This was a great short bit about how little increasing wages would impact our food prices, and how willing some companies and farmers are to see every cent/lb increase as digging into their...
This was a great short bit about how little increasing wages would impact our food prices, and how willing some companies and farmers are to see every cent/lb increase as digging into their profits, even when major brands are paying that increase.
It's also telling people why you can't just replace experienced farm workers with Americans who've never been in a field en masse.
This fits with my experience as well. I worked on a vegetable-breeding farm in Australia for eight years, and I spent my first four years as a lowly field worker. Minimum wage here is $25 AUD...
This fits with my experience as well. I worked on a vegetable-breeding farm in Australia for eight years, and I spent my first four years as a lowly field worker.
Minimum wage here is $25 AUD (~$16.50 USD), but most farm workers are deemed casual employees (meaning they work on a seasonal, as-needed basis and don't get paid time off, etc.), and their minimum wage is $31.25 AUD ($20.60 USD). Yet Australian grocery prices are quite a bit lower than American grocery prices.
The farm where I worked paid quite a bit more than minimum wage, and it also gave every casual employee an annual raise for returning year after year. Even though farm work is deemed "unskilled", experience is extremely valuable in farming world. Many of my younger coworkers had agriculture degrees as well.
During my four years doing field work, I learned how to operate tractors, build greenhouses, manually hybridize a variety of crops, identify a variety of pests and diseases, manage hydroponics, design irrigation systems, tie and untie a large variety of knots very quickly (including the infamous trucker's hitch), etc., etc. But I had nothing on the old-timers who've been farming since childhood; they were the best paid amongst us and had an incredible wealth of knowledge in all kinds of different areas. They were our supervisors and trainers.
Vegetable breeding is very labor-intensive because you don't get economy of scale. There were about 40 field workers growing hundreds and hundreds of different varieties, often in extremely tight spaces (some of our crops were smaller than a parking space, and our largest crops were maybe 1/4 acre at most). Each variety had to be sown, planted, pruned, and harvested at different times and/or in different ways — plus we had to be extremely careful to never cross-pollinate anything or get any seeds mixed up — so we had to do nearly everything manually using basic hand tools (mostly hoes, bypass pruners, and knives).
We also didn't have a lot of time to work. We worked 7.5 hours, weekdays only, and many of us only worked part-time (a lot of my coworkers had farms of their own to run). We also spent a lot of time traveling because many of our crops were off-site; wind-pollinated crops, like spinach, must be grown miles apart to eliminate the risk of cross-pollination, and our furthest crops were almost an hour's drive away. Yet our operations were extremely productive: we sold seed by the pallet to the biggest growers in Australia, and we supplied even more overseas. Each person's productivity was so high that the cost of our labor must have had minimal effect on the final price of food.
Are Australian prices lower than American across the board or is it regional? (Like being cheaper than coastal cities, or locally produced items vs imports etc. ) I ask because US grocery prices...
Are Australian prices lower than American across the board or is it regional? (Like being cheaper than coastal cities, or locally produced items vs imports etc. )
I ask because US grocery prices vary widely depending on where you live and what stores you shop at.
It will definitely vary based on region and on the specific product, but average grocery prices are lower here at the moment. In part, this will be because the Australian dollar is currently a lot...
It will definitely vary based on region and on the specific product, but average grocery prices are lower here at the moment. In part, this will be because the Australian dollar is currently a lot weaker than the American dollar, and Australia has a big agriculture industry that easily feeds the country. The US has a big agricultural industry as well, but American farmers are having a rough time right now.
Yeah sites like that don't help me much, bananas aren't far off for me but I'm not paying nearly that much for bread for example. I assume both countries have pretty decent changes in cost based...
Yeah sites like that don't help me much, bananas aren't far off for me but I'm not paying nearly that much for bread for example. I assume both countries have pretty decent changes in cost based on location. (And American farmers aren't getting paid more while struggling).
I have this issue when other folks on East or West coasts talk about food prices too. I'm not saying it's inaccurate just that I wish there was a better way to articulate the complexity of it all.
Of course there is variation, but my point is that agricultural labor earns much higher wages in Australia than in the US, yet this is not reflected in grocery prices. I was agreeing with the...
Of course there is variation, but my point is that agricultural labor earns much higher wages in Australia than in the US, yet this is not reflected in grocery prices. I was agreeing with the video; agricultural wages are not a major factor in food prices. There are other economic forces at play that matter a lot more.
US farm workers should be paid better. It would not meaningfully affect consumers.
I understood your point, I was purely asking questions about the pricing, not trying to argue with you. I didn't think you were arguing the video. My comment about American farmers was just in...
I understood your point, I was purely asking questions about the pricing, not trying to argue with you. I didn't think you were arguing the video.
