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Issues... Issues... and more Issues.
April 19, 2012
When did farming get so complicated?
20 years ago, my dad worried about the
weather. He nurtured
his crop, the community supported him, trespassers were asked to
leave, a profit was made and farm prospered.
If Mother Nature was nasty, the insurance paid for
losses. He supported
Farm Initiatives, his employees, the community and his family.
He reported to, and was responsible to 4 government
agencies. Local,
state and Federal.
Today…
Insurance
We had our insurance cancelled this past
year, because we had too many claims for storm related damage.
Not negligence claims, Mother Nature claims.
We are now insured by…
Wait for it……
Lloyds of London.
No other insurance company wanted to insure our farm.
It seems that we are in a bad weather cycle.
It is not like I can move the farm, or change the weather
pattern. Not
our fault but insurance companies are businesses and businesses
want to make money, and I guess we hindered their ability to
make a profit.
Regulations
We answer to 5 local governments.
This is because of farm markets.
6 state agencies, and 6 federal agencies.
This is because we are in the food and wine business.
Each month I spend about 15 hours filling out state and
federal reports.
Each quarter, I spend more than 20 hours doing quarterly
reports. That means
that every three months I spend about 1 week filing reports.
Annually, beginning in October and continuing thru mid
March, we waste another 80 hours filing annual reports and
license renewals.
The annual total is 340 hours spent reporting, how much we grew,
how much we want to grow, how much money we did or did not make,
the type of sales, the actions of our employees, so on and so
on… you get the drift.
We spent about 2 months worth of time just reporting our
farm actions.
Trespassers
These are people that believe…
because they visit our farm and spend a little money…
that they can have full access to our operation.
The FDA, the BATF, and Homeland Security, have a
different opinions as to whom or who may have access to our full
farm operation. When
we ask these people to leave, they feel insulted and express
that we are disrespecting their rights.
Some have had to be asked to leave by our local
authorities; others
leave with quotes of ruining our business; and still others
leave us with threats of violence.
We try to ignore all, but we have had animals that have
been threatened with injury and death and we have even had our
children threatened.
I am supposed to just take this as part of our business.
Disgruntled customers.
Read some of the reviews written about us.
The trespassers like to say how mean or disrespectful we
are. They don’t say
how we always ask them to leave before we demand.
They don’t wish to disclose their actions… such as
picking unripe fruit in an undesignated site and then dumping
what they took and refusing to pay for damages or stealing fruit
and vegetables rather than purchase the same from the store…
Stealing….
Let me tell you a story… a true story
One day 3 years ago, two gentlemen, fresh
from playing golf, stopped in for a visit.
They bought a bag of apples and on their out of the
parking lot stopped by our bin trailer.
(My guys had just drop off a trailer with 75 bushel of
fresh picked apples)
The older gentleman… the one that worked for a national
pharmacy, a pharmacy that many of your readers visit on a
regular basis and he drove a BMW, help himself to all the apples
he could carry. When
I approached him asking if he realized exactly what he had just
done, he told me that my store help had given him permission to
take as many apples as he could carry.
I explained to him that if he was truthful, I would have
to fire my employee.
He told to fire her. The
employee in question was my mother.
The one person, who I knew would never give away the
farm. I told this
gentleman that he was lying and stealing.
He stated that taking apples was not stealing.
I asked him, what would his pharmacy do if I stole a $.98
toothbrush? He said
that was shop lifting and he would have me arrested.
I ask him what the difference is.
He once more stated it just apples and I am harassing
him. Finally I told
him I wanted $5.00, the cost of the apples or I would call the
police, and have him arrested.
He threw the bill at me and said he would make sure we
were put out of business for my rude and threatening actions.
Rude and threatening actions.
Rude.
He was the one who told me to fire my employee after
lying to me.
Threat.
I made him pay for goods he took and I threatened him
with possible prosecution, if he didn’t pay.
WOW … Am I a Bad GUY.
In case anyone thinks I am complaining… I
am a little…, I’m venting…. Keeps me sane in a crazy world.
The good news is that for every butt head we have to deal
with, I have hundreds are great customers and friends that
understand and appreciate us.
I
just want to remind some that farming is a business, not just a
life style. To maintain
our life style I must treat the farm as a business, I must have
employees, I must make money, and we have to work 7 days a week
in good and bad weather…
We do all this for the love of the life
style and l so we can produce the best, the freshest fruits and
vegetable.
Next month’s venting is about so called
organic fruits and vegetables.
Open spaces.. that with be next months topic.
The issues discussed on this page do not necessarily reflect
the views of this farm, my wife or my family. But it does
reflect my opinion.
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