Farmers reap a bitter harvest the Reagan administration is obviously not helping the family farmer. One reason is that the bulk of the benefits go to the few big agribusinesses that farm thousands of acres and produce crops worth millions of dollars. Fifteen giant super-farms got 23 million dollars in farm benefits in
All across the United States the lights of family farms are going out, and the streets of the little country towns are deserted. In 1950 there were
5.4 million farms; in 1970 there were less than 3 million. Farmers are leaving the land at the rate of 270,000 a year, and no end to the exodus is
1983. The family farmers, who diversify their crops, get only a small payment on part of their production.
There is a conflict between the family farmer and agribusiness.
Hayden PERRY The farmers are being forced off their land by staggering debts that they cannot 1970 to 43.8 billion dollars in 1981. pay. Today American farmers owe 214 billion dollars to banks and other credit institutions. With falling farm prices the average family farmers do enough to even pay the interest on their
Small country banks cannot collect on their loans and are closing their doors. Even bigger banks are caught in the wave
The giant Bank of America has lent 2 billion dollars to farmers. They expect to write off at least 15%
The family farmer is caught in the contradiction between advancing technology and the anarchy of capitalist economics. Farming is not like factory production, where you shut down an assembly line when sales drop. When sales and prices fall, the farmers are inclined to plant more to maintain their income.
While the farmers can increase their production, they cannot increase their domestic sales beyond a certain point.
Meanwhile, production on the farm has risen year by year as new seeds and new machines are developed. In 1900 a farmer could raise enough to feed ten
In 1963 the average farm produced enough for thirty people; and productivity has increased at an even faster rate in the last twenty years.
But increased production without a larger market spells disaster
In the Great Depression farm fell far below the cost of prodlost their land through foreclosures just as they are
President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the rescue of the farmers by guarantee. ing them a minimum price for their crops. He did this this either by lending the farmers money for their crops, or by buying them outright and putting them in
Price-support programs have been extended by all administrations for the last fifty years.
When oil prices shot up in 1973, the United States decided to push for more farm sales overseas. OPEC dollars into loans to Third World International Viewpoint 25 March 1985 countries so they could buy more from
This strategy succeeded as farm exports rose from 8 billion Farm prices rose, and there were promises of big profits to be made in farming.
With rising farm prices farmland also rose, but this did not stop the farmers buying more. The government urged them to expand production to fill foreign orders. Bankers, flush with OPEC deposits, were eager to lend farmers money at 12% interest. Almost a decade of seeming prosperity hit the farm The growth
Then in 1982 the bubble burst. Many debtor countries became insolvent. They had to cut their imports just to pay the interest on their foreign debts. same time the dollar rose in value, making American products more expensive on exports fell from 43.3 billion dollars in 1981 to 36.1 billion dollars in 1983.
Down on the farm the effect was devastating. Crop prices fell and the farmers' income slid from 186 billion dollars in 1979 to 139 billion dollars in 1983. Land values dropped, reflecting the drop in farm prices. The farmers' has dropped but their debts have soared. Aggregate farm debt was 50 billion dollars in 1970. Today it is 214 billion dollars. The yearly interest on this debt amounts to 20 billion dollars.
Farmers' debts are high for two reasons: high-priced land and high-priced machinery. Farming today is as capital intensive be valued at 500,000 dollars, but the farmer may clear as little as 10,000 dolars when all the expenses are paid. today's prices many farmers are operating
This is where the crunch is coming at the country banks. Even the most warm-hearted banker will turn down a farmer if they see no chance of repayment.
Lowe sums equal to 40% of the value of their farms, they have to pay more in interest than they get from sellfarmers want high prices for their products and are willing to limit their produc-
The agribusiness farmer is more interested in the world market, and sees the need for a competitive price. They are less willing to cut production to keep prices up.
Farm interests who definitely do not want to see cutbacks in production are the farm equipment salespeople, the fertilizer interests, and the dealers in grain and other crops like the giant Cargill Cor-
Legislators with urban constituencies question the wisdom of spending 10-20 billion dollars a year to keep farm prices up. Reagan, who listens to big-business, has come down on the side of agribusiness and its industrial associates.
The new Reagan budget proposes to gradually lower and eliminate price-support payments and let market forces operate freely. This is like throwing the drowning farmer a rock.
Farm prices will drop, but it may not guarantee increased sales abroad. highly protective European Common Market will resist further competition, and the less developed countries are trying to build up their own farms. Meanwhile more American farmers will be forced into bankruptcy.
The distressed farmers are reacting in the way their parents did in the Great
They are taking to the roads with their tractors and driving to state capitals and to Washing-
Their most immediate demand a halt to foreclosures.
In Minnesota they are asking for a to be renewed every three months until prices give the farmer the cost of production plus 15%. They also want an emergency loan program to buy seed for spring planting and a one-year moratorium on debts to •equipment dealers and other creditors. At other farm rallies there are calls for raising price supports and halting the spread of corporate farming
Some people question the wisdom of trying to save these distressed farmers. The family farm is going the way of the horse-drawn plow, they say.
farmer is the most efficient
NEW ZEALAND-
leader David Lange, now New Zealand's 1940s (under a previous Labour governproducer of food in the world.
The best of them farm with the long view in mind, conserving the soil and maintaining its fertility for seasons to
Agribusiness exploits the soil for come.
short-term profits, leaving it less productive or eroded, then moving on to exploit