Latest / Financial Survival Network / Shaping the Future of Small Farms - Brian Reisinger - #6216

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Shaping the Future of Small Farms - Brian Reisinger - #6216 · Financial Survival Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: That government regulation, government outreach. When it goes too far,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: it adds not only time and halse so, but it
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: adds costs. You know, compliance costs and makes it so
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: that you can only operate in certain ways. That limits
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the type of business you can or can't do. And
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of these, you know, small businesses are small
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  Speaker 1: family farms, whether they're amish or not, are not able
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  Speaker 1: to sustain that kind of thing. You know, the great
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: big operations can do that, and they got the army
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: lobbyists and lawyers and accountants to help them do it too.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: You are listening to Carrie Leutz's Financial Survival Network, where
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• 0:53
  Speaker 3: And welcome. You are listening to and watching the Financial
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Lutz. Well, a lot
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: of changes taking place in the country, a lot of things,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: maybe good and bad. What's going to happen with the
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Trump tariffs? They're definitely coming. There's no question about it.
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  Speaker 3: And what effect will that have on the dollar, on trade,
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  Speaker 3: on inflation. And right now we have Brian Reisinger with us. Brian,
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  Speaker 3: great to talk to you, and Hey, you're particularly concerned
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  Speaker 3: about the impact upon farming based on your book Land Rich,
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  Speaker 3: Cash Poor, My Family's Hope and the untold history of
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  Speaker 3: the disappearing American farmer. They seem to want to get
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  Speaker 3: rid of farmers in this country. You know, the last election,
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  Speaker 3: the amiship been under attack because they sell raw milk
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  Speaker 3: and the government keeps wanting to regulate their farm, and
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  Speaker 3: to a large extent they voted to reject over regulation
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  Speaker 3: because of their own financial interests. They're interests same as
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  Speaker 3: farmers across the country, aren't they.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Well, thank you for having me, and
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  Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. I mean the Amash farmers, particularly in
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania area where there's a lot of them. From a
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  Speaker 1: voting standpoint, you know, in many ways they're not unlike
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  Speaker 1: family farms all across the country. I mean in some
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  Speaker 1: ways that they there's certain technology they don't use that
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  Speaker 1: family farms like the one I grew up Undo, But
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  Speaker 1: a lot of our small family farms are working in
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  Speaker 1: the same types of economics that those Amish farms are.
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  Speaker 1: And the reality is that government regulation, government outreach, when
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: it goes too far, it adds not only time and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: hass so, but it adds costs, you know, compliance costs.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: It makes it so that you can only operate in
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: certain ways. That limits the type of business you can
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: or can't do. And a lot of these, you know,
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  Speaker 1: small businesses, are small family farms, whether they're Amish or not,
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  Speaker 1: are not able to sustain that kind of thing. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the great big operations can do that, and they got
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  Speaker 1: the army of lobbyists and lawyers and accountants to help
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  Speaker 1: them do it too, on top of having the money
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  Speaker 1: to do it. But it's a lot of times it's
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  Speaker 1: the small family farm, it's the Amish farmer. It's just
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  Speaker 1: like a small business, just like a main street business.
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  Speaker 1: They have a real challenge with those additional costs and
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  Speaker 1: when they're already operating on tight margins.
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  Speaker 3: So what about like it looks like a lot of
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  Speaker 3: small farmers getting into organic and healthy farming, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: I know, we weren't really going to talk about this,
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  Speaker 3: but you get a higher margin there. And honestly, the
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  Speaker 3: food tastes better. You know, up until ten years ago
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  Speaker 3: I kind of rejected the whole natural foods. Then I
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  Speaker 3: really researched it. These big factory farms have really been
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  Speaker 3: injurious to American health, haven't they?
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  Speaker 1: And global Yeah, you know, we have an instance where
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  Speaker 1: people care more than ever about where their food comes from.