My comment about American farmers was just in reply to yours, the US has a big industry and farmers are struggling but I'm not sure that struggling is causing increased costs - yet. After this harvest that may certainly change. I'm watching the corn dry out very early and I will be surprised if yields are where they expected.
Wow, I've never heard of this channel and it is filled with really good information. After reading the above, I clicked on her Why Farmers Voted for Trump, and it made so much sense, finally.
Wow, I've never heard of this channel and it is filled with really good information. After reading the above, I clicked on her Why Farmers Voted for Trump, and it made so much sense, finally.
This was a great short bit about how little increasing wages would impact our food prices, and how willing some companies and farmers are to see every cent/lb increase as digging into their profits, even when major brands are paying that increase.
It's also telling people why you can't just replace experienced farm workers with Americans who've never been in a field en masse.
This fits with my experience as well. I worked on a vegetable-breeding farm in Australia for eight years, and I spent my first four years as a lowly field worker.
Minimum wage here is $25 AUD (~$16.50 USD), but most farm workers are deemed casual employees (meaning they work on a seasonal, as-needed basis and don't get paid time off, etc.), and their minimum wage is $31.25 AUD ($20.60 USD). Yet Australian grocery prices are quite a bit lower than American grocery prices.
The farm where I worked paid quite a bit more than minimum wage, and it also gave every casual employee an annual raise for returning year after year. Even though farm work is deemed "unskilled", experience is extremely valuable in farming world. Many of my younger coworkers had agriculture degrees as well.
During my four years doing field work, I learned how to operate tractors, build greenhouses, manually hybridize a variety of crops, identify a variety of pests and diseases, manage hydroponics, design irrigation systems, tie and untie a large variety of knots very quickly (including the infamous trucker's hitch), etc., etc. But I had nothing on the old-timers who've been farming since childhood; they were the best paid amongst us and had an incredible wealth of knowledge in all kinds of different areas. They were our supervisors and trainers.
Vegetable breeding is very labor-intensive because you don't get economy of scale. There were about 40 field workers growing hundreds and hundreds of different varieties, often in extremely tight spaces (some of our crops were smaller than a parking space, and our largest crops were maybe 1/4 acre at most). Each variety had to be sown, planted, pruned, and harvested at different times and/or in different ways — plus we had to be extremely careful to never cross-pollinate anything or get any seeds mixed up — so we had to do nearly everything manually using basic hand tools (mostly hoes, bypass pruners, and knives).
We also didn't have a lot of time to work. We worked 7.5 hours, weekdays only, and many of us only worked part-time (a lot of my coworkers had farms of their own to run). We also spent a lot of time traveling because many of our crops were off-site; wind-pollinated crops, like spinach, must be grown miles apart to eliminate the risk of cross-pollination, and our furthest crops were almost an hour's drive away. Yet our operations were extremely productive: we sold seed by the pallet to the biggest growers in Australia, and we supplied even more overseas. Each person's productivity was so high that the cost of our labor must have had minimal effect on the final price of food.
Are Australian prices lower than American across the board or is it regional? (Like being cheaper than coastal cities, or locally produced items vs imports etc. )
I ask because US grocery prices vary widely depending on where you live and what stores you shop at.
It will definitely vary based on region and on the specific product, but average grocery prices are lower here at the moment. In part, this will be because the Australian dollar is currently a lot weaker than the American dollar, and Australia has a big agriculture industry that easily feeds the country. The US has a big agricultural industry as well, but American farmers are having a rough time right now.
Yeah sites like that don't help me much, bananas aren't far off for me but I'm not paying nearly that much for bread for example. I assume both countries have pretty decent changes in cost based on location. (And American farmers aren't getting paid more while struggling).
I have this issue when other folks on East or West coasts talk about food prices too. I'm not saying it's inaccurate just that I wish there was a better way to articulate the complexity of it all.
Of course there is variation, but my point is that agricultural labor earns much higher wages in Australia than in the US, yet this is not reflected in grocery prices. I was agreeing with the video; agricultural wages are not a major factor in food prices. There are other economic forces at play that matter a lot more.
US farm workers should be paid better. It would not meaningfully affect consumers.
I understood your point, I was purely asking questions about the pricing, not trying to argue with you. I didn't think you were arguing the video.
My comment about American farmers was just in reply to yours, the US has a big industry and farmers are struggling but I'm not sure that struggling is causing increased costs - yet. After this harvest that may certainly change. I'm watching the corn dry out very early and I will be surprised if yields are where they expected.
Wow, I've never heard of this channel and it is filled with really good information. After reading the above, I clicked on her Why Farmers Voted for Trump, and it made so much sense, finally.