Will Kornegay’s Post

As I become more involved in agriculture and engage with farmers in our region of the country, it is all too alarming how fast farmland is disappearing. I don't blame a farmer for selling their land, but we should wonder where our food will come from if we no longer have farms. We should put more value on land staying land and make it affordable for those that wish to nurture it and grow food. https://lnkd.in/eCCbNkCe

Jesse Watters is not only a man of his word, but a champion for California Agriculture. He was in Tulare last week to speak at an event hosted by JCS Marketing called My Ag Night. I had the pleasure of meeting with Jesse and speaking with him at this event. He vowed to shed light on what we are dealing with out here. As a patriot and proud American, he understand the importance of America to feed Americans and the world. Without California, America doesn’t eat. Without water, America doesn’t eat. And the lack of water doesn’t care if your are republican or democrat, male female non-binary, straight or gay, Christian Jewish Muslim or atheist. Without water for Californian Agriculture, America doesn’t eat. California is the largest agricultural state in the union. When will producing food be a matter of national security? When will protecting our major food source be a priority? Farmers cannot simply retool today to increase production next week. There is no amount of money you can spend that will speed up the production of our food. Plants take time to grow, mature and develop. Wanting that to change because it isn’t convenient isn’t possible. Newsome bragged about planting 1,000 trees. That is less than 6 acres of almonds, 10 acres of citrus, 7 acres of peaches, 8 acres of pistachios, 15 acres of walnuts. And to put that into some prospective the combined previously listed crops are almost 3 million acres. And those trees provide not only food for America, but jobs for millions, remove more carbon dioxide than any other industry, make or pay billions in revenue or taxes, and the ability for every other industry to exist. Farmers accounts for less than 4% of population in America, yet 99.9% rely on them to eat. You would think we would put more value on that precious resource. If farmers stopped shipping food for one week, society would come to a grinding halt. Farmers don’t waste water, they pay for every drop of it, and that includes paying for water they never get. I am not sure when growing food became wasting water… but those accusations are come from people complaining with their mouth full. Many Americans are so far removed that they think farming is an outdated profession their food comes from grocery store, so they don’t need farmers. Let that sink in… their food… comes from… a grocery store. Jesse, we are grateful for your time and attention. You have a much needed megaphone, and I want to say thank you! The more we put the plight of California Farmers into the spotlight, the more people will be aware of the dangers to our society. Hopefully tonight’s segment will be a preview of things to come to Watters World, The Five, Gutfeld, Hannity, Ingraham Angle and other Fox News shows. And if this post matters to you, share it and get more of the word out there! #wattersworld #orcalinc #betteryieldsthroughscience #californiaagriculture #foxnews #farmers #jcsmarketing #jessewatters #americanfarming

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In Colombia, where GoodSAM’s coffee and cocoa originates, about ⅓ of the population is made up of small-holder farmers according to the United Nations Development Program. On this special day, we want to acknowledge the contribution the incredible small-holder farmers that make up what is GoodSAM, and say thank you for the tireless efforts you make so that delicious food and beverages from your land can appear in our homes. We also find it important on this day to recognize some of the challenges small-holder farmers are facing today across the globe. Climate change, crop insurance problems, urban migration are just a few of these challenges, which the Food Revolution Network writes about below. GoodSAM is grateful to be in a place to help mitigate these losses that put our good food and the families behind them in jeopardy. We practice a Direct Trade Model that goes beyond fair trade with no middle men involved. In addition, a proportion of our end-sales goes back to the farmer’s communities, and is put into capacity-building projects elected by the farmers to develop manufacturing, education, logistics, transportation, etc. We do everything in our power to be an ally for small farms. Thank you and Happy Farmer’s Day! 

The incubator farm program has hosted 2 farms that have been vital in supplying thousands of pounds of produce to Foothills Food Bank. We are hoping that they can continue this program in some capacity and find new land to tend to in Whatcom County. Do you have land? Want to lease to local established farmers? Comment below and I can get you in touch. Hoping this story adds to the conversations being had about agricultural land access here in Whatcom County, specifically when it comes to first generation farmers. https://lnkd.in/gbeeRTBw

