Industry Obstacles

[J Baxter]

We have so many obstacles we are facing with more coming up everyday. What does everyone see as our greatest challenges ahead?

 

[Scotty]

I think it is the lack of education. We don't teach our kids anything about farming or ranching in the big citites. I'm sure there are some exceptions but not many, or not as many as needed. My daughter in the 2nd grade knows were milk comes from. Knows that beef is from an animal that is now dead. Saying that we also need to teach or children right. The anti PETA way. That the animals taht die are not indangered and are serving a purpose. Unlike some other we have in society.



Scotty

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

I have to agree that the animal rights activists and their distorted view of reality is going to be a major challenge in the future. My daughter is in grade 1 and she knows where meat and milk come from as well. She also knows where calves come from and what the bull and the cows do to get them started. Not many city kids know much about that stuff. I also think the government regulations could be a problem but again for the most part, those regs are driven by city people who don't understand the business. We need to somehow educate the people in the city about farm life and what are issues are. Good Luck.

 

[cattle_gal]

I'd have to say Gov Regs. Urbanites that don't have a clue how real nature life works. Then those clueless people get brainwashed by power mongers that tell them that they will solve all the problems if they give them money. Of course those groups are tax exempt. Then looky who's got fancy houses, cars, land ext. Groups like Sierra Club, Earth First, Western Watershed Project, Center for Biolgical Diversity, PETA, Animal Liberation Front, save the salmon scams(Klammath Falls Basin), the prairie rat/dog lovers, and my favorite - the predator lovers - Defenders For Wildlife. The list goes on and on.

Then those groups get there hands in on gov people and get in the government themselves(Babbit the Rabbit, Snore Gore, ect) and change what they want - as long as the right leader is in office.

If you care to check out who some of those groups are here's a couple of links

http://www.undueinfluence.com/

http://www.junkscience.com/

http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Urban sprawl. Land is getting bulldozed so fast and selling for so much, new cattlemen are nearly non-existent. Plus the old timers just can't resist in many cases, so the "acres for cows" are getting smaller and smaller.

 

[Beefy]

combination of urban sprawl and high start-up costs.

 

[Texan]

Good poll, JB! Left out my idea of the biggest obstacle, though. For me its the divisiveness within our industry. We could overcome a lot of the other obstacles if we could all work together. Our ability/desire to do that seems to get worse every day. I voted for urban sprawl. The closer they get to us, the more it adds to the startup costs, government regs and a lot of other problems.

 

[J Baxter]

I agree with you Texan that there is a lot of divisiveness within the industry and it seems like a lot of it stems from government regulation. There are those who want more regulation and those who think that there is already too much. We have proponents of National ID and we have opponents. It is even more divisive when you take in the packers and feed lots...no cool or cool. It would be a miracle to see all factions working together to promote the industry as a whole.

It will nearly bring tears to the eyes of a farm boy to drive toward the city anymore. Hundreds of thousands of farms are being destroyed and the sprawl inches ever closer to taking away a true piece of American history...the farm. I've seen people from every walk of life complaining about the price of fuel, just wait until we have to depend on someone else for the very nourishment we need to live. This sprawl will eventually some to pass as time goes on, but it is going to come at the cost of millions of starving urbanites and thousands of displaced farms and ranches.

JB