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  Speaker 1: And that's a good thing. That's a start because it
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  Speaker 1: creates an opportunity for some thing we haven't had in
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  Speaker 1: this country for a long time, which is new entrepreneur
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  Speaker 1: opportunity for our farmers. You know, so many of our
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  Speaker 1: family farms are locked into growing on a certain type
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  Speaker 1: of crop because there's some level of income they can
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  Speaker 1: count on. There might be government support, you know, guaranteeing
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  Speaker 1: more of that income, but it's not the kind of
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  Speaker 1: income they need. The problem isn't solved. Their costs are
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  Speaker 1: going up, and to your point, the margins are getting tighter,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and they don't set those prices, you know,
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  Speaker 1: their prices set by global and international national commodity markets,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera. Sometimes that maybe a regional commodity market, and
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  Speaker 1: so you know, pursuing fresh, local food, specialty food markets,
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  Speaker 1: those are opportunities to set some prices that can you know,
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  Speaker 1: improve your margins a little bit. So it's a real opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the challenge to it is that we're just really
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  Speaker 1: beginning for that to be serious enough. What you're talking
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  Speaker 1: about and the way that you and others have become
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  Speaker 1: more attuned to that. You know, it's the same for
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  Speaker 1: farm families like ours. The demand is really just beginning.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we need a stronger local food when we
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  Speaker 1: need stronger local and regional economies. We need stronger special
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  Speaker 1: markets for more farms to be able to shift to
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  Speaker 1: that entrepren opportunity. So it's headed in a good direction,
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  Speaker 1: but we need that consumer demand to build more of
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  Speaker 1: that market viability for farmers so that more of those
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  Speaker 1: farmers can make that transition because they want to do it.
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  Speaker 1: They just want to work the land and grow something
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  Speaker 1: that people want to put in their bodies. You know.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I really when it comes to neat beef
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  Speaker 3: and the chicken, I want hormone free, antibiotic free, and
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  Speaker 3: when it comes to fish, I want wild caught. And
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: it seems like with the current change of administration coming
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: RFK Junior is going to head up the Health and
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Human Services Department. He's going to be the secretary there.
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  Speaker 3: We could be seeing the entire food debate change. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it could be completely upended. And to your point of
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  Speaker 3: your earlier question, there's opportunity there for farmers. You know,
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  Speaker 3: there's opportunity for farmers to be able to transition toward
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  Speaker 3: new types of crop products that can supply.
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  Speaker 1: More of that food. We can have new entrepreneur opportunity
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  Speaker 1: for our farmers, and we can have more choices for
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  Speaker 1: an increasingly health and food conscious consumer public. And the
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  Speaker 1: thing that we need to do is figure out how
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  Speaker 1: do we do that and allow farms that are small
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  Speaker 1: businesses to make that transition. You know, a lot of
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  Speaker 1: farms have a certain number acres they have to put
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  Speaker 1: into that one crop they're growing to be able to
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  Speaker 1: make the money they need to and there again, most
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  Speaker 1: they're not what they need, but it's better than nothing.
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  Speaker 1: And in order to be able to experiment with new
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  Speaker 1: crops and transition from one crop to another crop and
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  Speaker 1: see if it works, there's risk to that, and there's
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  Speaker 1: also cost to that when they have type margins. So
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  Speaker 1: we need to navigate this in a way that can
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  Speaker 1: allow our country small businesses to pivot toward that new opportunity,
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  Speaker 1: and I think we can do that. But that's there's
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  Speaker 1: there's sort of always there's a pattern. As I was
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  Speaker 1: investigating Wire Farm's been disappearing for decades, and that is
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  Speaker 1: that hope and peril often go hand in hand, you know,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: because change needs to occur, and there's some pain that
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  Speaker 1: comes with that, but there's also new upside and that's
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  Speaker 1: what we need to figure out how to do with
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  Speaker 1: our American farmer and our food supply.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you just think, if you could eat healthy
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  Speaker 3: when you're younger, a lot of the medical conditions you
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  Speaker 3: have when you get older, the chronic conditions wouldn't exist.
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  Speaker 3: And so to pay a little bit more, you know.
