Everyday billionaire Mike Bloomberg wakes and heads down from his bedroom to the posh dining room in one of his multimillion dollar mansions. Perhaps his hired house staff has laid out a buffet on the side table for him to serve himself. Perhaps he takes his seat and is served his plate directly. Not that he gives his house staff anymore regard than his other employees, as we are finding out day to day now that he is running for president.
There is some sort of citrus or berry juice. Milk or cream and sugar for his coffee. Any number of various grains for his toasted bread or pancakes, creamy butter and luscious jams and syrups to sweeten. Eggs done the way he likes them, perhaps fried in melted butter or vegetable/corn/canola oil, with ketchup to drown them in. Maybe a bowl of cereal or seasonal fruits. Of course some bacon or sausage, or a breakfast steak beside his eggs. And then there are the (probably) multiple newspapers and print publications he reaches for on the table as he chews and sips his way through an emotionless breakfast. The paper those publications were printed on… the very ink.
Everything within his reach, or stored safely in his estate’s kitchen pantries and walk-in refrigerators and freezers, was grown on either an area farm or somewhere in the nation’s vast expanse of middle-of-the-country farms and ranches. However, Mike Bloomberg has very little concept of exactly how all those basic elements of human sustenance have been successfully produced and brought to his table. Well, steak and meats come from the butcher. Bread comes from the bakery. Corn comes from a can.
Bloomberg has this superior self-importance in his intellect being so far above such menial things as farming, and can shrug his shoulders as he diminishes the profession in the simplest of terms, well, because, according to Mike, it takes very little “gray matter” to farm…
Mike Bloomberg wants us to understand and accept his low view of farmers not needing a whole lot of intelligence to do what they do. I mean, really, how much smarts does it take to dig a hole in the ground, drop in a seed, toss the dirt back into the hole, and pour some water over it, huh? His mentality is that of a kindergartener with a Styrofoam cup of potting soil and a couple of green bean seeds, and bringing home the combination to mommy in a now muddied backpack. That’s all there is to it.
Bloomberg needs to sit his ass down and watch the weather news without ‘climate change’ bias clouding his perception of what is going on when tornado or hurricanes tear through farming regions. The current flooding in Mississippi will effect several industries with farming and food productions, for people and farm animals. An untimely freeze in the heartland (according to the left now a racist term) or in Florida and the other southern states with earlier growing seasons, could have a very dramatic outcome for harvest… from the bee hives farmers keep for pollination of crops and fruit trees, to grasses and grains used to feed not only humans but animals on ranches. When a disaster hits, especially massive flooding, these farmers find farmers from states far from their own sacrificing their own animal sustaining crops in order to send the farmers at-a-loss hay and straw and feed so their cattle and animals can be salvaged. And it is not just loading it on a truck and driving it there. A lot of planning and organizing has to be done to get it there and storing it to protect it all from the weather elements.
I am not a farmer. All my life I have had some sort of summer vegetable garden because my Hungarian immigrant grandparents, who saw WWI in their very own backyards, knew it was important to provide food for your own family and to can it for the pantry reserves. My Grandpa had built an outdoor ‘hot bed’ from railroad ties and old window panes of glass. In very late winter he would start his plants from seeds he had very thoughtfully saved from the previous year’s harvest. He had even developed his own hybrids. In spring he and my Grandma, and me too if I was there, would do the back-paining planting of those precious seedlings on our hands and knees. They were outstanding fishers, so the massive gardens were teeming with nutrients from the hundreds and hundreds of fish guts and scraps Grandpa would bury in the soil. And if they didn’t grow it themselves, they went to farms and bought bushels of fruits and vegetables to also prepare and can for the winter. They did this for half a century or more. From them I learned I had primal instincts for farming that had to be listened to and honed as I listened to their experienced knowledge (with fishing too). Yes, my grandparents had two vast gardens filled with rows of tomatoes, peppers, beans, carrots, strawberries and other berry bushes, onions, garlic, herbs, plum, apple, and peach trees, etc. And it took a Hell of a lot more thought than poking a hole in the ground, dropping in a seed, and covering it with dirt and water.
