SEGMENT: ENVIRONMENT, FARM BUSINESS, & RACE-RELATIONS

Lloyd Johnson>ISM Interviews A-L>ISM Interviews A-L, Segment 23

SEGMENT: ENVIRONMENT, FARM BUSINESS, & RACE-RELATIONS,

duration 14:16
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ENVIRONMENT
Remembers 1986 as very hot and dry; corn almost cooked on the stalk. Chickens die of the heat. Put livestock in the barns in the afternoon. Made wallows for the hogs.
FARM BUSINESS
When you are a small farmer, you don't get to participate in pricing. No one cares if you sell it or not. Big or corporate farms control large lots of grain, you can participate in the market. Small farmers must sell fast because not have storage and need money. Large owners can contract to hold grain until later to sell at higher prices. Input costs, which caused him to quit farming, are rising, even with rising prices for grain. Rises to 30 per cent. Predicts prices drop, inputs still rise.
RACE-RELATIONS
Describes markets in grandfather's and father's time. Hogs at 6 cents a pound, corn at a dollar a bushel. Lloyd does not think his father or grandfather experienced racism in the markets. There is always some form of discrimination; the important part about it is deciding what are you going to do about it. Skirt around it or confront it.