Ironic Capitalism

The other day a friend and I had a quick email discussion of the Blake Hurst piece that I pointed out in my last posting. His position was in line with Hurst’s, that organic food is crap, and that modern conventional farming practices are the optimal use of agricultural resources. That has been the steady chorus from most of the commentary I’ve seen on the article, from Reason to radio host Neal Boortz. The irony in that is that modern farming is notably not a libertarian venture. Few other industries rely on, and are effected by government policy as much as commodity agriculture.
This has become more and more evident to me within the last year or more as I have gotten very interested in the trendy foodie movement, most notably grass fed meats. Yeah, Michael Pollan may be a stereotypical Berkley liberal, but underneath the movement he has helped inspire is a libertarian mindset, motivated not so much by philosophy as it is the almighty dollar. The proponents and practitioners of alternative agriculture and grassfed livestock are true capitalists in comparison to their conventional subsidy chasing brethren.
Nowhere has this been more evident than at two seminars I attended recently. Last April I attended the Stockman Grass Farmer’s Grassfed conference in Dallas. The group was a diverse meeting of farmer/ranchers, mostly from the surrounding region. And I mean diverse, represented were Canadians, tweed jacketed Jewish cowboys, and even a heart surgeon. But to a man most of the participants in the discussions were not interested in subsidies or programs. They were a lot more concerned about production, direct marketing, and if they had concerns about government it was regarding any hurdles that would be put in their way by well meaning bureaucrats.
Contrast that to the tone of a small no till farming seminar I attended just last Thursday. At this meeting was a group of conventional farmers interested in adopting chemically intensive no till methods. Now if I had called the people present welfare whores, I doubt I would have made it out with my life. But to hear them talk, government money was the be all and end all of farming. As payment structures switch away from outright production, and towards a more European conservation mentality, it will be no till methods that will be promoted via policy. Twenty dollars an acre for no till, and the promise of more on the way made quite an impression. Couple this with new revenue assurance programs like ACRE, and we’ll insure that production of basic commodities stays strong, no matter what food fads and policy pop up along the way.
This benefits more than farmers, it keeps subsidy money flowing to all of those necessary parts of the chain. Chemical companies, fertilizer sellers, and equipment manufacturers, on one end, and the users of cheap grain on the other end, like ethanol distillers, animal feeders, meat processors, and sweetener manufacturers on the other end. All of those parties need to keep the production going, and they lobby Washington policy makers accordingly.
Admittedly that’s what draws me to alternative agriculture, grassfed and the like is that most of it seems in line with my politics. Because organic and grassfed don’t rely on as many inputs, you can literally create production out of sunshine and rain. Yes, that production may cost more to the end user, but isn’t charging more my right as a producer? Conventional ag folks will tell you that they’re ‘feeding the world!’ as if failure to subsidize their over production of commodities will leave the world to starve. Does that sound like an extortion racket to anyone else? I wonder what Mr. Hurst would say, if I accused him of holding starving children hostage in order to justify his lifestyle?
In the interests of full disclosure, I’m still a pretty conventional farmer, growing wheat and cattle for the commodity market. I’m looking to use no till to free up my time for more lucrative, read capitalist, ventures. But as my wife and I look more and more into direct marketing, I find myself veering away from a mindest that talks a good capitalist game, but still has it’s hand out at the end of the day.