In article ,
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:

"Isabella Woodhouse" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:

"Isabella Woodhouse" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:

They do not want to go out and separately negotiate orders of
corn of this magnitude from 100 separate small farmers who
can each only supply a ton of corn. This is why the big
agribusinesses thrive, it is the presence of a market.

If you want to get rid of large farms and go back to
a lot of small farms, you need to figure out an efficient
marketing and distribution system.

Small farms in the US have had cooperative distribution systems
since the mid-1700s. I think I recall reading that even the
Sumerians (or was it the Babyonians?) had cooperative
distribution systems for their agriculture. Lack of
distribution systems is clearly not the cause of factory
farming but it certainly was an idea worth exploring.

I don't think that the small farm co-ops can deliver the quantities of
basic grains - corn, wheat, oats, etc. - with the regularity that the
large commercial food processors need.

Why not? Upon what are you basing your opinion? It seems to me that
the weather, which is the most major factor in farm production, does not
distinguish between small and large farms.

And large farms don't irrigate when there is no rain, nowadays?

Non-sequitur. Irrigation is not the issue.

You didn't answer the question. Why can't co-ops comprised of many
small farms deliver large quantities of basic grains? Upon what are you
basing your opinion?

An agribusiness can deal with a lot of the weather by simply buying
another large farm in a different weather pattern and running both
farms. They can also spend a lot of money on irrigation and use
their political influence to win water rights battles.

You were talking about companies that *buy*--- not produce their own---
grain for making boxed cereal. Recall your own discussion about
negotiating contracts? You're changing horses in the middle of the
stream here. Please address the question.

If you went to a co-op and asked them to sign a contract guarenteeing
you would get (for example) 200 tons of a specific variety of wheat,...

Has that--- the requirement of a contract guaranteeing production of a
crop for any time period, let alone an entire decade--- ever been a
common practice in American agriculture? Can you support this
contention with evidence? Seems like a false premise to me.

Very few business supplier contracts are public record for what should
be completely obvious reasons. I have no reason to believe agribusinesses
are any different in that regard.

You are equivocating--- hiding behind an invented obstacle because you
cannot support your contention. I think you well know that no outdoor
farming entity, no matter what nomenclature you use to describe it, can
ever guarantee crops for a period of ten years.

But it is common in the manufacturing industry to have suppliers
under contracts of extended length. Once more, I have no reason to
believe agribusinesses are any different in that regard, either.

Again, you are changing terms. A long term contract is not necessarily
the same as guaranteeing a crop each year for a period of ten years.
Contract terms can be as simple as the farmer promising whatever crop he
happens to produce to the buyer at a specified price for a period of
years.

...every summer Aug 1st, for the next 10 years, I doubt that they would
be able to do it. By contrast an agribusiness that has vast tracts of
land in several different weather regions, very likely can do it.

Can the people actually farming each of those "vast tracts of land in
several different weather regions" guarantee a crop? I can't imagine
how. So, then, why is it not possible for such companies to acquire
their grain from either a large enough co-op or several co-ops in
different regions? It seems to me that quantity, as you stated, is not
really the issue.

Kellog has spent years building up a customer base that buys it's
processed food on a regular basis. They are not going to stop selling
corn flakes for 9 months out of the year because their supplier tells
tham corn is not in season, or was rained out. They are going to
tell their supplier that they expect their shipment of 50 tons of
corn every month come hell of high water and if it's a bad year for corn
that's the suppliers problem.

You've talked an awful lot but you have to to give a single shred of
evidence as to why farmers' co-ops can't deliver large amounts of grain.
I can only conclude your opinion here has no basis in fact.

Isabella
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot