What are some problems in the agricultural sector??

Question

What are some problems in the agricultural sector??

Answer 1

Increased costs of inputs

No control of prices received for crops

Too little rain

Too much rain

Too much interference by the government

High land prices

Public opinion altered by activist groups like Greenpeace and PETA whose actions are based on feelings and not facts

Constantly losing good farm land to urban sprawl

Disappearance of small family farms

I started out OK now I'm getting depressed., somebody ask about all of the positive things about farming.

Answer 2

Pestiscide and herbicide resistance, increase in non-native pests being introduced to areas with little to no natural defence to the organisms, higher input costs (mainly labor and fuel), lower commodity prices being brought on by global competition (which isnt a problem this year with the increased demand for corn, wheat, soybeans due to the increase in ethanol production and demand), increase in land values making it expensive to buy more ground, and the one problem that no one has any conrol over...weather.

Answer 3

1.  Mega food corps pushing billions of dollars into politics to influence Agriculture policy to help them and hinder smaller operations.

2.  Lack of awareness and knowledge in consumers about how their food is raised, where it comes from, and what is going into it.

3.  Mega production farms for beef, chicken and pork.  The practices carried out here cause a plethora of ill side affects for the animals and the people buying them.  I cant possibly go over them all but I can give you a few examples.  WARNING you arent going to want to buy chicken at the store any more.  After a chicken is cleaned they dunk it in a chill water tank.  The fecal matter left on the chicken from the mechanical gutting washes off and dissolves in the water.  While the chicken is submerged it absorbs around 10% of its weight in water (check the label on a whole chicken when you go to the store, its there).  The problem is that it also absorbs the fecal matter from previous chickens.  Nice huh.  So if you take that chicken and bake it in your oven you will notice that the drippings have a dull greyish tint whereas a naturally raised and cleaned chicken will have gold tinted drippings resembling honey.  I dont buy chicken anymore from the store.

Here are some of the things going into just about any meat you buy at the store now.  Pesticides, Herbicides, Antibiotics, Growth hormones, Medicines to make them eat, Food coloring and it all gets washed with a healthy dose of chlorine.

Another huge side effect is this.  Take these 2 examples.

First farmer Joe raises 100 head of beef and 1000 chickens on his farm, by using his knowledge and understanding of nature he raises these cows without using pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, growth hormones and very little if any antibiotics, he then hauls the cows to a local butcher and sells the meat straight to the consumer.  He process the chickens on his farm and sells straight to the consumer.  The consumer sees his farm, sees the animals and how healthy they are, they see him process the chickens, they trust the food they are getting. (this is what I do by the way)

Second, mega food corp raises 10000 head of beef in a giant feedlot.  They feed them corn, f***s, dead cows, dead chickens etc.  The corn costs alot just in terms of fuel spent to till the land, plant the corn, fertilize the corn, spray herbicide then pesticide, harvest the corn then truck the corn to the feed lot.  They pump the cows with growth hormones, antibiotics, pills to make them eat the c**p they feed them, insecticides (yes they inject insecticides), and on and on.  This feedlot generates millions of pounds of fecal waste, which in such quantity becomes a major pollutant.  They truck the cows to a giant slaughterhouse (more fuel).  Slaughter them in unsanitary conditions then dye the meat with food coloring, seal it with carbon monoxide then ship it all over the US (more fuel).  Thats alot of pollution to bring you a very unhealthy product.

4. Overuse of pesticides, antibiotics, fertilizer and herbicides leading to more resistant bacteria, pests, and weeds.  Also contributes to killing off beneficial soil organisms which in turn leads to more fertilizer being needed.

5.  Heavy government regulation on farmers selling produce straight to consumers.

6.  Government regulations on labeling leads to major confusion.  The term "Organic" for example has been so corrupted that there is no longer any link between organic and safe food.  "Free Range" chicken now apparently means that these mega food corps can put a small door, on a chicken barn holding 10,000 chickens, that leads to a small yard and sell them as "Free Range", no matter that they never even go outside.

7. Government farm subsidies.

8.  I could go on and on.  Here are some excellent info packed sites to help you out.

Ag policy website

http://www.agobservatory.org/

Great well organized website covering all the stuff I mentioned above

http://www.sustainabletable.org/

Funny and well worth the watch, spoof of Matrix on the food giants.

http://www.themeatrix.com/interactive/in...

Another good flash on mega stores, spoof on Star Wars

http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.htm...

Excellent blog on US Food policy.  Wide range of topics.

http://usfoodpolicy.blogspot.com/

Article on the effects of the mega food corps on small farmers

http://www.pcusa.org/trade/downloads/con...

Scientific site with much info on health impacts of the food we eat.

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environme...

One of my fav websites on whats wrong with the Ag industry

http://www.ethicurean.com/

Good website on finding good food and how to cook it

http://theslowcook.blogspot.com/

Answer 4

one of the major issues is the captial farmers are investing in the land and plant for a very low return 8% can be returned in a bank at almost 100% saftely where as most top sheep farms would be lucky to be doing this in nz and they are at high risk to markets ie flucation in U.S an euro dollar media scares of foot and mouth ect.

This has lead to many NZ sheep farms selling and or converting to dairy because their is easyer options of investing their captil else where for higher and safer returns .

this is a shame as there is a huge protine shortage in the world market and it will not get any better with population growth and more and more farm land being developed for towns ect.

Answer 5

Pesticide and herbicide resistence.

Drought.

Late frost.

Controversy over genetically modified crops.

"Scares" like mad cow disease and E. coli on spinach.

These are just off the top of my head; certainly there are several more.

Answer 6

FOR A DEVELOPING COUNTRY,TO MEET THE NEED OF A LARGE POPULATION TO MAINTAIN BOTH QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF PRODUCE IS DIFFICULT.SECONDLY,LOWERING OF WATER TABLE AND LACK OF IRRIGATION WATER AND FACILITIES.THIRD INADEQUATE FACILITIES,MACHINERY,TECHNOLOGY,LESS ACCEPTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY BY FARMERS,LESS FACILITIES TO SCIENTISTS,LACK OF FUNDS ETC.MOREOVER.......DIFFERENT AGRO ECONOMIC CLIMATIC CONDITIONS VARY,RESISTANCE BREAKAGE AND FEASIBILITY OF GM CROPS IN AN AREA,PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES IN PATHOGENS AND NEW RACES EVOLUTION,PESTS AND INSECTS,WEEDS EVER COMPETING,DEPLETION OF NUTRIENTS IN SOIL,RISK AND UNCERTAINITYETC. ARE SOME PROBLEMS WHICH ARE DEALT AT DIFFERENT STAGES.