Black eye pea economics
 

Interesting read

Black eye pea economics

Here�s the numbers. I sent five men out into the field. They harvested 16 cabbage sacks of fresh green black eyed peas. I paid each of the five $60 for their effort. The men harvested the peas as I directed�the way we would harvest them for home consumption�mostly semi-ripe peas for shelling with an occasional snap or green pea in the mix. $60 X 5 = $300.

I had been told that fresh black eyed peas are selling for $28/bushel. But they�re not. They�re selling for $28 per cabbage sack and right on the sack it says each bag contains 1-3/4 bushel by volume. $28 a sack is what vendors at the produce stands in Luling sell them for. They pay $24 per bag from a man in San Antonio. My guess is that those peas come from Mexico. And the men at the produce stand rarely if ever sell a whole bag at a time. They�d make no money if they did.

16 cabbage sacks of peas X $24/bag = $384. Not good, but a profit, nonetheless, if you don�t count the cost of plowing, planting, cultivating, hoeing, two applications of chelated iron, one application of liquid Sevin for beetles and grasshoppers, and one application of Malathion for a horrible infestation of aphids that would have wiped the crop out entirely had not we noticed it and worked on a Sunday to kill the damned things. I don�t count the cost because it�s already spent. I have peas in the field and they�re worth no money if I don�t get them to market.

I give Urlit 8 bags to sell and take 8 bags to the produce man in Luling. I leave the peas on credit at $22/bag instead of the customary $24/bag in order to earn the men�s business. A few hours later I call the man in Luling to discover that his pea shelling machine won�t properly shell the peas due to the green snaps in the mix. I pick them up and sort through them, and save the snaps for the milk cow.

The next day only four pea pickers return. Given new instructions on how to pick, no snaps included this time, they pick only 8 sacks of peas. It�s harder to find just-right-for-shelling peas�those that aren�t too green or too dry for an automatic shelling machine. 4 pickers X $60 cost me $240. 8 sacks of peas at $22/ sack sell for $176.

By now I know this equation isn�t working. I tell the men to return the next day and I go to the field to pick alongside the men, thinking perhaps they may have been slacking on the job. To a man, they out-picked me yet we ended up with similar results by the end of the day. It cost more to pay the men than the peas I harvested will bring at the market.

I allowed the men to finish the week, harvesting green black eyed peas. I knew I�d take a loss but I continued to allow them to work because they all need jobs and money to pay the bills. Basic bills. Rent, car, food, clothing. They have children. Most had been employed in the construction business. That work has died on the vine. None of them get counted in the current unemployment figures. I have a little money at my disposal.

I lost money on their pea picking efforts, mighty as they were. But oddly enough, the men paid their way but in a way I hadn�t anticipated. One afternoon as they were preparing to go home, a rain shower approached. I had square bales of hay in the field and was picking them up as fast as I could, by myself. The men stopped and offered to help. They were hot, tired, and wanted to go home to a bath, a hot meal and a comfortable bed but they stopped to help, nonetheless. Martin hooked a large gooseneck trailer to a pickup. One group helped him load, another of the men helped me load. In less than thirty minutes we picked up 375 bales of hay and made it back to the protective cover of a barn. The first drops began to hit the windshield as the last bales were loaded on the trailers. That night it rained 3.5 inches. The 200+ bales that remained in the field is now worth about $4/bale as cow hay. The hay we got to the barn in prime condition is worth $5.50/bale. The difference: 375 bales X $1.50/bale = $562.50.

So, I have a bunch of sacks of peas. More than the local market can bear. I call an early twenty something nephew of my wife; he and a friend drive out to shell peas. Both of the young men are unemployed but neither is receiving unemployment benefits, hence neither is counted in official unemployment figures released by the government. They have rent to pay�my wife�s nephew needs to get his car inspected, both have this habit of eating each and every day.

Glen Zumwalt loans me a pea sheller that works something like a ringer washer. Insert a pea in one end, the rollers suck it through. Shelled peas drop out below; spent husks come out the other end. I�ve heard shelled peas sell for $5/pound, perhaps even more. I�m thinking these young men can shell the peas, rent a stall at an Austin farmer�s market and sell them. They arrive around noon and shell peas until 6 pm. The take at the end: they�ve shelled 16 pounds. Glen�s machine is no faster than hand shelling.

So, if the peas are free, and 10 hours of labor at $7.50 an hour produces 16 pounds of shelled peas worth $5/pound at the market in Austin, it cost me $75 to have the peas shelled and they are worth $80. I pay the young men plus an extra $20 for gasoline and keep the peas for our own pantry. At this rate we may soon have no money, but we won�t be going hungry, good Lord willing.

And someone somewhere, perhaps a number of someones, are eating peas today you probably can�t buy in your grocery store, because the economics of growing and harvesting fresh peas for the market doesn�t work.

