In their discussion of the swine flu, they were making observations about the severity of the outbreak, geographical location, and the different methods of raising pigs.

• Poor countries have small farms raising pigs outdoors.  (Implies this method of agriculture breeds disease.)
• The U.S. have large farms raising pigs in large, confined operations. (Implies this method of agriculture is safe.)

I don’t think that the means of production is causative of swine flu or H1N1.  The higher mortality rate in poorer countries most likely has everything to do with the general level of health in the population.

It is also a misnomer that people don’t raise pigs outdoors in the U.S. (although this is a rare sight anymore).  The Beginning Farmer  is from Iowa and his pigs enjoy the sunshine and green pastures!

The biggest worry in the U.S. is that people will infect the pigs! Yes, the worry at the large confinement operation is that someone will bring a virus into the barn and it will spread like wildfire in the close conditions.  They better watch out where their workers come from!

Why write about this on Free to Farm? This is the kind of farm operation that will suffer the most under NAIS. As the Book family is just starting out and markets their farm products directly to consumers, their farm enterprise is fragile like any other startup business. Increased regulations only serve to raise the bar of entry into business. How do you add the burden of reporting under NAIS to a young family with a new farm? Ethan has to work off the farm to make a go of it now. It is hard to get started, but the Book family seems to be doing well. The people who buy their beef from the Book family know where the beef comes from. Animal ID is not needed! I would also bet that Ethan knows all of his animals well. It’s not hard on a small farm. The government doesn’t need to know what the Book family is doing.

Ethan and Becca: I pray you all of God’s blessing for your family and farm.

Click here to see a list of books by Joel Salatin.

The next best thing to buy low and sell high is to be a manufacturer of goods. This is the entity that takes raw materials and transforms them into something useful. This is one source of prosperity, given us by God. Here is a quote from the Christian business man, L.E. Tourneau.

Right over here in Birmingham the Lord put the iron, the limestone, and the coal, the three ingredients of steel, all in the same mountain. All they had to do was roll the raw materials out of the mountain into the furnace and you have your own steel right here in your own Southland. Why then can’t you have your own finished products? God Runs My Business by Albert W. Lorimer, Fleming H. Revell Company Copyright© 1941 pp178-179

Services is another avenue to acquire prosperity, however it is limited by your ability to acquire labor. That labor comes from two sources: what you can do yourself and those you are able to hire and pay. Competition pushes down the profit margin and the demand for cheap labor escalates. Eventually, you can scratch out a living, but it gets harder and harder to make a go of it as you loose contracts to the next guy who can afford to loose a little more money than you did.

Most people employ buy low, sell high when they enter into employment with a company. You try to get as much pay as you can in trade for your time and skill. This trade is limited by the amount of time you can put into your work week. The employee worker can only work so many hours per week. That effectively limits what you can earn. The differentiating factors then become the skills you bring to the job.

The farmer or rancher has a different opportunity placed here by God. That is the increase.

And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. Leviticus 25:7 (KJV)

Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Leviticus 26:4 (KJV)

As the farmer plants seed and yields a tremendous increase, so does the rancher or shepherd have an increase as offspring are born into their herd. It is a miracle – almost something out of nothing! Yes, you do work hard and nothing is a guarantee. This works best when the farmer can freely save seed for the next planting or when the rancher can freely buy, sell, or trade livestock for breeding.

It is when the costs of purchasing your inputs become so high that you can only borrow against the future potential increase that this economic model starts to falter. Pastoral economics relies on the increase to work. When you borrow against the increase, a portion of it goes to the banker. When you purchase all your inputs, a portion of the increase goes to industrial agribusiness. Too much of this and all that remains are government subsidies to sustain you. At that point, yes, you do need animal identification. How else would the government keep track of “their” money?