Ben Kaeb

Professional vegetable grower... Also an Entomologist and Agronomist...

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@Michaelfiore Got a lot more reasonable on pumpkins when instead of fully donating completely asked for $1 /pumpkin. Organizations figured out how many they actually needed. On your form add a checkbox for you to fill out 'thankyou recievedx
received'. That factors into next year's decision

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@Michaelfiore Between trips to Israel and Australia 8 one way, 10 the other... now I have to cross it every time we visit my wife's family; feels like half the drive from Michigan to Guadalajara

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Decoration season....

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@EthanMidkiff do you want the specific variety or the type... are we being less than honest when every bicolor sweetcorn is 'Peaches and Creme' and every freestone red blushed peach is a 'Red Haven'...

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Getting started on pumpkins... between drought, smoke, herbicides its been a seadon. Pumpkins are running large, debating on not taking a price increase as planned as we're going to be short on small and mediums.

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@DaveBondyTV This is one of those places where electric could make a lot of sense... known daily routes, can readily schedule charge in off peak. If the lower maintenance cost carry over from electric cars could be a good deal.

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@Dr_TheHistories Travel the world. .. pay to pee is a norm...

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@sandaloponcho @guzelseyler___ @theepicmap Did it anyway... we shipped our van via container from Colon (Panama) and picked it up in Cartagena (Colombia)

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Last night in the starting greenhouse... tomorrow we set these on the coir slabs. Starting the process of inflating, flushing, and charging coir slabs yesterday! Started seeds 5 weeks ago (1/12), moved to rockwool blocks 2 weeks ago (2/2)...

[Mike and Jeff show @AgrisAcademy @AgrisAcademy]

My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.

Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.
1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.
10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings.

This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.

Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Mulching garlic and overwintering onion sets with an ancient Friday Tractor Company straw chopper... sure speeds up doing this by hand. The mulch is to protect bulbs from extremes and reduce the heaving (frost pushing them out of ground).

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Lovely morning picking 🥦 in ❄️ squall!

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Hired a professional crew to replace greenhouse covers. Took them a day to do all 4. We do this every 4 to 5 years...

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Clear tonight so we can see the Aurora...

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Lettuce moves a lot slower this time of season in the tank and the market!

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

Brussel sprouts and storage cabbage under a nice blanket of lake effect snow... 15ºF this morning, these crops should be fine. The cauliflower is done, broccoli and kale will bit floppy for a week...

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@Nutmegbunny9 I really dislike wood heat inside a greenhouse, any combustion gas leakage and it sets the plants backs weeks . Learned that the hard way!

[Ben Kaeb @benkaeb]

@MilkMoney64209 @Nutmegbunny9 Light is so limiting even with heat nothing grows in Nov into Feb... we seed tomatoes Jan 5 under lights, set them in greenhouse no earlier than Feb 21.