How important do you think agriculture is to Columbus?

If it weren't for us honest hard working people buying food everyday the farmers would be out of business and have to find a job.

The government pays the greedy farmers to not produce food, and the honest people pay for it every day.

This is wrong!

Food should be free.

Do we pay anyone for the polluted air that we breathe?

Then why pay farmers?

Sincerely,
A concerned citizen

Zandor, your comments have got to be some of the most idiotic statements I have ever read, I do not know the business you are in, but my business depends on the farmer, and if I did not have ag related customers, my business would be half of what it currently is. Part of the problem with the goverment subsidizing famers, is that this same government limits which countries they can sell there products to due to embargos. We all need to eat you goofball, where do you think you would be without food, maybe you could move to San Francisco and eat Tofu. Columbus would be about half (or less) of what it is today if the farmers and ag related businesses were not here.

Well lets see they are probably the backbone of Platte County for sure.

I think that Zandor is correct.

The farmers have been sucking at the public trough for far to long!

It is time for the farmers to get to work, just like the rest of us do.

Zander and Paul, it is unbelievable how bad your education has served you.

Zandor must not consider his cannabis crop to be agricultural related.

Thats about the dumbest "Hot Topic" question the Telegram ever came up with. Dumb questions usually result in some dumb answers.

Without Agriculture you wouldn't have Behlen, Carneco, Cargill, ADM, PST, etc. Zandor would be living in a mud hut gathering roots and berries, while waiting for the buffalo herd to return.

It is a proven fact that farmers are the greatest contributors to global warming.

The world should put a stop to the polluter agribusiness monopoly.

Zandor:

Check the facts. As recently as 2005, the EPA released a report of which economic sectors contribute the most to Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the US.

The results:

Electric Power Industry...33.5%
Transportation............27.7%
Industry..................18.6%
Agriculture................8.2%
Commercial.................5.9%
Residential................5.2%

You may have a beef with farmers, but don't put global warming on their doorsteps.

Everyone contributes too global warming in some form or another not just farmers.

Let see Zandor if food should be free then the gas, tractors etc the farmers use should be free. Also farmers don't work 8 - 5 or what ever a shift is. They work from dusk to after dark. I live on a farm and they were out at 9:300 still picking beans. Farmers have to pay for seed. Check it out some time and educate yourself on how much it cost a farmer to turn in a crop. They don't just plan it and pick it later. There is much to do in between. I agree, WHAT A STUPID QUESTION TO ASK. Please, please educate yourself before making stupid comments.

Paul and Zandor, farmers are the hardest working people around. Try working from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the summer, spring, and fall and 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the winter. If you raise cattle, you are out feeding them everyday. You don't get your weekends off like most people do. You are out in the cold of winter everyday, even in the worst conditions to feed those cattle. By the way, nobody is making you buy food, grow your own. Raise your own cattle, hogs, and chickens in your backyard. Good luck with that.

advice for Zandor.

Later tonight, sneak out to a nearby field, grab your self an ear of field corn and take it back to your place and eat it. Forget that just walk up to a farmer and ask him for a piece, i bet he'll give it to you for nothing just to watch you attempt to eat it. my point is that them majority of the crop around here is not edible, obviosly some by-product are. and i am sure that farmers would mind food being free either because they have to put some on their table as well, so maybe if you offer to pay their fertalizer bill, and their electric bill for irrigating and buy their 150,000.00 combine and their 90,000.00 tractor. oh wait, maybe if you and your co-workers all worked for free at the case-newholland plant in grand island, then these would be free, what a nice utopian society. farmer put just as much money into your pocket as you put into theirs...

This is a stupid question but since it has been asked I'm going to put in my 2 cents. Farming is tough but as long as I live I will never agree with the subsidy program. When things aren't going well in my business, we don't get help. Why are the bills on farmers caps curved?

Very little if anything grown around here goes on my table. Whether it be animal or vegetable. But agribusiness must not be too bad with all of the new cars and trucks and homes and implements the farmers have!

Really, you think very little grown around here winds up on your table? Corn grown around here is fed to livestock, do you not eat meat? Corn around here is sold to ADM and they grind almost 300,000 bushels daily, some of the products with corn in them are Coors beer, virtually any kind of pop and hundreds of other products with corn sweetners. It's also in candy and snack foods, but I guess you eat none of this stuff. Go to ADM's website and you can find all the foods corn goes into and I bet you'll change your mind and farmers work very hard for their paycheck.

I grew up a farmer/ranchers daughter and have been married for 31 years to a farmer/rancher. In high school I would be out in the field getting the ground ready for the corn to be planted while classmates and friends were going to prom or out with friends for the evening. If I went out on a date I always had to go home before dark so I could irrigate. Working and taking care of cattle takes hard work too. The long hours that are put in and the sacrifices that are made are something only the immediate family know. If anyone would figure out what a farmer makes per hour, most people would not believe it. The grain prices are not much higher than they were 30-40 years ago, but all of the expenses have increased several fold. For the rocket scientist that doesn't think anything locally gets to his table-go back to your big city and grocery store since all of that food comes out of the back room of a grocery store. I think his cap is on a little to tight! Business's come to the midwest to recriut college grads because of our "midwest work ethics", and that isn't because of a time clock.

this is the same as asking:
so do you really need water??

without the farmers, just curious what you think you would eat. Have you read a food label? Almost everything is corn or soy added.

