[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by spareparts

my mothers family were farmers, they didn't own farms, they just worked one them(tobacco farms in Greensboro, NC). Most of the farms were family business that were inherited. The owners lived in the family house(usually very big), and every one in their family had new vehicles every year, and new tractors in the fields. But when you talked to them, they always complained about not having any money. When one of them went bankrupt, you heard them talking about how tough it was to run a farm, when you looked around(especially at the auction), you could see a pile of wasted money. A lot of small farms are sucked in by the temptations of low interest loans subsidized by our government, amassing huge dept(similar to the student loan issue). Competition takes out a bunch of smaller farms, but poor business practices, bad spending habits, and true arrogance takes out just as many. You can always tell when a farmer is complaining about the price of something, his mouth is moving.

I agree with you on most everything you said. But you have to consider also that farmers are not, were never meant to be, "businessmen". I think you hit the nail on the head with your "poor business practices" comment.
Farmers are people that have a gift for growing things.. And while I agree that there are abuses in every family owned business, it's kind of hard to point the finger solely at the farmer. For every new tractor, car, combine, front end loader, house, etc, etc, etc, that a farmer has there was someone selling it to them that was purely after their commission or salery, and the fact that the farmer couldn't pay didn't make a hill of beans difference to them. Yes, I agree that there are abuses with farmers, but show me an industry, any industry, that doesn't have one.

To my way of thinking farmers are a gift from God. They grow the food that keeps me and my family alive. It's kind of hard to fault that.