Andy's Angle

I've written quite a bit about H$U$ and their agenda to end the consumption of animal-derived proteins in this country, with both positive and negative reactions from readers. I've often wondered if my critics in public forums such as this blog are "real people" who listen to our radio network and read our website, or if they're H$U$ staffers/supporters planted to provide dissent.

Yesterday, however, a real person suggested that I (along with much of the rest of organized agriculture) may be off-base in my scrutiny of Wayne Pacelle's $200 million "sophisticated policial organization." John Phipps, Illinois farmer and host of U.S. Farm Report, linked a recent post here on his blog. Phipps, also referring to the "war" between climate change skeptics and alarmists, expressed his "doubts concerning the feeling in much of agriculture to confront those who take issue with our methods and goals."

Now Phipps is certainly no fan of H$U$ and their mission, nor is he an apologist for their attacks on American agriculture. Nonetheless, he appears to be taking a stance somewhat contrarian to (most of) the rest of the farm community. If you're a regular reader of his blog, you'll find that John's not afraid to stand alone on a given issue, particularly the issue of climate change.

I look forward to your thoughts.

Thanks, btw, for the link, John; I'm humbled.

I spend a lot of time in airplanes this time of year. In the first eight weeks of the year, I've spent less than two full weeks in my own bed. With trips to national farm conventions, and last month's adventure in the Hawaiian Islands, I'm ready to adopt the Johnny Cash classic "I've Been Everywhere" as my theme song. What I've learned over all these tens of thousands of miles is pretty simple: Southwest Airlines may be the only major airline in the country that understands how to run an airline.

Customer service is everything in business, and unfortunately, it's typically the biggest area of disappointment for a customer. Think about the horror stories or water cooler jokes told about calling customer service phone numbers for help, only to be placed on hold for interminable periods of time, or worse yet, transferred to an overseas call center and battling the language barrier. Likewise, how many disappointing interactions have you had with service "professionals" in the food service industry? Or when dealing with your local utility or telephone company?

Every industry has its share of bad actors in customer service, but the airline industry is notoriously one of the worst. From booking, to check-in, to security screening, to boarding, the process of air travel today is as unpleasant, perhaps, as it has ever been.

Except, it seems, when flying Southwest.

I just got off of a lengthy flight from Columbus to Orange County, Calif. for the annual Commodity Classic Convention and Trade Show. My flight left at 7 a.m. and took me through St. Louis and Phoenix. Even at over five hours in the air, I'm pretty happy with my experience. The biggest reason I'm a fan? Consistent quality.

When I fly Southwest, I know exactly what to expect: friendly airline staff, on time departures and arrivals (I've been on a late flight only once in the last three years with SWA), an extremely smooth check-in and boarding process, zero checked baggage fees, and a clean, comfortable Boeing 737.

On the other hand, last week when flying a major airline from Columbus to Hawaii, I encountered none of the above. The airline staff was what I'll charitably call grumpy, the boarding process was disjointed, the time to board the plane was exacerbated by an excessive fee on checked luggage, the plane departed an hour late and arrived two hours late, and the variance in quality and comfort of the aircraft was maddening. Over the course of two mainland to Hawaii and three inter-island flights, my wife and I spent more than $200 in checked bag fees, and our return flight from Maui to LAX was on the most uncomfortable 757 Boeing ever built (circa 1984).

Being in the airline business is tough. The price of fuel, the heavy taxes levied on air travel, and the influence of several unions, combined over years to drive many airlines out of business, and to push the survivors into making bad business decisions.

Take the checked bag fee situation, for example. Launched during the run-up in fuel prices a few years back, these fees are non-ticketed charges, meaning they don't necessarily show up when a customer is pricing a fare. While most of us are now hip to factoring in these "extra" fees when pricing tickets, the airline can still advertise cheaper fares than they're truthfully charging. This is also why fares are often quoted or advertised before taxes and other fees.

The real error in checked bag fees, however, is that these fees actually, in my mind, cost airlines money in the form of lost customers and unforced delays. The loss of customers is easier to understand and explain: because of these fees (and the other reasons I mention above, I almost refuse to fly any airline other than Southwest. Three or four years ago, I flew four or five different airlines in the course of a year, depending on cost of fare and availability of a direct flight to my destination. Today, I will fly a more segmented schedule with more stops and more time in the air simply to stay loyal to Southwest.

Beyond destruction of customer loyalty, however, airlines charging exorbitant baggage fees are also ruining their own timeliness. By encouraging customers to carry everything possible onto the plane, the boarding time is nearly doubled. Customers carry on bags that four years ago would have been checked without hesitation; these bags take up more space in overhead storage, meaning there is almost never enough storage for every customer on the plane. Customers are then forced to check bags they should have checked in the first place. Naturally, they aren't charged at this point in the process, meaning customers who wisely check large bags are penalized for doing the very thing that would keep the planes on time. Delays cost airlines money, and by encouraging customers to do things that take more time boarding planes, airlines create "unforced delays" for themselves, costing themselves more money.

Travel today is no longer the great treat it was 30 and 40 years ago. It is a painful and cumbersome process, and is despised by a significant portion of the populace. It is not an easy business to be in, and the landscape is littered with the carcasses of failed businesses that couldn't hack the challenges. There is one carrier, however, who "gets it," and consistently delivers a quality product at a great value. That's why they continue to get my business, and the loyalty of millions of Americans.

