Correspondence

Make it fair

The attitude ex-pressed by Mr. Flinchbaugh (Squeeze on the Middle, April 09), that only large farmers can feed the world and meet our conservation and efficiency goals is outdated—and it has dominated our farm policy since the 1980s. As we continue to witness the industry’s consolidation into fewer and larger farms, and with the average age of farmers rapidly approaching 60, it should be obvious that the “farm crisis” is far from over.

Imagine yourself a young person looking to establish a life in production agriculture. Our current policy of per-acre payments works constantly against you—providing subsidies to large operations and encouraging non-farm investors, doctors and lawyers to bid for farmland, inflating prices to levels way above production value. If you are lucky enough to locate some land, by the time you obtain enough credit for it, make allowances for purchase of machinery and scrape up some operating funds, you are dangerously overextended. You cannot shoulder the same risks as the large operations funded largely by non-farm dollars. And, in order for these large operations to “farm big,” they must have the newest, largest machines on the market. For these machines to be financially practical, they must farm more acres. All this is made possible by our current farm subsidy programs and at your expense!

In reality, the efficiency that Mr. Flinchbaugh attributes to large operations is largely just a result of current farm policy. Take away the per-acre payments and where would they be? End the “actively engaged in farming” debate by making payments only to “those who make at least 75 percent of their annual income from the production of agricultural commodities,” thus eliminating government handouts to bankers, lawyers and wealthy landowners. Then where would they be?

It’s time we take a hard look at our country’s farm policy and enact laws that will help America’s farmers, regardless of size. Farmers need the ability to price our products with regard to costs like all other industry. We’ve given the struggling auto industry billions, but has it been ordered to sell cars below the cost of production? Even unskilled labor, whose only investment in their jobs is a lunch pail, have a minimum wage law to protect their interests. Why not farmers? Simply guaranteeing a fair price in the marketplace for our products would restore balance to our farm economy. Imagine how much easier it would be for beginning farmers to obtain adequate credit if they knew they wouldn’t be forced to sell at a loss. Jared Lawler, Clinton, Mo.

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