What Ag Can Afford Pt 2

What Ag Can Afford Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. The cost of farming, no secret, has skyrocketed the past few years. But that apparently has drawn little if any sympathy from state lawmakers who’ve passed along additional expenses like the ag overtime law.

Washington Policy Center’s Director of Agriculture, Pam

Lewison says there are some compromises we could make …

LEWISON … “But ultimately, we are coming to a point where the only compromise that makes sense to maintain our level of safety, quality and output production is that food is going to have to cost more if we are going to continue to tell our ag community that they have to conform to a white-collar environment.”

Some of the blame, Lewison says is on us …

LEWISON … “We’ve talked about this before, that it’s I think partly a problem that we’ve created ourselves as a community, in that, we don’t invite people in to talk about what it actually takes to run a farm.”

Like, Lewison says, the cost of doing business …

LEWISON … “And the only difference between what farms do and what other wholesale manufacturers do is, other wholesale manufacturers can take into account the cost of those inputs in their profit margins and farms cannot because we don’t pass on our cost of production to consumers.

Lewison says ag can’t do that because they don’t set the prices for what they produce. She says regardless of what you see on a farm, the land, the expensive equipment, and the labor, the liquid assets typically aren’t there.

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