Now the question remains: Do I call the men after the current rain event passes to continue picking peas?

http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.p...c,54008.0.html

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

Now we know why so much of our food comes from 3rd world.

The economics work out just fine (for the grower that is) if you pay the workers 5 bucks a day.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

Yup. And why all the growers now are big agri-business that employ few. Makes me wonder who will buy the black eye peas when nobody has a job.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

Yes...interesting.
Wow. That's a bummer.
I LOVE black-eyed peas.
I'd even pay to "pick my own" (if there were any nearby).

R.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

Just as an aside:

We eat black eyed peas regularly, but with a twist.

Fix them as you would mexican style pinto beans...

That and some fresh hot jiffy cornbread.

OHHH YEAH.....

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

Black eyed peas are have to be the nastiest little things i've ever tasted. Ewwww!

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

My favorite black eye pea recipe is probably Hoppin' John. On a plate, put a layer of cooked white rice. Follow with a layer of black eye peas, then some tomato sauce, or a mix of tomato sauce & diced tomatoes. Add some ground black pepper, and maybe a bit of pepper sauce, and you're all ready. Best served with greens & corn bread. MMMM MMMM Good!

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

I love black-eyed peas.

This story just goes to show how minimum wage destroys jobs and productivity. It isn't productive for the farmer to pay workers the minimum wage to do work that isn't worth that. And it isn't worth that if the farmer can't make a profit after paying wages. The groceries can buy peas grown in foreign countries that are produced for lower labor costs, so the local farmer can't compete.

Eliminate the government and let the markets set prices. I predict that all costs of living will go down if government regulation, licensing, and taxation is out of the picture. Get a clue people. If you want to be free and you want a chance to prosper, kill anyone who tells you he is your master.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

And that is why the Afghani farmers grow the more profitable crop of opium, now the Talaban aren't there to stop them. bancha

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

2 pounds black eye peas
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound salt pork, cut up
salt and pepper to taste
water to cover

Salt pork is known by other names so if you can't find it, ask. Simmer the mix for a couple of hours. Be sure the water always covers everything.

Anybody who smells this while it's cooking will think you are a culinary magician!

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

You're half right. The jihadis have discovered how profitable opium and hashish can be, profits that can be used to buy weapons. They've decided that drug addiction of infidels is another weapon, and encouraged growers. Moslem users are severely punished.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

I would say the author should spend less time concerning himself with politics and economics dodging the real issue: his business model is broken, and his Christian ethics aren't doing those laborers any favors in delaying their inevitable change of careers when he goes out of business.

The lack of tariffs, artificially high exchange rate of the dollar, and overpopulation overseas has resulted in a situation where the market price of black eyed peas doesn't bare the weight of american wages.

He can either apply his obvious knack for business management by marketing them to hippes as locally produced and organic, or he should GTFO of an over-competitive market and quit slitting his throat hiding from the truth: he's unemployed. (He's just too busy working on hiding from this fact to realize it.)

Stop worrying about others, do them a favor, come up with a business that can afford to keep them employed indefinately, and quit breaking your back with the employment welfare.

I don't do competition. It's a brain-dead, copycat, uncreative way of operating when there are a million and 1 niches that I come up with every day, that go unfilled.

If someone incompetant moves in to compete: break their back and send them home hungry with their tails between their legs, or if they are too stubborn to break-> poison the market: dump your inventory for free and punish them for ruining a good thing for you. Bankruptcy is an exit strategy as good as any other. Selling the company to the competition and then sabotaging their efforts after the fact is another alternative. Ideally: you've got friends in the right places to make his copy cat lifestyle hell. Inspections, zoning, and the other classics seem like as good of solutions as any.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

This story reminds me of the "Old Farmer" joke, there was a farmer who won a million dollar lottery, when he was asked what he would do with the money he replied he would keep farming till the money ran out.:s9:

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

:haha: :haha: Ain't that true, about both farming and farmers.

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

No point in trying to do what the big boys do well, if you are going to small farm, go with off beat produce and pick-your-own style operation.:36_1_34:

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

I wanted to try saskatoons but simply don't have the soil for it. Hemp maybe, is okay to grow that here.

June 16, 2009 – 100 Mile area farmers are on the cutting edge of local diversification. They’re working with industrial hemp, a crop that was grown for thousands of years before the government banned it.http://hempnewstv.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=300&h=198
“The word hemp was being used for medicinal or illegal drug side so it got a bad rap. The government said OK, just quit the whole thing altogether,” said Erik Eising, the hemp coordinator hired by the District of 100 Mile House through the Hemp Steering Committee.

http://hempnewstv.wordpress.com/2009...E2%80%99-lows/

Re: Black eye pea economics
 

Useful stuff, hemp.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...mans-noose.jpg