Farmers Stagger Under 'Aid' From Misguided Politicians
bditor's Note: Farmer, editor,
famous corre spondent, John
Strohm has covered (he world to
tell the story of agriculture and
the people behind its great sue,
ruses and failures. He has trav
eled extensively In Latin Amer
ica, Europe (including Russia!,
the Middle East, India and Asia
( Including Red China, as the only
accredited LT.S. newspaper re
porter to gain admission). And.
of course, he has criss-crossed
America. In the bounty of his na
tive land, the shortages of the
Communist world and the hunger
of much of the rest, Strohm sees
some valuable lessons.
By JOHN STROHM
Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
WASHINGTON (NEA - If ig
norance paid profits, politicians
could Ret rich from' what they
don't know about the farm prob
lem. That spells bad news for
cily folks and progressive farm
ers again in 1963 another $4 bil
lion tax bite.
Misguided attempts to "help"
the farmer over the last 30 years
have:
Drained away $48.6 billion in
taxes.
Amassed a $7.5 billion hoard
of food and fiber which has the
fantastic rent hill of more than
SI million a day.
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Tended to blunt the farmer's
hard-earned elficicncy.
Tiircatcned to sap our fond-
producing strength jn the cold
war.
Intentions of government plan
ners Democratic and Republican
alike are admirable, but a mile
nlf base. Thev trv to legislate
farm income for three reasons:
1. Safety in numbers. Politi
cians mistakenly believe a de
clining number of farms means
farmers need handouts to assure
you food in the future. Since 1925
the number of farms has dropped
42 per cent; each year more than
100,000 farms "disappear."
Only eight per cent of the pop
ulation is now on the farm. But
in a short 20 years the farmer
has tripled output per man hour
the most fantastic increase in pro
ductivity for any big industry for
any period.
Today 39 per cent of the coun
try's 3.70O.O0O "farmers" produce
FARMERS AND
PRODUCTION
100
PER CENT OF
PRODUCTION
87 per cent of the total output
and could easily produce the re
maining 13 per cent. Over 97 per
cent of these operations are fam
ily farms, run with family labor
and familv monev.
"The fact that the number of
farmers is decreasing is a sign
of progress and economic growth
not stagnation and decline,
says Arthur . Mauch. Michigan
State University economist.
2. Save the s o i 1. Conservation
has been another goal of farm
programs for the last 20 years.
We need conservation to insure
"abundance for our children as
well as ourselves," Secretary of
Agriculture Orville Freeman told
the House Committee on Agricul
ture just a year ago.
Rut soil scientists say using the
land docs not weaken it. G. W.
Hcdlund, head of the department
of agricultural economics at Cor
nell University, explains it this
way: ,
"If soil is properly handled it
can become even more productive
with time, so that there is no case
for periodic resting. Although
some will not agree, most of our
government payments programs
were designed for something oth
er than soil improvement."
.1. Preserve the virtues of self-
reliance. A lofty aim but do we
really preserve self-reliance when
we hand government payments to
farmers for not planting their
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land . . . not harvesting their
grain ... not usuig their initia
tive to produce food as efficient'
ly as they know how? Not ac
cording to 9 out of every 10 farm
ers I interviewed around the
country!
They accepted government pay
ments last year, and will do so
again in 1963. "But what ran I
do?" an Iowa corn grower
asked me. "If I don't sign up for
Freeman's program I have to sell
on a rigged market."
Legislative errors bogged in
murky logic will continue to cost
us heavily until voters city and
country alike understand the
mixed-up mess enough to prod
government planners. Herrel De
graff. former food economist at
Cornell University, warns grim-l
ly: .
"If we don't quit shrugging off
the farm problem, we'll wake up
with higher food prices . . . high
er taxes . . . and controlled ag
riculture headed into the medi
ocrity of socialism."
What is the farm problem?
The farm problem is not sur
pluses, or government payments,
or the Billie Sol Esles scandal.
These are results, not causes.
The problem boils down to low
farm income for some farmers.
Divide $13 billion net income from
arming among all 3,700.000 farm
ers and they get less than a fair
return for investment, labor and
management. Department of Ag
riculture figures show "average"
per capita personal income of the
farm papulation from all sources
is about $1,400 a year compared
with a national average of about
$2,300 Legislators mistak
enly think this means all agricul
ture is sick.
They disregard the fact that
the top 1.500.000 commercial
farmers, who produce 87 per cent
of our food and fiber, net about
$7,700 per farm.
Hie "problem" is with the
more than 2.200,000 others who1
produce the remaining 13 per cent
and gross only $3,800 per farm
(only $500 from sales of farm
products'. Many of these farm
ers need some kind of help bad
ly. They were left in the dust of
a technological revolution that
brought more changes to the farm
in the last 40 years than in the
previous 400. This is a social
problem not a farm problem
The hard and unhappy fact is too
many larmers, not too many
bushels of corn.
Which farmers are in-trouble?
Politicians' ideas about today's
farmers are off by a costly coun
try mile. Here's the true picture
of who's producing your food and
clothes:
Top Commercial Farmers
Ronald Erickson. who farms 400
1 1.3: ; 'JAC-Sr rW ii i
. EfJ rlW?r?s;.UV I
acres near Woodland. Mich., is
one of the million and a half
farmers w ho comprise only 39 per
cent of the total but grow 87 per
cent of our farm products.
Erickson's net income is close
to the $7,700 average of this
group. Not a very high return,
considering he has $100,000 in
vested and often works a 60-hour
week. Erickson's confidence in
what's ahead for his family farm
is starkly simple: "People have
to eat. There'll alwajs he a future
in agriculture."
Erickson is one of the farmers
you must depend on in the years
ahead. His biggest worry: "Gov
ernment controls and the sur
pluses they've caused."
