Meduim rare rant.

The way this country is set up is just wrong and stupid!

Bought the Christmas roast. Prime rib. $70. I have nothing against paying $70 for my once a year prime rib roast, althought I did threaten the meat man that if this came off some old Holstein, there would be trouble for him on boxing day! What does really knot my knickers is the man who raised and sold the beef was not paid by the cut. He was paid by the pound. He was robbed.

Middle men are pimps. Sorry if this offends anyone but it is what it is. They are the parasite feeding off the host. ANd while there might be a place for a middleman, maybe even a need, there is a bigger need for a huge, global middleman smack down! Some greedy b#@^tard has their big, fat hand in the pot and is taking too much of the pie! When you produce nothing, your profit should be the smallest portion. THe producer should get the biggest slice. I think what Wall Street protestors should have been protesting is that people who do very litte, get paid too much, and people who sweat and use their spine to produce actual, consumable goods, get the shaft. We have to shift our entire ethic and with it, our system, to get this mess straightened out.

I think every beef should be weighed live and sold on an estimate of how much prime rib, how much standing rib, how much...you get the picture and that should determine how the farmer is paid. It is pure lunacy and theft for it to work any other way. And yet, we allow it. It has driven the farming industry to either ruin or ethically bankrupt depths, but it just continues.

Met with some friends and were discussing Christmas shopping. Said they were all going two towns over to shop at Walmart, because it's cheaper. What! What we don't understand is that for everything we want cheaper, someone, somewhere works in third world slum conditions to provide it to us. Research the chocolate industry to see how your Mars bar contributes to misery. It also contributes to blaoted and greedy middlemen who produce neither raw chocolate nor finished chocolate, but are fat, wealthy maggots anyway. Middlemen. Pimps. And we line up like sheep at the cheapest place to buy our share. Which we all believe is our god given right, to have whatever we want as cheaply as it can be provided. Thus humans degrade, enslave and abuse each other. And the middleman abuses the farmer. The guy who raised the beef works off the farm to pay the bills. I sure wish I was able to go to a farm gate seller and conduct my roast shopping there. I would hopefull pay a little less for my roast, but much more of it would go to the farmer. I would feel a lot better about the whole exchange if I knew my money was suporting a family. Not supporting big business with no soul, no face and no accountability. Bon appetit!

OH Boy.

Agree'd. We buy all our meat from small farmers that we have happend across, beef, pork, fish/prawns we catch ourselves, and poultry we raise at home. Much better that way.

I agree, but at the same time I'm guilty of fattening the middlemen. We buy all kinds of things made in China at Costco and Walmart. With some of those things there isn't an alternative because the big company have moved production where the labour is much less than labour in Noth America and the environmental laws do not exist or are lax compared to ours. With some farm products we have allowed an army of middlemen to grow and profit while the real farmers suffer. Try buying a litre of milk from your farming neighbour or a dozen morning fresh eggs from Safeways. Uno, You need to find a good cattle producer buy from directly, but choose carefully because as you know there are all kinds of claims about what is the best way to produce beef and you need to choose a producer that meets your expectations.

There is no escaping The Middleman. He exists in places we care not to think of. Not just the farming industry.

Your mechanic? He's a middleman, and hikes the price 20% or so of every part you pay to have installed.

Tires? same deal, unless you buy direct from a supplier like Remington Tire, or some other big name outfit, and then take them to a tire shop to have them installed.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and it burns my a$$ too. I cut that bugger out anytime I have the chance.

The Middleman may be the slime of the earth, but he is a Capitalist nonetheless. He thrives off of our lust for convenience, and more often than not, we bite into it, hook line, and sinker.

