Blake Hurst, a family farmer who serves on the state Farm Bureau Board, thinks the Freedom to Farm Bill has been a step in the right direction.
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by Blake Hurst
Farm numbers have been dropping for nearly a century. No farm program has been able to halt that trend, as the twin forces of technology and economics have worked their inexorable logic.
Perhaps the hardest hit sector of agriculture is pork production. Long known as mortgage lifters, hogs continue unprofitable for the longest period in history, and thousands of hog farmers are bankrupt. Fifty-six percent of the people raising hogs 10 years ago left the industry.
Pork production is not, and has never been, covered by traditional farm programs. The problems facing agriculture today have many causes, but in spite of attempts to target blame, the Freedom to Farm Act is not one of them.
In 1996, Congress broke with past farm bills and embarked upon a new course — to free farmers from strict government control on what, where, and how much they plant.
Passage of the last farm bill was followed by a couple of years of high crop prices and very strong farm income. But commodity prices are now at historic lows.
Farmers and the politicians who are active in farm policy can be split roughly into two groups. One group would like to return to traditional farm policy, with all the tools of supply management and market manipulation.
It will not surprise you to learn I am a member of the second group who thinks Freedom to Farm is a step in the right direction, even though we have some serious short-term problems.
The worst problem was the total collapse of exports to Asia. Those economies are starting to turn around now, and exports will increase, helping U.S. prices.
Secondly, we have had an unprecedented string of favorable growing seasons. Nobody hopes for a drought, but consecutive good harvests worldwide are highly unusual.
Finally, we are paying the price for 65 years of farm programs that sent exactly the wrong signal to farmers. It should come as no surprise that we now have surpluses and low prices.
But Freedom to Farm proves farmers will react to market signals, as low wheat prices led to a 20% drop in wheat plantings in the last three years. Farmers will respond to the market as long as they are not planting for government programs.
There are two competing ‘visions’ for the future of agriculture in the United States. One would treat agriculture as a public utility, and farmers as characters in a nationwide museum, costumed in overalls and seed corn hats, while consumers and taxpayers pay billions to maintain agriculture in a time warp.
The other vision would treat farmers as independent, talented, and innovative producers of food and fiber. The second vision can only occur if we allow the present farm program to work, and if the U.S. government follows a trade policy to advance farmers’ interests.
We must also give farmers the tools to produce and a tax structure taking into account the variability in farmers’ incomes.
The second vision is harder to implement than the first, but offers the most hope for the kind of agriculture I want to be involved in, and the kind that will serve America best.
Editor’s note: Blake Hurst and his family raise row crops and operate a commercial greenhouse in Atchison County. He also serves on the state board of Missouri Farm Bureau.