Each morning my day starts by looking at the latest ag news. Today I was looking for something that had to do with the finance portion of the business and only saw one report talking about money.

One website, in particular, I was looking at showed me two pages of news on food and the safety of the chemicals used, water and weather predictions, elected official information, beef, and what information, and farm bill information.

It is very concerning to me that we are focusing on fighting the good fight but we are not focusing on the big picture of how to take back control of our operations and heritage as food providers.

Have you ever heard the saying, those with money make the rules?

In the case of farmers who are those making the rules? The latest is the USDA trying to tell the general public beef is bad and should not be eaten or those who are making claims pesticides are being found in Cheerios and you should not be eating them. These people are backed by big money just as anyone out their making rules.

Farmers are NOT in control because they do not have the money backing them. A great example of this is the farm bill that caused a big stir because of the control the gov’t would have should you take any kind of aid from them. Perfectly putting those with money in power and giving them the ability to control every aspect of your life.

Some may call me crazy and go ahead do so, but I am a firm believer if farmers take back the control of their money they will be the ones in power. It is no different than being the one with food when someone is starving. You have what others want and you now get to call the shots.

Is this going to happen overnight? Of course not. I am not living in some fairyland but I can tell you if that process is not started farmers will be right here in 100 years from now. Just as they were 100 years ago. History is the marker and you can choose to move that marker or keep it the same. You may not see it in your lifetime, however, your grand-kids may.

We do not have to stop talking about these other issues, they are important, but we need to start paying closer attention to what is happening in the finance portion of the farm beyond the balance sheet and budget. How to more efficiently utilize the money being used, not just the system or the process of farming itself.