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  Speaker 3: The thing that gets me though, is a lot of
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  Speaker 3: a lot of this stuff is dictated by the government
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  Speaker 3: packaging and what you can say and what you can't.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, you go into whole foods and you think, oh,
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  Speaker 3: it's organic. It might be organic, but it's it's nutrient
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  Speaker 3: it's nutritionally sparse. You want nutritionally dense foods. And that's
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  Speaker 3: something that the average consumer, unless you've got this certain
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  Speaker 3: meter to measure the food, you can't know so you
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  Speaker 3: want organic, but actually it could be worse for you.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's absolutely right. And you know the reality is
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  Speaker 1: that our our government has not been able to navigate
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  Speaker 1: this the right way for us. A lot of times
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  Speaker 1: the government ends up being captured by certain types of industries,
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  Speaker 1: you know. So there's a lot of changes need to happen.
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  Speaker 1: And now here's the thing you've touched on costs, and
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  Speaker 1: you're right about it. The traditional issue has been that
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  Speaker 1: our kind of conventional food system provides cheaper food, then
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  Speaker 1: the local food movement provides maybe better but more expensive food.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the thing about that paradigm that's changing. Everybody knows
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  Speaker 1: food prices are through the roof. So our kind of
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  Speaker 1: conventional food system isn't necessarily doing what it used to do.
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  Speaker 1: It isn't necessarily providing affordable food anymore. In fact, it's
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  Speaker 1: not just inflation, the runaway inflation that we saw. It's
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  Speaker 1: there are other reasons that food has risen at a
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  Speaker 1: higher rate than inflation, and one of them has to
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  Speaker 1: do with the destruction of our family farms. And here's
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  Speaker 1: what I mean by that. The fewer small family farms
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  Speaker 1: that we have that means that more of Our food
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  Speaker 1: supply is in fewer hands, right and you've got a
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  Speaker 1: really large integrated food system with you know, very few
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  Speaker 1: you paths relatively speaking, for the food to go from
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  Speaker 1: the farm gate to the dinner table. It's you know,
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  Speaker 1: great big distribution centers, great big food processes, great big companies.
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  Speaker 1: They're all trying to keep up with the rest of
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  Speaker 1: American et communy. It is a systemic wide thing. But
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  Speaker 1: here's what happens. We saw this during COVID and we're
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  Speaker 1: seeing it during bird flu. Now, when you know a
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  Speaker 1: farm or a distribution center or processing center goes down
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  Speaker 1: for some reason in COVID because they're being shut down
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  Speaker 1: with bird flu, because they maybe have to slaughter a
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  Speaker 1: whole bunch of chickens, because there's an infection that affects
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  Speaker 1: our food supply in a huge way. So why are
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  Speaker 1: the price of eggs through the rough right now? It's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: because our supply chain is vulnerable. Why was food more
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  Speaker 1: expensive or you know a lot of it you couldn't
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  Speaker 1: buy during COVID because our supply chain was disrupted. So
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  Speaker 1: the more farms we wipe out, the more we have
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  Speaker 1: this system that's capable of modern miracles. But is also
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  Speaker 1: deeply vulnerable the supply chain disruption and the price goes
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  Speaker 1: through the rough and the availability. I was into the basement.
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  Speaker 3: So what about technology for small farmers, the ability to
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  Speaker 3: have a tractor that's geo fenced and the automated all
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  Speaker 3: these other things. Is that bringing a big change?
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  Speaker 1: It is, and it's a change that can go either way.
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  Speaker 1: It can either help with the challenge of our disappearing
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  Speaker 1: American farmer and what it does to the costs and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the health and the security of our food supply, or
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: it can hurt. And what I mean by that is,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you know, one of the things I found in my
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: book lang Reage, Cash Poor is that there were economic crises,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: there were government mistakes, and then there were technological issues.