I was born out in the country. All of my roots are in the rural areas of south central Pennsylvania. Both sets of grandparents had farms. Several of my uncles and aunts had farms. My father had a sawmill and later on it grew into a lumber company. I was outdoors during my entire childhood. Staying inside was hell. I compare today’s children to hothouse flowers. If they don’t have a television, computer, iPad and iPhone, they have no clue of how to keep themselves occupied. They are bored. My best guess is that if city folks with their children spent 3 days on a real, working farm, they would come away with a much improved attitude toward farms, farmers and food. If they got up at 4 a.m. in a blizzard to walk out to a dairy barn to begin the milking for the day, they would be far less likely to toss half a glass of milk down the drain. If they woke up early on Sunday morning, did the milking, had breakfast, got cleaned up, attended church and then came home to start cleaning the barn, there might be an entirely different attitude. Maybe a visit to a farm that raises vegetables to fill the produce truck might change things a bit. Radishes and carrots don’t come from the ground pre-washed and in tidy little plastic containers. A few hours of plucking root crops from the ground will stain the fingernails for a couple of days. Your back and neck - actually everything - will hurt by the day’s end. But those crops won’t pick themselves and the produce has to get to the market. Drought, too much rain, too much cold, too much heat — too much anything, may reduce a farmer’s ability to pay for the equipment necessary to keep the farm operating. So, it should come as no great surprise that I am solidly in support of the farmers in Germany, France, Belgium, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Romania, The Netherlands (and others) for staging an uprising against politicians who want nothing more than a pretense to seize farmlands. Owning land gives common people some control over their own lives. Already in The Netherlands there are “insect farms” for use as a substitute protein for you to feed your families. Think I’m joking? Do some research. It’s real and they want the same for YOU. Across the Atlantic, the news is silent about all of this. The mainstream media has been paid by multi-national corporations to not even disclose to the public that huge portions of the European population have risen to fight back. It’s been going on for over a month. Why? As with anything political, it always comes down to money. I wish there would be an easy way to determine what the real agenda is behind these amazing regulations, but only a supernatural power can make that determination. I am not that. As with all things, life on earth is cyclical. Hopefully, that applies as well to the career span of these politicians. Go farmers!

Are you farming the unfarmed? Love him or hate him, Jeremey Clarkson continues to break records with his Amazon Prime show, Clarkson’s Farm. Season 3 drew in 5.1M viewers in its first week immersing viewers in the challenges, triumphs and setbacks of running a farm in the UK.    In Season 3, Clarkson adopts a new strategy.    Responding to local council opposition to his restaurant, a disappointing harvest and rising costs, his big #idea: Farm the “unfarmed”.   Through the series he tries to create a variety of new non-arable income sources from the previously unfarmed woods, wildflower meadows and hedgerows. Some of these build on previous investments like raising cows and selling burgers in his cafe, whilst others are entirely new for his farm like pigs, jam and mushrooms. While the final white board analysis may lack some important details, their conclusion is intriguing. Capitalising on the previously unfarmed areas provided a healthy profit to balance the uncertainty of his arable crops. Of course not all of the new experiments worked out profitably (I don’t think he’ll try nettles again...), but others may well be even more lucrative profit centres in the future once optimised. Thinking on my own business and those companies I work with I couldn’t help wondering: 👨🌾 What opportunities am I missing by not “farming the unfarmed”? 👩🌾 And especially in times of turbulence and uncertainty, can we afford not to? What do you think: should all businesses look to diversify their revenue streams? #strategicinnovation #innovationstrategy #agriculture #diversification #resilience

The following quotation is from an editorial which appeared in the Kansas Farmer, a Farm Progress publication. This item is available in its entirety at the link below. https://lnkd.in/gzfkDyk5 “So, to recap, the problem is complex, with many stakeholders and their competing and complementary interests, and it’s under six different states with the political ramifications that entails. “Can we blame previous generations for just ignoring the Ogallala in the corner until now? I can’t. “But we can’t go on with the status quo and the bare-minimum effort anymore. That’s what I heard from the stakeholders in the summit those two days. “It’s going to require change — messy change in some places — to address the challenge. “There will be hard conversations in the future. Do we continue to raise the same crops in the same fashion? Do we change the feedstuffs we’re feeding feedlot and dairy cattle? Do we incentivize this method or penalize that lack of change? “Is it something that the market will sort out, or will it require legislative intervention? At what point is local control still a viable option if the situation continues to decline? “Hard conversations to be sure. “If there was ever a perfect time to do it, it would be now, says Jimmy Emmons, a farmer from northwest Oklahoma and the senior vice president of Climate-Smart Programs for Trust in Food. “He says today, unlike 10 years ago or more, there’s research dollars, community support, sound science and federal dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to put toward viable, locally led solutions. We may not get another time like the present, he warned. “So, friends, if there was ever a time to address the elephant in the room, now would be it.”

