| ▲ | appreciatorBus 4 days ago |
| > the ick that comes with running other businesses Also non-judgmental curious question: what is this "ick" related to non-farming businesses? |
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| ▲ | 9rx 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| I own both a farm business and non-farm business. I feel the "ick" he talks about. I don't know how to exactly describe it, but I'd suggest it has to do with more autonomy in non-farming businesses, where you are always trying to balance between trying to make the business work and not taking advantage of people. Or if you end up taking advantage of people... In farming, it is all laid out for you. Prices are already set in Chicago. The buyer is always there. You grow the product, deliver it, and that's that. These days, with the way technology has gone, you might not even interact with another person in the process. |
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| ▲ | dataflow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | > I don't know how to exactly describe it, but I'd suggest it has to do with more autonomy in non-farming businesses, where you are always trying to balance between trying to make the business work and not taking advantage of people. Or if you end up taking advantage of people... What about all the non-organic farming, use of pesticides/antibiotics/etc., poor treatment of animals (sometimes), water waste in some cases (like almonds in CA), being beholden to & inevitably supporting the wonderful companies that are John Deere and Monsanto, having to use proprietary seeds and IP for such a basic human need, etc.? Some of our largest problems on the planet trace back to modern industrial farming. To be clear, I love and respect farmers a ton, my comment isn't about them at all. They're amazing and hardworking and anybody in the the business would be dealing with the same problems. I'm just talking about the purity of the business itself that you're talking about. The idea that the job is somehow so morally pure compared to all the other jobs baffles me. Your average local job (waiter, cashier, postal delivery worker, janitor, etc.) would seem to have a much more direct positive and impact on people's happiness and much less of an opportunity to take advantage of other beings, as you put it. | | |
| ▲ | 9rx 3 days ago | parent [-] | | > What about... That is all much the same as the prices being set in Chicago: Someone else has made the decision. While someone else no doubt feels the "ick", I am but the customer who is being taken advantage of. (Well, except in the case of Monsanto — they closed up shop years ago) > Your average local job (waiter... It seems you, deep down, even understand that. Comparing farming to being a waiter as opposed to the restaurant owner, I feel, is a pretty good portrayal of the difference and it is telling that you chose that point of comparison. Technically farming is like owning the restaurant, but in practice, because everything is laid out for you and decisions are made elsewhere, it feels more like being the waiter. You are layers removed from the "ick". | | |
| ▲ | dataflow 13 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Technically farming is like owning the restaurant, but in practice, because everything is laid out for you and decisions are made elsewhere, it feels more like being the waiter. You are layers removed from the "ick". To be blunt: I don't buy this... at all. Farmers have (in theory, and to some extent in practice) choice in (a) what they grow, (b) whether to grow organic/GMO/etc., (c) what pesticides/fertilizers/etc. they use and how much, (d) how they treat any animals they have, (e) whom they sell to... I could go on. Of course competition and supply and demand constrain what they can do, but that's true for most if not all business owners, including restaurant owners. Waiters are not* like this... at all. They have -- by definition of their jobs -- zero control over the dishes, the recipe, the cooking, what is ordered, whom to serve, etc. Therefore the idea that "technically" the farmer is like the restaurant owner but "in practice" like the waiter therefore makes no sense to me. They are (extremely) more similar to the restaurant owner in basically every dimension, not just "theoretically". | |
| ▲ | ethbr1 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | To the whataboutism, at the end of the day a farmer has a physical product they can look at, and they know the land it came from. There’s a certain satisfaction there that most people don’t get out of their ‘cog somewhere in the middle of a machine’ jobs. | | |
| ▲ | 9rx 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Both my farm and non-farm businesses have a physical product, though. In fact, in both cases the product is food, as it happens. I expect the farm business is less "icky" because it is entirely dehumanized. You don't set the price, you don't have to win over customers, and increasingly with more and more automation you don't even interact with the customer at all. There is no "Poor service. 0 stars." or "Too expensive! Scam." to contend with. |
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| ▲ | lithocarpus 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Many if not most businesses involve lots of ethical decisions where you have to choose between taking advantage of people or making less money. Depending on one's values though I'd see something similar in some modern conventional farming where the land is being degraded, but there's still the righteousness that you are feeding people so it's justified. There are ways to farm and some other kinds of businesses too that are win win for everyone involved. They're generally not the most short term profitable. Or even in-one-lifetime profitable. |
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| ▲ | lithocarpus 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I should clarify that I mean directly financially profitable. Obviously growing good food even if you lose money at it means people including your family and friends get to eat good food which has other benefits than cash. |
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| ▲ | arbor_day 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| There’s something righteous in farming where it’s really hard to feel like you’re doing wrong even if you’re getting rich — you are just feeding people. It’s like being a doctor. |
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| ▲ | jjtheblunt 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'm from Illinois at the edge of farmland, which rotates corn and soy. I therefore wondered if it refers to this, a disease of corn...or if it was just a coincidental use of the word. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep43818.pdf?error=cookies_... |
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| ▲ | fundad 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I think it's the way the original poster looks down people running other businesses. |
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| ▲ | potato3732842 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
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| ▲ | moate 4 days ago | parent [-] | | I think "insular rural folk" are often literate enough to see highfalutin dick-bags like yourself coming and don't want to be associated with that level of disdainful pretense. I work in project management for a massive multi-national, about as "businessy business" as you can get, and my moon-shining, hog-raising cousins give me shit for being a sellout (we grew up showing and milking cows together) but we all still can sense a vibe about "certain types from the big city" that's more about respect and shared culture that any sort of financial, social, political, or other illiteracy/incompetence. |
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