This video caught my eye on the tube and so I took a moment to watch. There are a lot of mixed messages in the information, and some outright contradictions that the journalists who compiled this information do not pursue- maybe they will in future. I’m going to point a few things out and try to address them.
Commodity crops (soy and corn) vs.
The 1996 Farm Bill removed regulations on how much of certain crops could be grown, in favor of how much a farmer could make in the global market. This took larger, mostly corporate farms- the top 2% of farms, a lot of income. This happened because of corporate agricultural business lobbying for more government subsidies to make more profit. Let’s take a deeper look at these top percent of agricultural business, which dictates The Farm Bill.
Check out the #1 agricultural corporation in The World, Cargill– specifically it’s criticism arounf child labor, union busting, land grabs, and deforestation. These are the guys pushing palm oil over jungles and cheap child labor for investment gains. Number two in the world of agricultural big business is our old friend Monsanto– which merged with Bayer (#3).
John Deere is #4, and that’s all heavy equipment for the industrial farming- no small farm can support such massive machines, yet most of the technology that helps larger farms today is run by this company. They are in trouble with The Feds over right to repair and walked away from DEI. To name a few issues not in their Wiki page.
I would divide farming definitions of size by heavy machinery used. If you use more than a couple of tractors to do your farming, you are not a small farm. For people who use no large farm equipment (Leafhopper Farm LLC) in their practices, there is already the reward of not getting caught up in the costly nightmare of large equipment and the fossil fuels to run them. Yes, those who grow in that way are producing little in comparison, but if everyone with only a few acres practiced small scale- or were compelled to as part of the responsibility of owning farmable acreage, there would be an abundance of food in our communities, and we could move towards free food for all. I truly believe this based on my own production.
The #5 largest agricultural business is Syngenta AG– which has all the chemical fertilizers and seeds. Its stock is owned by a Chinese state owned company. People are so worried about Tick-Tock, well this company controls the majority of toxic chemicals used in food production. Do your own deep dive on these horrific affairs.
#6 is the main drive behind commodity crops in the US- Tyson Foods Inc. The meat industry is controlled by two main players and Hormel is the other one. We grow all that soy and corn for the animal feed these companies control. The video points out that The US is the top world producer of meat, and that industry gets $64 Billion in trade from it. Your local meat growers, who do not export, are not getting any say in The Farm Bill, and certainly won’t see any revenue support from it. Take it from a local sheep producer like me.
Now that you understand who the real players are, think about how much government subsidy is really going to them. As the video shows, many mid-sized farms that are still family owned, rely on the handouts through these big corporate influences running the show. Almost all farms have to get at least some of their inputs through these companies, and so they defer to those interests, because the big companies are the only ones representing themselves in congress through lobbying. There are individual farmers that still spend their precious winter months off in D.C. trying to protect family farm legacies, but that’s not where the money is. As Locust Farm’s owner said- he gets about $500 a year in federal support, and that’s not enough to cover anything.
About 9 minutes into the film, bio-fuels are briefly mentioned, and that’s another critical part of the Farm Bill web they should have looked at a little more closely- but it’s not related to their alarmist title “Why US Farms Are Struggling” if you think farming is only about food. Fuel is what runs most farming today, and that fuel is also starting to take priority over food. We can’t eat fuel, and it’s production is killing the environment which is our food, and water, and air. We are animals that can’t survive without clean environment.
At 9:30, the medium sized farm owner went into the small town economy talk, which again, this video seemed to step right over and not address. But pivoted back to human health, and it’s here I would like to make another point. The family farms that are bought into financial ties with these controlling corporate agricultural businesses can’t escape. They know that all rural business is tied into the corporate web, which they are beholden to. If they break from the norm, they have no income, and the rest of the town business goes bust. They already are bust. The medium sized farms are debt slaves. They pay any profit back into the farm for the massive inputs industrial farming demands. It’s a loose loose for farmers and the land, and it’s killing both.
For the little farms still being family run, suicide rates are high. This video does not get into this sad fact, but it must be mentioned here. Besides all the financial worries, farmers rely on the seasons and weather patterns, which are now becoming extreme. For corn and soy, this is not so scary, because the commidity crops are protected by The Farm Bill. But for the food crops that we really need in day to day living as people, there is little support or care, because salad greens and carrots are not profitable in our current federal programs and we can just import cheaper goods. How is that helping the farmer? The video does go there at 9:40, but then allows The Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas J. Vilsack, to “see things differently”. That’s it? WTF? Where is the journalism here?
At this point in the film, I was wondering what this was all about. The title is “Why US Farms Are Struggling”, yet this film is trying to talk about The Farm Bill as… good or bad? I think bad, but it’s so illusive on a real point beyond things are messed up and small farms, which grow most of the actual healthy food for us to eat, are not going to be around much longer. That is true, the way things are going environmentally. But when you go to the grocery store and reach for something that is no longer there, what then?
I’d like to close this little exploration with another video to help us see what’s happening in a close allied nation to our own. One we are working very hard to open more food imports to- England.
I’ve been following Flank Farm for a few years. I like that it’s run by a woman, trying to survive in the small farming world, and that the second generation is trying to help bring the story of family farming to a wider audience. England just passed a budget that will deeply impact family farms. What this woman farmer shared at 6:00 is what I think about all the time in farming. Our food web is vulnerable in so many ways. We can’t eat money. What will happen when food distribution is disrupted again like 2020 and COVID? For England, a small island nation, the affects are tremendous. Here in The US, we are building similar cracks in food systems by letting big money control our basic needs. The corporations are not living people, as so, they devour us as their income. Start planting your gardens now, and connect with other growers. When this system fails, backyard gardens and a few fruit trees down the street are all that will stand between our society and starvation. Get planting now and learn what’s growing on locally where you live.
EEC Forest Stewardship 