Holy cow! This American farmer is blowing the whistle on the US government - and EVERYONE needs to see this! That's because of a ruling that will shut off water to farms in Idaho - and could have an impact NATIONWIDE. REPOST and amplify his voice. I had NO IDEA this was happening! “A water shutoff order on literally a half million acres of farmland. — A lot of these farmers, and this impacts about 6,400 water users.” “Property like this will become worthless. Without water, the land doesn't have any value here.” “The state of Idaho has put a water curtailment order which is basically a water shutoff order on literally a half million acres of farmland. — But a lot of these farmers that are farming this land have already invested thousands of acres, thousands of dollars per acre to grow potatoes. Good morning everyone. My name is Trevor Belknap. I operate a family farm, a fifth generation family farm in the Snake River Valley of eastern Idaho. I just wanted to visit with you for a minute about the impacts of the water curtailment order that's been issued by Director Weaver from the Outer Department of Water Resources. The situation which we find ourselves is about as bad as it gets. Not only will we be out of business, many other businesses will be highly impacted and you as my friends and neighbors will also be impacted because we're so interconnected. If the ag economy in eastern Idaho fails, which it surely will if this containment order is in place, it can remain in place, we'll dry up and blow away just like it did back in the dust bowl of the 30s. Banks will fail. Equipment dealers, car dealers, gas stations, grocery stores, all rely on the ag economy that's here in eastern Idaho. The children in our schools, how many of them belong to families who work in some form of ag industry in eastern Idaho? It's horrible. And we need to fix it. And I would propose to you that it is not a water problem, it's a management problem. Because we have water. Reservoirs are full. The mountains are covered in snow. The river's been flowing well. So why now? Why after we've planted our crops, we have crops in the ground that are already growing. Now, in the middle of June, they pull a curtailment order to say, you must cease pumping water. The cost is huge. An acre of potatoes costs upward of $4,000 an acre to grow. How will that ever be recovered? They will not grow without water. And what will that do to everyone else that's reliant upon us in this area and the state of Idaho? What will the counties do for roads and bridges, police departments, ambulances, hospitals that rely on tax the tax base. Property like this will become worthless. Without water, the land doesn't have any value here.” #thinblueline #lawenforcement

🌾 Farmers, Looking for New Income Streams? Consider Self-Storage! 🌾 I just finished the 3rd season of Amazon Prime’s show ‘Clarkson’s Farm’. Besides Jeremy Clarkson’s amusing clashes with his local council, the show highlights the harsh reality: traditional farming is becoming increasingly unprofitable. The rising costs of fertilizers, energy, fuel, and seeds, coupled with extreme weather conditions, paint a grim picture for the future. 2024 alone has seen the warmest spring on record and the wettest in 40 years. The years 2022 and 2023 were the hottest on record, with the summer of 2022 being one of the driest since the 1890s. In the latest season, Clarkson attempts to make a profit by ‘farming the unfarmed’—from blackberry jam to mushrooms and nettle soup. Yet, these efforts are still hindered by high costs, red tape, and mould. But what if there’s another way? 💡 Jeremy hasn’t yet explored using part of his land for a self-storage business with shipping containers. With the growing demand for self-storage, this could provide a steady income with minimal initial investment. Plus, it’s not affected by weather, energy costs, or runaway animals. We’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you start your own thriving self-storage business for as little as £2 a day. This guide covers: https://lnkd.in/eMQtkD2B Profitability Growing demand Spreading your risk Weather independence It includes everything from creating a business plan to scaling your operations. And yes, we’ve even addressed the planning permission question in our article, ‘Do I Need Planning Permission for Storage Containers on my Farmland?’. https://lnkd.in/ebpuFJMv If you have spare land and are interested in diversifying your business, contact us and lets talk. https://lnkd.in/epr-3QDP 🌱 Turn your land into a profitable self-storage business today! 🌱 #Farming #ClarksonsFarm #Agriculture #SelfStorage #BusinessDiversification #FarmIncome #SustainableFarming #WeatherResilientBusiness