I can leave my suburb home and drive just a couple miles down the road and find myself in substantial working farms. Countless acres of endless fields of crops of a multitude of plant varieties for different purposes. Acres of fenced grazing areas for horses, donkeys, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs/hogs, and even bison and ostriches. The occasional free-ranging chickens wandering too close to the roads. I can drive for hours in that direction and view the changing Earth seasons year-round in how these massive working family farms, ranches, and dairy farms look just from the road. It is not only beautiful, but awe inspiring as to all the work, hardship, disappointment, and success goes into not just a day’s work but a yearlong or even years long work, and Hell yes, loads of intelligence and brain power goes into that farm. And I guarantee, big-mouthed Mike, most of these farmers/ranchers have computers and use them with several programs in order to make certain they get the most out of their farms and their budgets. And guess what, mini-Mike, they have smart phones too!
These farmers, who lack the “gray matter” according to Bloomberg, undoubtedly put in more brain power and back and sweat-breaking physical work, stress and heartache in a month than Bloomberg does in a year.
There is so much depth to billionaire Bloomberg’s ignorance on the farming industry. Before the ‘holes’ can be made for seeds the farmer has to sit down at his desk or kitchen table and use his/her “gray matter” to plan what fields on the farm will be sown? How much of whatever crops, and when were certain crops planted in certain fields because is the soil depleted of the nutrients needed for those crops? Soil analysis and surveys, and crop rotations. Does the field need to be left fallow for a season or more, or does the farmer use more money from the budget to plant a crop that might not be profitable but will fortify the soil for a the better crop in a future season? Was the winter and early spring detrimental to the soil?
Last late winter early spring in my state saw deluges of late snow and then rains. If there were enough days of dry sunny weather the farmers hurried to till the land… and then the rains came again. And again they had to wait until a patch of dry weather before they could take out their expensive massive trackers and sow the seeds. And then the rains came again and again and again, washing out a Hell of a lot of those sown seeds. You could tell when they finally went to seedlings that the typical neat straight lines were now more like untidy wild swatches struggling to seriously grow. How the farmers must have sighed and grumbled to themselves and with their fellow neighbor farmers. They knew the harvest would be small and meager, if not completely useless. They might not even break even for the cost of the seed, fertilizers, and anything else that goes into planting a crop on a working farm. If it didn’t at least break even to cover its own cost, it surely would not contribute to the even bigger household budget, land taxes and fees, future cost of the next growing season’s expenses. And a weakened crop field is helpless prey to any number of insect pests and wild animal predators. Soil and plant fungus, molds, diseases, and rots. And then there are the markets and will their crops make money when sold, or be near worthless? And then there is the cost of production and transportation of the goods. Paying hired help. Paying fees along the way. This is the kind of shit Bloomberg doesn’t sweat in his business because he has banks full of billions to pay other people to do the “gray matter” sweating while he’s admiring and impressing himself with his own success.
And let me add this for Bloomberg to understand. As I take my drives through these areas I am struck by the incredible money invested in farm machinery and the massive out-buildings and barns that are usually far more modern and well-kept than the generations-old farm houses the farming family lives in. If they are raising food producing animals those animals must have a lot of additional outside sourced feeds coming in. The barns must be heated to a degree or they will freeze in the winter sub-temperatures, dairy cows and hens producing their milk and eggs decreased. There are milking machines and storage implements for the milk collected. Brooders and hatcheries and egg collectors for the hens. Machines for harvesting meat chickens. And good God forbid if the animals get sick or diseased. Veterinary costs are so prohibitive that, depending on the severity of the issue, a rancher might decide to cut his losses and slaughter and bury the herd. Again, a Hell of a lot of “gray matter” is used to come to that heartbreaking decision. Yes, farmers have insurance, but that comes at a high cost as well (a lot higher than your home property/car insurance) in the total budget. Not to mention, if you have ever had to make an insurance claim, the rates rise after claims. Monetary loss leads to selling-off of animals and equipment, and going without just to hopefully make ends meet. If that does not get the farmer far enough out of the red, there is an auction, often times involving generations long land and personal heirlooms, in order to pay bank/credit debt, in order to continue to run the farm and pay the monthly bills. It is stressful and emotional.