...well, maybe not READY to go... I'm sitting at the gate in Maui ready for our overnight flight back to the mainland. It's 2:07 Eastern time, and we'll have a 2,500 mile flight to Los Angeles before flying on to Atlanta and then back to Dayton. Our group is together for the flight to LAX, but we'll split up into groups from there bound to Columbus, Dayton, and Fort Meyers, Florida (we have one couple classified as snowbirds).

It's been an amazing trip with some tremendous friends. Lindsay and I have thoroughly enjoyed the time with friends and family on the trip, and I can honestly say that Hawaii is a very special place, and one of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen with my own eyes.

We're looking forward to planning future ABN AgVentures; we're currently discussing possible excursions to Alaska, Ireland, and Australia. If you'd be interested in travelling with us, send me an email. Check out Lindsay's blog for a recap of the trip, and visit our Facebook page for over 500 pictures from the trip.

Aloha!

As I write this, I'm sitting on a lanai (that's balcony or porch in Hawaiian) overlooking the Pacific Ocean lapping the shores of Maui. On the third island of ABN Radio's first "Island Agventure," our group of two-dozen farmers (including two farm broadcasters) is nearing the end of our Hawaiian agricultural excursion. Studying the agriculture of the islands teaches us many things about the future of agriculture on the mainland.

In just the first six days of our trip, we've visited so many unique agricultural highlights. On Oahu, we toured the University of Hawaii's Lyon Arboretum, where we learned how invasive species and foreign diseases wiped out any number of native plants and animals. Dr. Lyon, for whom the breathtakingly beautiful installation is named, was tasked with bringing in plants and trees to stop the rapid erosion happening on the island because of the loss of the natural flora. Back on the mainland, meanwhile, we're dealing with invasive species ranging from Emerald Ash Borer to Asian Carp.

Next, we visited "the Big Island" of Hawaii, where we learned that while there are still thousands of acres of macadamia nut trees, there isn't a single acre of sugarcane left, and the two former sugarcane refineries have long since shut down and gone out of business. Why? Cost of labor. Because the cost of paying workers is so much higher in Hawaii than it is in other parts of the world, sugar producers have gone elsewhere. The cost of labor is high in part because of the higher cost of living in Hawaii, but also because it is more expensive to do business in the United States than it is in many parts of the world. Government regulation and bureaucracy helped drive sugar production out of one of the best places to grow sugarcane in the world.

Also on Hawaii (the Big Island, that is), we visited the 25th largest cattle ranch in the country, the Kahua Ranch. On the slopes of a dormant volcano, and running nearly to the ocean, this 20,000-acre spread is home to 4,000 cows and over 700 ewes. Any idea what the biggest challenge of ranching in Hawaii might be? Marketing your stock. Because of environmental regulations, Hawaiians can't build a meat processing facility or feedyard within 40 miles of the ocean. So, if the island is only 70 miles wide, there's nowhere on the island to legally build a packing plant.

Only 7 percent of the beef produced on Hawaii is consumed there, because the cattle are shipped back to the mainland at 400-600 pounds, finished, and processed. Then, the beef necessary to feed the citizens and tourists is imported back to the islands. Talk about a carbon footprint: the Big Kahuna burger you might have for lunch probably traveled as a calf from the slopes of Mauna Loa to LAX by Boeing 747, then trucked to Cactus Feeders in Texas, the finished animal processed and the boxed beef trucked back to the Port of Los Angeles where it got loaded onto a container ship and carried back across the 2,500 miles of ocean to Hawaii. Talk about your carbon footprint...

Speaking of which, because of the Jones Act, ranchers on Hawaii can't use "the Cow Ship," or a six deck cruise ship designed to haul cattle across the ocean. Because this modern marvel is built and crewed by the Dutch, it is illegal to use it to ship cows from Hawaii to the mainland. Instead, ranchers charter it to haul cattle from Hawaii to, get this, Vancouver Canada, and then truck the calves across the border to Idaho or Texas. While the cow ship is perhaps the most cattle-friendly method of transport, because of the Jones Act the ranchers will often fly 50,000 pounds of cattle inside the 747 to LAX, or load them into "cowtainers" and put them on standard freight vessels bound for the mainland.

We've learned that Hawaii is a near-perfect Petri dish for understanding how the "law of unintended consequences" comes into play relative to agriculture and the heavy hand of government. Also, because Hawaii is an import-dependent state, staples like milk that aren't produced here are much more expensive than on the mainland. Milk, for example, is typically $6-$8 per gallon, roughly double what we're paying at home. The lesson? We must fight hard to keep farming viable and agriculture profitable on the mainland. We don't want our food production outsourced in the way we've outsourced our oil and energy production. The costs, not just financial, are too high to consider.

I can't believe I missed it; my Four Year Blogiversary! On February 10th, 2006, I inaugurated Andy's Angle with a post on "The Budget." 1,170 words marked my foray in the blogisphere, and over 1,000 posts later, the blog has blossomed into my "online soapbox," or what I like to think of as my own Editorial page. What started as a humble screed about things relative to agriculture and my universe has evolved into Facebook, Twitter, a weekly newspaper column, and blog posts ranging from my thoughts on Superbowl ads to the Climategate scandal.

I still enjoy writing it, and from your comments, you still enjoy the conversation. So, here's to "Four More Years"