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  Speaker 1: Those are the three big types of things that have
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: been driving the disciplines of our farms. Technology has always
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: been a double edged sore. The innovation of technology is
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  Speaker 1: what allowed us to have more people taken on more
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  Speaker 1: acres and more animals with fewer people breaking their backs
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  Speaker 1: to do it. Is the reason that not everyone in
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: this country has to grow their food. You know, It's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the reason that household budgets are have a smaller share
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  Speaker 1: of their money going toward grocery stores. The flip side
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: is most of our technology, for the better part of
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  Speaker 1: all the past fifty sixty years, has gone toward just
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  Speaker 1: finding ways that farms can get bigger, can get economic scale.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: That was important for a time to be able to
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: accomplish that, and you know, have again so that not
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  Speaker 1: everyone in this country shu grow their own food. But
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: it went so far, and we have so much technology
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  Speaker 1: that's been leaving behind other family farms. It didn't need
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  Speaker 1: to be that way. About the sixties and the seventies,
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  Speaker 1: we hit that point where we needed to be made
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  Speaker 1: kind of change when you talk to economists, and what
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  Speaker 1: we should have been doing is pursuing what's called scale
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  Speaker 1: neutral technology. That's where you can pursue technology that can
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: be affordable and practical not only for large farms, but
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: also for medium and small size farms. We missed that opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: So for the best you know, fifty some odd years,
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  Speaker 1: we've been marching toward more and more technology that frankly
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: is leaving small farms behind, not letting them innovate. They
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: could be perfectly efficient, they could be just as smart,
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  Speaker 1: they could be just as hard working, In many cases
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: they're more hard working, but they don't have the technological
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: innovation opportunity that other operations do, so they go by
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the wayside. Right now, with AI and with other types
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: of technology, we have the opportunity to make the choice.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have that technology be scale neutral
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and bring more of our farms along? Are we going
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to have it leave more of our farms behind? Yeah?
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I mean I heard about the drones using drones to
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: plant to plant fields and sounds like it's going to
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  Speaker 3: be pretty amazing. Well, so the concept of the family farmer,
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  Speaker 3: is it going to continue on? You know, the government
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  Speaker 3: loves concentration because then it's easier to regulate and easier
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: to tax. You know, they get one check instead of
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: ten thousand checks for in ten thousand tax returns. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: that's what they're about. But it looks like the people,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: maybe you're at the point where we're rebelling against this.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I think that's absolute right. It's a choice that we're
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: all gonna make.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have more consumers moving in the
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: direction of buying their food and other goods in this
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: country in a way that supports American farmers? Are we
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: going to continue on the current path. You're absolutely right,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and there is something we knew about it. So the
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: stats are kind of, you know, are kind of terrifying
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: when you're hear. But then there's also hope. US forty
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: five thousand farms per year on average for the past century.
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  Speaker 1: That's seventy percent of farms. We also have still nearly
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: two million farms less than this country. And of those
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: two million farms, eighty eight percent of them or small
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: family farms. Ninety six of them are family operations, even
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: if they're bigger. So you got nearly two million farm
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: families operate in small farms that this country has made
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: it almost impossible economically to continue. We are still doing it.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: How are they doing it? They're working two to three jobs.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: You got guys working factory shifts or porn concrete, you know,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and operating a farm. And what if we were to
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: pursue the kinds of changes you and I were talking about,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: What if we were to have new entrepreneur opportunity for
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: our farms in this country. Imagine these nearly two million
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: farm families that are still at it even though it's
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: impossible economically. Imagine what they could accomplish if they were
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: able to have growing entrepreneurial ventures with their small businesses. Again,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: so we can turn this around. But if we don't,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: if we continue to lose farms at the rate of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: forty five thousand a year on a we're going to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: wipe out most of the best of our family farms
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: if within a generation. That's that's the math, and it's un.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that would really be a shame and it's
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: unnecessary and should be avoided. Small as beautiful as that
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: book came out in the eighties. Anyway, Brian will have
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: a link in the show notes to this interview on
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Financial Survival Network dot com for your book. Is there
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: a website we can find you at?
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, So people can find my book on Amazon
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: or any other online retailer language check or also my
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: website is Brian Dasherisinger dot com. So Brian b R
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I A N dash Risinger R E I S I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: n G e R dot com. And you know, I
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: just appreciate anybody who picks up the book. We talk
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: about the hidden reasons our farms are just appearing. Will
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: leave that with my family's four generation story from the depression. Today,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: anybody who gets us talking about these issues has become
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a part of the solution, so I appreciate it.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I love it. Hey got a question for Brian or
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: my off shoot me an email kl at Carrie LUTs
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: dot com Brian, which is the best of luck.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Krey, Thank care, Thanks for listening to
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: For the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Survival Network
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  Speaker 1: Now more than ever,