2002. What [not] to Swallow, in an Ex-state.

When things go bad, the two sides of a supply-chain, may only mutually-swallow. That occurs simply too often, between the consumers, and the producers of what was supposed to be swallowable. Some of the bad/evil things which can occur, threaten:

• producers at the paws of bankruptcy.
• poison-in-food. e.g: genetically-tinkered food, and plant-hormones-abuse
• steep prices at markets unexplainable with the prices paid to the producers
• limited variety, mass-production, may lack the less-popular varieties
• the less-available, is probably expensive, too (even if found)
• any concerns about food, may only lessen the options of passive-consumers
• etc.

I offer a remedy, though. It is a farmaze, a free-market, for food, the way we favor it.

A Sampling of Food-Related Problems

For Producers: Over-Abundance of Crop/Plant Yield

It was 2000's summer (it may be the year before or after). It was a year with abundant production, yet as I was listening to radio news, it was as if some major disaster had struck. The resulting prices were so low that the farmers were not able to even pay their debts to the banks and, as far as I recall, some were practically bankrupt.

For Producers: Drought

Just the same results as the previous subsection's.

For Consumers: Potential Health Hazards

In the city where I am living, Istanbul, there are not many farms, not so many gardens. Still, we do eat. It comes from somewhere else, produced by whoever, with whatever seeds, and whether or not some plant hormone abuse has happened. (In fact, any of us can testify that plant hormone abuse does happen, by the visual criteria we are told, given the shape anomalies and cancerous formations, but below a visual threshold, we may not be able to tell.)

For Consumers: Arbitrary Market Prices

When those farmers were telling their losses in the year of over-abundance, I told this to my mom. She said that there was no noticeable change in prices. (I cannot tell how usual this is, or whether there is a time lag for farm prices to meet the market, or whether some counteracting (e.g: petroleum prices) fluctuation canceled it. Yet, the problem category is there - and solved along with the others with no extra cost. Hence, let me have listed this, too.)

For Consumers: What You Want Not Being Grown or Sold

Your grandma had delicious tomatoes in her gardens (or some other plant that most people have even not heard the name of). The supermarkets do not appear to carry it. You even know someplace you could arrange seeds for it. But hard to grow in any good amount, if at all possible, in Manhattan island, or such.

A Farmaze is the Remedy

why not to lump farm, and farm-work together

Here are a few advantages of taking the two as separate agreements:

• If you want some special plant (that you loved to eat when you were a kid) and the farmer/gardener cannot grow it, you may hire someone else, at least for part of the land.

• The farmer may rent a portion of his/her land to others. Next, he/she may raise whatever he/she would like to, in his/her own section - as long as that does not violate some of the agreement criteria (e.g: plant-hormone-abuses that may hurt the rent-land, etc.)

  Compare this to those cases where the prices could not cover the costs (debt plus interest), despite being a season of abundance. While those loans-bankrupt people may only sit, and maybe lose their lands, in our case, they may get into an arrangement, that is a remedy for the consumer-people, too. It is a win-win-win, in every way - for any concerned consumer/investor.

  For the land-owners that have already been struck with heavy debts-plus-interest, if they still own their lands, they can rent for some long-periods, part or whole of their lands, and live on the money they earn from their labors. I think, this is a fine remedy for finance - certainly finer than bankruptcy, or a lack of capital for the next season's expenses.