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.