Our family farm was a dairy farm. We worked very hard to make it a success. I can remember dad and mom taking 2 vacations in 45 years. Milking cows is a 2 times a day, 4 hours per milking, 365 days a year job. After milking is done there is all of the other chores and field work. It was 4:30 am to 10:00 pm every day. I don't think any of these city boys on here would want to do this kind of work.

country folk and blue collar working class people go hand in hand. they bring nothing but productive things to the table. city folk on the other hand lets see... gangs, graffitti, "culture"
kids that have very little work ethic. sure there are exceptions to the rule but in general this remains to be true.

For all of you who do not understand agriculture, let me suggest a good read for you. I know that would involve you actually sitting down and educating yourselves instead of making off the cuff remarks, but it is a fact filled testament to the reliance America has on farmers...particularly corn farmers.

The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

The first two chapters will blow you away.

im curious to know what city people think one 50lb bag of seed corn cost.

What in the world is wrong with you stupid people??? i'm trying to figure out how such uneducated neanderthals can get decent jobs???? You may work 8 to 5, but out here on the farm, it's 5a.m. to about 10 or 11 p.m., and the farm program you all complain about was put into effect to bring down the cost of YOUR food, Take it away from us...it'll only bring up the cost of YOUR FOOD so i suggest you quit complaining about US FARMERS and pollution and all the other piss poor excuses you blame us for...go to California or New York where there aren't a ton of farms...you could cut the smog with a butter knife, now come out here to my neck of the woods...all you smell is fresh air!!! You get weekends off...we don't know what a weekend is except that church is on sunday...you get a pay check no matter how bad of a job you do or don't do, we don't get money for sitting on our butts all day...those steaks that you're probably grilling now didn't just appear from thin air...we had to plant, irrigate and combine the grain to feed them, we had to get up at all hours of the night to check on them in the winter while you sleep in your warm cozy beds and then we start it all over again every year...to feed your sorry butts, YOU should be thankful that you have US FARMERS!!!! Without us, half of Columbus and other towns would be broke and on welfare, Behlens and many other companies would be nonexistent, so if you work at one of those places, you should be thanking US...why don't you come on out here for a day or two work my job...i'd trade you just to give you a rude awakening...if anybody needs to find a REAL job it's you!!!

How about a new "Hot Topic Question."

What is the dumbest question the Telegram has ever asked?

C'mon Telegram, this is 5th grade journalism!

I was a city gal who happened to fall in love with a farmer. Boy, my eyes were really opened. In the city in the summer it used to be fun. Now I am a widow while he is in the field until 10:00 pm. No more going out on the town. I worry about the weather all summer if a storm warning is announced. Our whole lively hood can be gone in 20 minutes which has happened over the years. It is a lot of work and worry on the farm. Living in town would be a vacation again. I am in disbelief how in debt the farmer is and we rely on our banker to tell us if we can stick our neck out again next year. It is a lot of scrafice and worry on the farm. Because I love my husband I have scraficed a lot leaving the city.

My husband and I were both raised on the farm but have lived in town since marriage. We both have all the respect and gratitude to the farmers.

I can truly understand the statement that all can be gone in a few minutes. I was very young but I remember so well. My dad sat in the living room in apparent shock. I had never seen him like that ever before. The crops were gone, the fences were down and the cattle were roaming the hiway. The windows were blown out of the house. He just sat there and as a little girl I remember asking him "don't you think we should check on the cattle?" Who cleaned that mess up along with replanting the crops - just us guys. No emergency personnel or city tree removals etc....

My mother for her entire life had a loyalty to the hometown bank because she could remember the day when the banker came out to the farm, looked at the cattle and agreed to carry us one more year. I remember snow storms when my father used to string rope from the house to the barn as a guide so we could do chores in the blizzard. As a kid, we used to walk up the snow drifts to the roof of the lean-to of the barn.

My father and mother never took a vacation in their entire life. My father always had the rule - we did chores but never worked (?) on Sundays. We used to raise watermelon and my dad would fill the trunk of the car, sit on mainstreet and give them all away. We owe so much to the farmers in this area and I am sure memories such as these keep them going.

My husband always says that if the farmers have a good year - so will he. City people need to spend one day and night on the farm and they might understand the stewardship of the land, the work ethics, and the hard ships both physical and financial along with the closeness and respect for animals and nature and appreciate those quiet, peaceful hours after nightfall.

I agree you don't have a clue about farm subsidy or anything related to the farming industry. On the other hand, imagine you don't mind if your employer or business gets a little government grant or low financing project to help payroll.

To the farmers in this area - may I spend just one night again on the farm? The best of luck with your harvest!

To I was a farmer. You couldn't have said it any better. You covered it all. Thank you.