“ Small, Independent Farms at Risk: Experts ”

In my hometown, there s a huge family farm conglomerate (3-4 cousins) who together farm probably 10k acres… so much that nobody can really keep track any longer and they are continually adding many “quarters” each winter. Concerned about rising costs and availability of nitrogen fertilizer… they invested some of one year’s profits in a new expansion instead of buying more land for one year.

They chose to build a HUGE poultry confinement complex in the middle of their empire to help supply broiler birds for a new Costco packing plant 100 miles away. They have never had any involvement with chickens and don’t care about making any money on the project. It is simply a way for them to be able to produce nitrogen fertilizer without relying on the market. Their source is dependable, reliable, unlimited and free! They even recruited a large Amish family from Ohio to run the complex who gets to work the complex with access to a sizable garden plot to feed their clan, and a guaranteed monthly income. No risk, no investment. The investing farm family can just leave them alone and collect their free fertilizer and watch a new revenue stream flow in.

The small guys like my family (only 5 quarters), medium sized guys (1-2k acres) and even the regular big operations (3-5k) could never have access to the capital to swing such an operation. The biggest operations get bigger and more able to withstand the fertilizer crunch, which only accelerates their profits which sees their growth rate further increase! Everyone else is just screwed.