Florida and its Farmers are Bad News

THE DOCTOR IS IN
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LAS VEGAS - Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Just a few days ago, farmers in the state of Florida actually plowed under acres and acres of strawberry fields. Why? They say the price of strawberries is not enough for them to survive on. I disagree. In January when the Florida strawberry crop was threatened by cold weather people that lived near the farmers fields gave up water to protect the farmers crops.In fact,the farmers took so much water from the residents to protect their strawberries that it left sink holes in and around the residents homes. Guess what? It worked, the strawberry crops turned out be be very, very, bountiful. Florida farmers said there were so many strawberries that the market would be flooded with strawberries.

So, what did they do? They destroyed their perfectly good crops. Their disgusting act caused millions of people in Florida to become very angry, and I don't blame the residents of Florida for their anger. Some Floridians said they would not ever buy a Florida strawberry again. Hooray!

These farmers had perfectly good strawberries,instead of picking them and taking them to market they instead destroyed the crops and spit in the eyes of all of the Floridians that helped them bring in a good harvest.

Rather than destroy this great harvest they could have taken the strawberries to market, even if this year, they only broke even. What would have been the downside? None really. These greedy farmers could have picked all of their crops and gave them to food banks, hospitals, nursing homes, charities, schools, and many other outlets that really could have used the food. but "NO", they chose to plow the crop under because they were angry they had such a good harvest this year.

Can you imagine? The Florida farmers credo is: If you have a good crop, plow it under so you can raise prices on the produce, and if you have a bad year, hey, we have a shortage so we have to raise the cost of that tomato or potato because we didn't have a good crop. The consumer can't win. People, talk about a losing hand, WOW! Big agriculture, the farmer and government all working against us.

It's a bad enough that our government subsidizes farmers with big,fat checks every year so the farmer will not grow certain crops. Now the state and Feds allow the farmer to plow under a good harvest year.

These farmers were whining and complaining on television that they would not make any money this year because they had such a good harvest and that is why they plowed under the strawberry fields. Hell, these people are farmers, they, above all people know that Mother Nature acts in strange ways. You can't control Mother Nature.

A farmer is supposed to take what Mother Nature throws at you. One year the farmer may have a great, full harvest and then, at a drop of a coin, the next year may bring drought, locust,bugs,, bad weather, etc., but that's part of being a farmer. The farmer may make hundreds of thousands of dollars one year and the next year only tens of thousands, -- that's life. But, a farmer shouldn't destroy perfectly good crops in the name of "GREED", (that's not only my choice word but the word used by many Floridians when they saw what these wanna-be farmers did too the harvest).

I know this is not the first time something like this happened. I can remember a time when our Federal government flushed millions of gallons of milk down the drain so the dairy industry could fix their prices. The government also dumped tons of butter in the ocean.The same thing also happened with coffee harvests. Rather than sell the product for less they destroy it. As disgusting as these acts appear I though we were above that sort of thing anymore. Christ, in this time of recession, and/or depression( depending on how you're surviving out there and see the world)and in our current economic climate the state of Florida and these idiot farmers should be brought to task.

Shame on all of these greedy, dollar chasing Florida farmers and shame on the state of Florida for allowing these ingrates to destroy perfectly good harvests.

I suggest that Congress pass a law preventing farmers from destroying perfectly good food for the sake of chasing the "all mighty dollar." Farmers should not be allowed to destroy any food crops without very strict oversight from the government.

I know that big Ag has an enormous lobby in Washington and a large money hold on our lawmakers but these politicians have to wake up, get off of their butt and act in the countries best interest.

These Congressman allow food prices to climb more and more each and every day. The middle class worker can't afford some foods and produce to feed their families and yet these same politicians still have their hands in the pocket of big agriculture and continue giving the farmer anything they ask for and paying them big bucks not to grow crops. Acts such as this has got to come to a halt.- And, that's my opinion.

Bradley W. Kuhns, Ph.D., O.M.D.
Dr. Kuhns can be reached by e-mail at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com