I totally understand this RANT , but if you think about it for a bit ..........Think !! .....what would happen if there was no middle man ? Who would decide that there should be a somewhat even keel to the prices set by the supplier ? Joe wants so much a pound , yet Sam say's his is better so he asks a bit more .and wait here comes Pete who say's he'll undermine the other two , cut his costs and then sell for less ? As much as we dislike them they do keep the prices more competitive and make sure that every one plays somewhat fair .I also buy direct from farmers if I can , but a lot are already seeing that they can also bump up there prices by keeping a eye on what the market is doing ? Yea I still get somewhat of a better deal and I'm happy about that .Most farmers who raise there own to sell privately can't compete against the bigger operations with the cost's of feed and operations so if they can sell for less they are most likely not makeing a very high profit .We all challenge the prices of meat etc in the stores and rightfully so , if you added up all the finished costs on meat for example , well that animal was worth a lot more then the producers will ever see .So hate the middle man , but remember that if he wasn't there then the prices could go in any direction and there would be no one to challenge it .......my view

I understand your frustration Uno , I really do ........but ! Maybe the person that you are blameing isn't this Middle Man , but rather the big man on top of the Middle man ? all the attention is on him , but as you clearly stated , he's in the middle ! It might look that way as far as what he seems to be getting , but in reality he is just that , the middle man , the messenger , who does as he is told and takes all the slack for the big guy who just sit's back and watch's the profit's flow in with out any mention of his "" Good "" name .You see it all the time within large corperations when the S*#t hit's the fan .They will allways try to point the blame on anyone or anything as long as there name doesn't get slandered .The profit lines set for the middle man is ever so small compared to the big guy and that is why they stay out of the picture as much as they can and will also blame the middle man . even if he works for them ! It's a wicked circle and I agree with you that the little guy deserves more , but that is why they wanted all of the little guys out of the picture so that they had total control ...........Prime Rib ..EH ? Alberta has the best ! Why did you remove your last posting Uno ????

Praire dog, you ask why I removed my last post, boy you are quick. It wasn't up for very long before I nuked it.

I removed it because sometimes I should just shut up.

Thinking about this stuff makes me very sad and distressed. I can't disagree with anything that you've said and yet somewhere inside of me, all the justifications, explanations and rationalities in the world simply feel wrong. We have gone wrong. These topics (for me) never stay on something as simple and basic as the mark up on prime rib and how the farmer gets the crappy end of the stick. The debate moves into bigger, broader and farther reaching circles. Moral, cultural, philisophical considerations come into play. This topic is the tip of a massive iceberg and what can one person do against an iceberg? So I removed my post,feeling very defeated. Not by what anyone said, but by what feels hopeless and shameful to me.

When it comes to business, bigger is NOT better. BIgger is a place for faceless, corporate evil to gather. Because as you said, there is no pride or real men in those places just suits covering their own butts. It makes me shudder. I want my money to go the man whose calloused hand gives over the roast and whose boots smell of manure. I do want there to be a face and name to the people who I choose to support. I do not want to pay a ridiculous middle price to the man who slices my anonymous roast out of a vacuum pack.

I regret starting this post. I am totally bummed out.

Uno, I had a great big reply to this, but it disappeared into places unknown. I'm too tired and annoyed to start over.

I wasn't going to post here, but it is an interesting topic with interesting opinions so I think I will swing it in a bit different direction with a bit of a different view.

I have had a very fortunate life, being able to be involved with agriculture in 2 different countries, hubby 3 and 2 different hemispheres. There is this type of frustration a little bit all over, but I find it much worse here. I don't know if BC is different than the rest of Canada, but here there is such a disrespect for the producers of food it amazes me. There are wages in the toilet and as ranch managers we really feel very little respect, from the average citizen, for our chosen profession than we did in the southern hemisphere. It is like anyone can do this job, where down there it is understood (maybe because it is a bit more progressive) that producing feed is a difficult job that takes a lot of skill and knowledge to do well. People of the land are respected members of the communities, not seem as grunts doing something anyone could do.

Is it because Canada has never had a famine, like Europe has? Never had to want for food? Never had a reason to think that the people that produce it are a valuable commodity?

Not sure if I have been able to verbalise what I mean or feel, I am not very good at doing that sometimes. I suppose Uno has allowed me to have a little rant about how I have been feeling since we moved back. It has been very different and challenging for us. (maybe just hard on the ego )

Thanks for starting this discussion Uno, I have enjoyed what everyone has had to say about it.

Now I am thinking how I can become the hated 'middle man' and be despised but rich!!