Sioux City Journal

What's good for the farmer is good for America

Posted: Tuesday, May 06, 2008

DAKOTA DUNES -- It's interesting to note how quick the shallow views and short-sighted thinking of a local corporate CEO can appear in the media when their bottom line is negatively impacted, and how quick the same can lay blame on another industry for their misfortune.

What's really happening in America today is a perfect storm of countless variables pushing up food prices; most notably a weak dollar, record hedge fund activity in grains due to a fragile economy brought on by the housing crisis; record oil prices increasing transportation and packaging costs; and poor international crop production and increased domestic grain demand due to record exports and ethanol production. It seems like just yesterday that America was having farm aid concerts due to the plight of those who feed us, while fat corporate profits were being touted year in and year out at annual shareholder meetings.

Well, the tide has turned and the ethanol industry will never apologize for stepping forward and helping protect our national interests while trying to reduce the billions of dollars going to those who want us dead. It's the farmers' time and what's good for the farmer is good for America. -- Joel Jarman

Story Comments

Douglas wrote on May 12, 2008 12:50 PM:

" RIGHT ON Joel, excellent. "

Hmmm wrote on May 7, 2008 11:40 PM:

" Actually I believe some farmer should hire JG to WORK on a farm.......would need lots and lots of education first however because it is NOT an easy job......and most town guys would have no clue. Some do as they may have spent some time with uncles and such when growing up....so not to demean you guys in town. I just know that JG has not got a clue. "

Henriettta Wallace wrote on May 7, 2008 1:48 PM:

" JG, You arent good at guessing about peoples identity or their traits either.
Why should the American farmer thank the taxpayers? Farmers have been providing people like you with the cheapest food in the world for years. People in every other country spend a larger percentage of their income for food than Americans do.
Food inflation in the U.S. averaged 2.9 percent over the past 25 years. Oil prices over 50 years have risen 4,000 percent.
Another interesting statistic: a 2002 USDA survey shows the average age of America's estimated 2 million farmers is 55.3 years. Maybe farmers should be a protected occupation because they are going to be dying off unless things change!
(By the way, did you use to play bagpipes atop a roof on Lower Fourth Street?) "

JG wrote on May 7, 2008 11:48 AM:

" Henry Wallace (the name is apt), None of the above. I'm only pointing out the obvious: Farmers are a protected occupation like no other in this country. When was the last time a farmer thanked the American taxpayer? And, Hmmm...I bet you save string and aluminum foil too. You sound like the typical, an*l retentive farmer. "

Henry Wallace wrote on May 7, 2008 9:59 AM:

" JG, Are you senile, stubborn or just stupid? Whatever the problem is, you should not try to discuss something when you have so little knowledge about it. "