Part-Time Farmers: A factory
worker in Denver is one of 885,000
part-timers or 24 per cent of
what the census calls "farmers."
Two yeas ago he bought a home
and 10 acres outside the cily. "I
love animals." this city worker
told me. "so I hough five Angus
steers for fun, and to earn a lit
tle side cash."
He wasn't aware that the gov
ernment calls him a "farmer"
because he sells more than $50 of
"farm" produce a year. "Doesn't
make much difference to me one
way or the other." he shrugs.
But he helps load the statistics.
Other part-lime farmers used to
farm full time, until low incomes
forced them to hunt jobs in town.
Part-time farmers now spend
more lime working away irom
their farms, or get more income
from non-farm johs than from
farming.
Net farm income for all 3,700.-
000 farmers was about $3,400 in
1961. When you add non-farm in
come, income for all farmers was
over $5,000 net.
Farmers over 65: There are
404,000 farmers 11 per cent' of
the total in the census w ho are
FOUR CLASSES
OF U.S. FARMERS
PART-TIME FARMERS Farmers who work only part time make up 23 per cent of
what the census calls farmer!. This Indiana man works full time in town, and supple
ments his income with a small egg and beaf operation. Lilting only his "farm" income
is highly misleading. .
HF.RAM) AND XKVYS, Klamath Falls, Ore.
Tuesday, February 12, 1063
PAGE S
!lllliM'Mi."''"l'Miall lima in , , -
MP' f ' ' ' 1
;'.v-: 4 1 ,. ' '3tW"
. ; J 1. 5 , vJ
p COMMERCIAL ts
U N DER6VER 65 J
lEMPLOYEO J
&27 pARTTIM
Salt Wafer Conversion Plants Asked
To Ease Southern California Drought
LACK OF INCOME Underemployed farmers and their
lack of income are the real farm problem. A million, or
27 per cent of the total, tell less than $5,000 worth of
products a year.
over 65. On the average, they sell
ess than $1,000 worth of farm
produce a year. Few farmers over
65 I talked wilh farm full time
any more, and that's the way they
want it
Underemployed Farmers-
Here's the real farm prohlem. A
million farmers sell less than
$5,000 worth of farm products
a year. They have no off-farm
jobs, and can't mane a decent
living from the land.
They are greatly underem
ployed, lacking volume, capital,
and in many cascv the know
how to prolit from today's farm
ing.
Their lack of income is t h e
farm problem.
New machines, feeds and seeds
were a bountiful boon to some
farmers, but a cur.se to others.
A 55-year-old Tennessean told
me he hasn't earned enough from
his 180 acres to pay any income
lax in six of the last eight years.
Too old to hunt a job in town.
he'll try to produce enough to eke
out a living. Brutal fact Is that
the country no longer needs this
farmer and at least I million
farmers like him. says the Com
mittee lor Economic Develop
ment. Progress is passing him
hy, as it did the harness maker
and buggy whip manufacturer.
World War II prodded farmers
to gear up to produce enough to
fill the bellies of the world's hun-j
gry. When the war ended, the
floods of higher yields 'and faster
planners tried to legislate inflex
ible land and machinery resourc
es back lo peacetime demand, but
they had a bear by the tail.
Farm specialists arc a mile
apart on the function of farm leg
islation today. I recently sur
veyed leading economists in 30
states men with no political a.xe
FARMING AT 65 Farm
ers over 65 make up I I
per cent of the total. Few
farm full time anymore.
lo grind asking: "Can legisla
tion solve the farm problem?"
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Undersecretary James K. Carr
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of standby salt water conversion
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Carr told the House Interior
Committee that ilhin a few
years it would be possible to turn
sea water into fresh water for
economical use in some rapidly
growing cities. ,
He said the Interior Department
was "optimistic" that salt water
could be turned into fresh water
economically if conversion plants
were build in combination with
steam electric plants.
Hie gap between the cost ol
water from saline plants and cn
ventional methods for obtaining
municipal and industrial water is
closing rapidly, Carr said.
But he warned that the convcr
sion of salt water for irrigation
purposes was still "not within
sight" at costs competitive with
ordinary irrigation methods.
He told the committee that In
lerior Secretary Stewart I., l.'dall
had ordered an "all-out effort" by
bureaus under his direction In
seek economical methods lor turn
ing sea water into fresh water.
'It appears that it is possible
particularly in the Pacific South
west, with larger sire plants and
with known processes, to produce
water for about the same cost
that it would require for trans
portation of surface fresh water
supplies over long distances," he
said.
The key. Carr said, probably
would he the cost of fuel to op
erate the conversion plant. He
said it was estimated that with
natural gas it migiit he possible
to produce up to 30 million gal
lons a day at a cost of Jim per
acre-foot, or .to cents per thous
and gallons.
In San Francisco, he said, lite
wholesale cost of municipal water
lo communities currently ap
proaches $90 per acre-foot in
some areas.
Carr said a 25-million gallon
plant operating in conjunction
with a power plant selling elec
tricity for six mills per kilowatt
hour could sell water for t" per
acre-foot.
Such a price for municipal
water would definitely be com
petitive in many arras of the
United States, particularly in the
Pacific Southwest and in parts ol
Florida," he said.
In areas such as Southern Cali
fornia. Carr said, there "just isn't
any more water to be developed
Irom the usual sources."
"The price of water is what
ever you have lo pay to get it,"
he said.
Asked by a rciler what ef
fect the conversion plants would
have on California's $1.7.i billion
Feather River Project to carry
water to the Ijos Angeles area,
Carr said the Feather River Prnj
ect would be able to deliver water
more cheaply.
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Outdoor Cooking and Valentine
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were present.
fieoffrey Custer.
News Reporter.
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