Not Acting on Principle

    Curiosity lured me off a road. I drove to a grain elevator in South Dakota. It was gigantic. Railroad cars were parked nearby.
    For me, grain elevators were a novelty. They’re not seen where I live in New England. I asked permission to look around. A man took me on a tour. I snapped a photo (seen above) from the flatbed of his pickup truck.
    He taught me a lesson in economics. In the Midwest, many farmers strive to fill at least one hundred train cars with grain. If they can’t meet that threshold, a train company will charge a higher price to ship the grain.
    A single farm can’t accomplish that goal. Farmers join into cooperatives. They combine their harvests in order to fill those one hundred cars.
    Corporate agriculture easily meets this requirement. Those businesses own more than one farm. On their properties, farmers sometime work as contracted employees.
    Some small farms don’t make the cut. Their co-ops don’t produce enough grain for the railroad discount. They pay more for shipping.
    I support small farms. Well, I support them in words. During a recent trip to the market, my family purchased the cheapest foods. I did not buy the higher priced foods sold by small local farmers.
    Asserting a principle is easier than acting on it.