there's about a 2 week supply of food in the supply chain. Enough said. On Sep 19, 2008, at 11:31 PM, Euan Ritchie wrote: > I don't understand how farming is supposed to be different from other > investments. You invest money/effort, reap the result, sell you > product > at the market price. If it's profitable you win, if it's not you lose. > > Same rules as for anyone. The risks are hard to calculate in farming > and > therefore they ought be trying to charge higher prices to compensate. "They love him at a barbecue, not so much with the nuclear launch codes." -- Toby Ziegler _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
