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www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
THE LAND — SEPTEMBER 4/SEPTEMBER 11, 2020
Sixty days until the farm and food world shakes In March 1919, American journalist Nov. 3. Its results — whomever wins — John Reed published Ten Days that will shake the nation and world as much Shook the World, his eyewitness book on and for as long as what Reed recorded a one of the new century’s most defining century ago. events: the Russian Revolution. This is especially so for rural Eighty years later, Reed’s groundbreakAmericans because their communities, ing work was still shaking the world. farms and ranches sit on the precipice of New York University ranked it seventh enormous change. Many of the forces on its list of the 20th century’s 100 most FARM & FOOD FILE driving these changes, like climate, consequential works. The reason for its require global coordination. Others, like By Alan Guebert high position, the university noted, was tariff wars and biofuel policy, are nation“the magnitude of the event being al issues which demand swift overreported on…” haul. A few, like property taxes, must be addressed quickly and locally. In 60 or so days, American voters face an event of similar magnitude: Election Day, All, however, require public action built on political consensus if U.S. farmers and ranchers are to have anywhere near as bright futures as their forebears dreamed of and drove towards. Where to start? At the beginning, notes Todd Hultman in the September issue of Progressive Farmer, by openly acknowledging “those in agriculture” (that’s you and me) “know something is deeply wrong.” We know this because, he points out, it’s as obviStandard all round 30 COLORS 26-29 GAUGE durability ous as the nose on our face. “If we go by USDA’s national estimates … in 2020-21, corn will lose $89 an acre, and soybeans will lose $41 an acre.” A lead market analyst for DTN, Hultman also said livestock producers “who purchased 560-pound feeder steers to finish … lost $144.67 per head” from Oct. 2019 to June 2020 while farrow-to-finish hog producers “lost $23.20 a head…” over a similar period. So “Instead of passing the hat” (bellying up to the federal trough for ever-bigger bailout schemes) “and Standing seam architecture 30 COLORS 26-29 GAUGE look for half the price pretending everything is fine, maybe it’s time we had a larger conversation about the financial participation of others in the food supply chain.” Great idea — let’s begin with who these “others in the food supply chain” are and what we might say to them in a “larger conversation.” Obvious “others” would be the first and last links in the international food supply chain: the swagger-
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ing, loosely-regulated giants in seed, crop protection, fertilizer, meatpacking, grain merchandising, and food manufacturing that carve up, then capture, government and markets alike. Other “others” would be U.S. government agencies charged with food safety and market antitrust — like the Department of Justice, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture — that could do more to level the farm and food playing field for every participant large or small instead of clearing the way for the powerful. Additional “others” must include American farm and commodity groups — as well as long past-theirdue-date commodity checkoffs — that continue to advocate 1970s “we feed the world” U.S. farm policies despite 50 years of trade deals that have made almost every nation a competitor and almost every American farmer and rancher a sitting duck. And, surely, “others” would include American consumers who have never paid the real cost of food because of industry-designed, government-enforced policies which shelter large parts of the food chain (like sugar, ethanol, and confined livestock and poultry production) from global markets through tariffs, mandated usage, and weak environmental policies. All of these “others” — from the biggest corporation to the smallest farm — must be heard as farmers, ranchers, agribusiness and Congress move to write a new farm bill in the coming four years. That new law either can acknowledge the profound changes American farmers and ranchers face and act as a springboard to new crops, new farms and new markets; or it can tighten its grip on the past and its monocultures and feedlots that will require ever-bigger taxpayer bailouts. Either way, change is coming. World-shaking change. The Farm and Food File is published weekly through the United States and Canada. Past columns, events and contact information are posted at www.farmandfoodfile.com. v
Intelligence Committee, in its final report, says The recent wind event across Iowa was a little multiple Trump campaign members colluded with taste of what’s to come with climate change. Anti- Russia in 2016. Trump’s “no collusion” assertion is just one more of the 20,000 lies and “misstatescience Republicans seem uninterested; and ments.” Russian election interference continues Trump, our anti-science leader, has been killing according to the conclusion of American intellius with his slow Covid response. We’ve seen gence agencies. Trump’s willy-nilly use of tariffs Trump’s attempt to sabotage the Postal Service, his abuse of pardons, his firing of inspectors gen- against friends and foe is a very poor long-term eral, his lack of morals and family values with his strategy. China has learned that we are not a splitting of families and locking children in cages, reliable trading partner. Our farming future has his admitted sexual assaults, and he continues to been damaged. seek an end to insurance coverage for pre-existGreg Rendahl ing conditions. Now, the Republican Senate Ostrander, Minn.
