Recent (November 2004) Wall Street Journal, front page said that: U.S. agricultural exports are now less than its agricultural imports. It's expected to get worse. I cannot believe it. I would never have thought it's possible. Would right leaning WSJ lie? It seems that consumption of stuff and military are few remaining areas where U.S.A dominates.
It's preposterous that in the 21st Century the U.S. should try to be a leading agricultural power. Agriculture is a Stone Age technology. It's been pumped up with diesel engines, better living through chemistry, and genetic engineering, but it's still basically the art of growing plants and animals domestically so that we don't have to go around hunting and gathering. It costs too much to put an American through school to expect him to ever contribute the cost of that education back into the economy with interest by farming. American land is worth so much more as living space, recreational space, and office space, than it is as farmland. American water has become much too sought-after by citizens for drinking, bathing, cooking, industrial processes, and landscaping, to be able to discount millions of acre-feet of it to farmers at rock bottom prices and gouge the city dwellers to make up the difference. It's farming that is ruining California. People in Los Angeles have to pay $250 per month for residential water service, while the state pumps billions of gallons of it at a fraction of the cost to farmers in the Imperial Valley, so they can grow crops in the frelling desert! The only part of California that is self-sufficient in water is up here in the extreme northwest, where undammed rivers dump into the sea and we pay fifteen bucks a month for water service. And even here nobody is dumb enough to try to grow water-intensive crops like lettuce, like they do in the San Joaquin Valley. Our farmers grow apples and berries and raise dairy cattle. And maybe a little bit of ganja, a highly drought-tolerant weed that's happy in the acidic soil of the redwood forests. Let them grow food in Chile. America needs to keep its edge in innovative industries.
"Let them grow food in Chile. America needs to keep its edge in innovative industries. " Like fast food and Wal-Mart? Sorry, but I think that tens of millions of Americans contribute the cost of their education by being unemployed, underemployed , doing some meaningless paperpushing, doing bunch of other low tech jobs. Just open Sunday newspaper's career page. How many of the jobs posted will be innovation related? My guess is - close to zero. I think my experience allows me to say "Large chunk of fresh and not so fresh American Ph.D.s are hired to do little brain involved technician jobs for relative peanuts.". There are so many of them. so, it's cheaper to hire a postdoc (temp, visiting something loser. lecturer, whatever) than a technician with HS diploma. Free market systems are not very efficient in utilizing human potential. For example, in digital electronics design, engineer's sorry asses are kicked out on street after they'll hit ripe 35y.o. (being "good" is not an excuse from the boot, btw.). In other engineering fields kick out age is 40 something. It seems nobody gives a dime for the cost of their education. Average career life span -7years. Career life of an engineer is shorter than that of a professional football player (7 years or so). Constant retraining for something, starting from scratch again and again (good only for degree peddling industries and employers). It sounds like a gigantic waste of lives and resources. Americans are not supermen. No matter how you'll educate them, only a smal fraction (5% or so) will be capable of innovating. Life is cruel, one needs to have the right brain chemistry first, education is secondary. I really do not see how so called "innovation" economy can work even in the no outsourcing world. It's just a sweet pill, sold by the priviliged, to sooth the pain of the transformation to neo banana republic. As for agriculture per se, I think it's far from being a stone age technology. It's essential industry for the country's health and survival. Bringing vegetables from Chile to a local Wal-Mart is not smart and it's definitely not very healthy. How much oil is being wasted to do so? Developing local agriculture (vegetable growing at least) in each state could have been encouraged. It's way smarter/healthier than import of produce. Organic farming, farming automation, soil protective farming,... there are so many opportunities for development there. I could be wrong but future high oil prices will make multi thousands vegetable delieveries a luxury. So, it would be better to invest in those areas now than then. How so? Who's going to feed those living, recreating on that prised land? Free lunch of endless trade deficit is not forever. Innovation economomy is, putting it mildly, fraud.
Why the hell would anyone want to spend their life driving a tractor around or otherwise scraping plant material off the ground? It beats starvation, but not by much when there are other options. It is the high lord of dead-end jobs. And this is coming from someone who spent far too long working for a cement plant.
Yes, some people enjoy farming big time. It's hard to understand for city folks. Monetarization of life experiences - American way; but there are a few tens of % of the deviants defying that rule. But farmers are near extinct anyway. Agro bussiness rules the market. Agro bussiness outsources the growing mainly to use whatever poisons they wish + hordes of desperate people (cheaper overall than machines). Those bastards even spray chemicals on fields while people are working there. Efficiency, no time could be wasted. Sure, country which voted on "moral values" do not see anything unmoral in eating food produced in such a way. What other options, if not a secret? Low end service jobs beat everything, that is true. Paperpushing is the most creative American pass time, also true. Many options are headed to foreign lands no matter what. How many "other" (more challenging options) options? How many people seeking higher end jobs? So, what are Americans good for? As fare as I understand from your posts, Americans are such a precious commodity which simply cannot be wasted on agriculture and manufacturing. They could be un/under employed, do challenging service and paperpushing jobs; BUT God forbid them from doing some manufacturing and agriculture. It's a waste of talants&education. Well, who's going to feed and cloth them? Dollar empire is not forever.
Also, many near or destitute farmers join million (at least) strong army of truck drivers (to deliver food stuff from far away). Spending life while living (literally) in a truck beats periodical tractor driving, that's true. Or, lemme guess, those folks could all become CEOs they were just too dumb and lazy. So, it serves them right.
Personally, I would rather be the guy to have the patent for some little doohickie necessary in the production and maintenance of tractors than to actually be the guy driving a tractor.
100% of guys are writing patents. Who's going to buy them? What will happen to the price of "innovations", will it plummet as the price of any readily available good? Only very small % of people are capable of creating meaningful innovations. It's only in a pollyanna world, one may become an innovator if he'll set his mind on a goal and gets the right attitude&education.
Hey, I didn't say everyone could do it. It is just what I consider the pinnacle of society. What people should strive for. The inventors; the scientists; the artists; true craftsmen. These are the people who shine. These are the people who make something new. Other professions just hold the status quo. While still quite necessary, they just don't take me as very high aspirations in the scheme of things. A farmer can easily measure his life in truckloads of turnips. A factory worker can measure his life in gears produced. An inventor or a real craftsman... it takes something more.
America is just developing a new agriculture market , whats happening is America has G.E technology for sale the selling of seed to other nations to grow crops from . Monsanto is a prime mover in this feild , but there is a lot of resistance to this from 3rd world nations .
what is the point in patenting it if noone wants to farm, and if you go do an american with the money then the farmers will in turn go out of business os that those few who did buy your thing can no longer afford it
Obviously people choose to farm... though in many cases it is due to necessity and not real choice. It is just that fewer farmers are necessary to produce the same amount of crops. Lesser developed countries are taking over the role until they have the economic leveridge to get out of that rewardless hole themselves. In my eyes, the vast majority of farming would be automated in an ideal world.
There is no such thing as jobs that American won't do. Is there any job worse than prostitution? Americans do this job because it pays. American won't do some jobs at the prevailing wages for those jobs.
Is there any job worse than prostitution? Do I hear a Gender bias? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Males fight (as in WWF) and females prostitute, what is the difference?
