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Re: Farmers and Conservation

Great ideas Chris.

I wonder if farmers are fighting for the same types of passions, not 
money.  They value a way of life that they see threatened.  It doesn't help 
that there are a few environmental groups out there that consider farmers 
the enemy.  This just gives people in the Farm Bureau more ammunition to 
spread around.

I think it is an exaggeration to say that family farms can't make 
money.  The only newsworthy farms are those that are badly managed.  Family 
farms do not over produce, commercial ones do.  The family farmer is caught 
in a lose lose situation.  Prices are down, commercial farms are running 
them out of business, and now they perceive conservationists coming in and 
telling them they can't farm any more.  Fear is a blinding force that only 
education can overcome.

mark stephens

At 05:34 PM 8/31/2000 -0400, you wrote:

>I keep hearing that farmers are making pennies per acre per year.  Farming
>simply doesn't pay enough to raise a family.  It seems the most severe
>threat to the farming economy and the farming way of life is farming
>itself, basically over-production.  The farmers are producing too much and
>as a result, are not making any money from it because of the huge
>surplusses.
>
>We keep talking about helping the farmers out economically:  "give them
>jobs helping plant the prairie", "find ways to preserve the land and
>still keep them working" etc.  But the problem is not economic, farmers
>aren't farming to make money.  Otherwise, if farmers were serious about
>farming to earn a living, they would be happy to see land taken out of
>production to reduce the surplus.  (From an economic standpoint, they
>SHOULD all want to be the only farmer in America, because it would give
>them such an economic advantage.) Since they don't want this, there must
>be some OTHER reason why they oppose projects like these.  It seems to me
>that it's a cultural thing, and the problem is what Doug has pointed out:
>basically, that there is a culture clash between farmers and
>conservationists.
>
>So we have a cultural barrier.  To be most effective these projects
>involving farmers (or anyone else), we need to reach through that culture
>gap through cultural methods.  Like someone said before, we need to see
>things from a farmer's perspective.  When we argue for preservation and
>conservation, we need to aim the argument at the cultural background of
>the listeners.  Below are some ways we could effectively communicate with
>farmers the value of natural areas:
>
>1.  I think a good way to start would be by thinking about exactly why we
>personally are so passionate about nature, prairies, etc.  When I
>personally understand why I get so excited when I see a remnant prairie...
>only then can I pass that passion on to someone else.
>
>2.  Farmers are very production-oriented.  If we demonstrated that
>natural areas are "productive" and are important for so many
>reasons including habitat, water filtration, etc.  This is probably why
>Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever have been so successful, because
>"I can see that the 40 acres of Pheasants Forever land down the road
>is the ONLY reason there are pheasant on my farm. And, because that land
>is PRODUCING pheasants, it therefore has value, utility, etc."  For
>example, so many beautiful and benefitial plants, birds and insects are
>almost completely dependent on remnants.  That makes prairies valuable
>because they are preserving things that are valuable to me.
>
>3.  The previous approaches are only partial fixes, though.  I think a
>better solution is through ethics, values, and spirituality.  When people
>value things for more than what they can get from them, and when people
>see that treating nature as a commodity is a wasteful, un-ethical, and
>un-Christian way to act, then they will think twice.  Nature is good for
>the soul, who can argue with that?
>
>Any other ideas?
>Chris.

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