This past fall, while driving through the farming regions to visit my daughters, I noticed the now harvested endless stretches of fields were white, as if a light snow had fallen on them. Puzzled, I googled about it. Well, after the very wet spring and early fall, the farmers had to spread lime and other substances on all their fields to re-balance the soil Ph after the rough and too wet growing season. And that was on top of any other fertilizers/nutrients/chemicals they added under the lime. More money. More work.
I have never, in my entire life, taken farmers for granted. Nor the fishing industry. Nor the letter carriers. Nor the garbage collectors. Nor the oil and gas drillers and refinery workers. Nor the paper mills. Nor the coal miners. Nor the steel workers. Nor factory workers. Nor the delivery drivers for Amazon and various companies. Nor the first responders, police, firefighters and EMS. A simple, yet, massive “thank you” to them all.
We hear Bloomberg puffing his chest about his lucrative news business, and shrugging off China’s censorship he so willingly complies with in a shrug and insists Xi isn’t a ‘dictator’ (which should give us all a shuddering indication of how Bloomy, given his track record as nanny state mayor of NYC, would reign as POTUS over the rest of us). And we hear today’s MSM gasping how ‘in danger for their very lives’ they are because ‘we the people’ are beyond sick and tired of their shameless bias and lies and fake news. But on an annual basis, a Hell of a lot more people working in the business/industries that I listed in the previous paragraph lose their lives in work-related accidents, and unfortunately sometimes a disgruntled employee’s murderous rampage. Think about that. More firefighters and police officers have been killed/murdered this year so far than MSM reporters/journalists in America.
And let me say this about the democrat field of democrat-socialists running for the 2020 nomination, most especially Bernie “Back in the USSR, boys, you don’t know how lucky you are, boys” Sanders and Elizabeth “YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT!” Warren. Check into every single damn country that threw off capitalism for socialism and communism. In every historical chapter the government came in and confiscated and then co-opted the farms from the private owners. People were forced to work these farms for very little or zero wages. Basically slave labor. And the government chose what would be grown, and took it all. Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” was based in doing such food production and withholding what managed to be grown, starving over fifty million Chinese people. Communist China. The communist USSR. Communist North Korea. Cambodia. North Vietnam. Cuba. Venezuela. South Africa. Do not dare to think this wouldn’t be the type of plan Bernie, Liz and their backers have planned in their “socialist” collective government-run agenda for this nation.
I guess I’m done here. But Victor Davis Hanson, himself coming from a farming family in California, and who watched the demise of the ‘bread basket’ out there due to destructive and crippling leftist eco-policies, has thoughts…
VDH: The Farming Wit and Wisdom of Mike Bloomberg
Where to start with such a mess?
As is his wont, what Bloomberg now says he once wished to say, what came out of his mouth, and what he postfacto claims he meant are, as we have seen with his commentaries on race, women, and redlining, often three quite different things.
Yes, Bloomberg was talking in part about the last 3,000 years of transition from a primarily agricultural society to one that was industrial to one now dominated by the so-called informational skills.
But he did not leave it there. First, he switched back into the present tense. (“I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer.”) Did he mean the Manhattan whizz kid could teach sophisticated Oxonians to be modern farming simpletons, or that he, the student of history, could teach them to be preindustrial simpletons? And then he added that the present information age emphasized skill sets of thinking and analyzing, as apparently does not occur in contemporary farming or manufacturing work.
In truth, Bloomberg could not teach anyone in that Oxford hall or any other room how to farm, in either ancient times or modern. If he really thinks that farming is, or was, a mere “process” of digging holes, dropping in seeds, covering them with dirt, adding water, and, presto!, up comes the corn, then he is as dense as is he is arrogant….
Read the whole thing.
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