Page 144 - merged.pdf

•124 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time

Idea 68 – Never mind the quality, pay the farmer

There is an apocryphal tale of a man living in the centre of a large town in Kansas

who spotted a business opportunity. He planned to exploit the fact that farmers

were being paid by the state for the same number of hogs they raised and sold last

year, even though it suited everyone for them actually to cut down the number of

hogs they brought to market this year.

Our man wrote to the State legislature in the following terms. ‘I understand

that you are paying people not to raise hogs. It has always been a business of interest

to me, and I write to inform you that I intend starting a company not to raise hogs.

This year I aim to start in a modest way and not raise just 100 hogs. Next year

though I intend to build the business by at least double, and not raise 200 hogs.

Who knows, I may need hired help.’

The Common Agricultural Policy attempts to regularise three types of agriculture

present in the European Union. The first is the north-west plains. These are the most

advanced agricultural areas in the world. They adapt to technology quickly, have highly

trained producers and farmers and they possess significant capital. The second zone

divides into two. The advantaged parts of the Mediterranean area, where a

So go on. wide range of climatic conditions allows a reasonably high level of produc-

Decide what tion, economy and income, and the disadvantaged areas such as the high-

you do not lands, where the expenses of farming are much higher due to geographic and

want to grow or climatic conditions, and the difficulties faced in using machinery.

raise, write your In its attempts to regularise these areas the CAP spends some billions of

business plan pounds shoring up the incomes of agricultural workers in an environment

and claim your where technology and efficiency is steadily reducing the whole value of the

cheques. rural economy. The 6% of the working population who work on farms pro-

duce less than 3% of the GDP of the member states. This statistic may very

well change as new countries join the EU in the next few years. They are also starting

from farming economies and will need subsidies not to raise hogs just like everyone else.

So, go on. Decide what you do not want to grow or raise, write your business

plan and claim your cheques.