Socialist Action /October 1999
The Ongoing American Farm Crisis
By ADAM RITSCHER
The roots of the current farm crisis reach back into the 1970s. At that
time farmers were rushing to buy and rent more land and machinery to take
advantage of a huge increase in the export of agricultural products overseas
being orchestrated by the U.S. government. Banks were anxious to lend money,
and to most farmers it seemed as if the prosperity would go on forever.
It didn't, of course, and when the bubble burst in the late 1970s and
early '80s, the effects it would have on American farmers would be devastating.
Many of the foreign countries importing U.S. produce had gone bankrupt,
and at the same time the value of the U.S. dollar rose, making American
goods more expensive in foreign markets in relation to competitors such
as Canada, Argentina, and France.
Faced with a collapse in prices for their crops and livestock, farmers
were unable to pay back the loans they owed to the banks. While farmers
owed nearly $50 billion to the banks in 1970, by 1985 farmers were $215
billion in debt, the interest on which was a staggering $20 billion a year.
Consequently, a wave of farm foreclosures swept the country like a deadly
plague, and by the mid-1980s a thousand farmers were being forced off the
land a week! Families who had worked the land for generations were forced
to turn their farms over to the banks and moneylenders, sometimes doing
so only at the gunpoint of the county sheriff's shotgun.
Many farmers responded to this crisis by coming together in militant
protest. Militant tactics from the farm struggles of the l930s were resurrected
to combat the foreclosures. Among them was the "penny auction,"
where farmers would gather at the auction of a foreclosed farm and "persuade"
anyone from making any bids more than a few cents, and then returning the
land and machinery to the foreclosed-upon farmer.
A new tactic employed by militant farmers was that of the tractorcade.
In many states, farmers decided to converge upon their state capitols on
their tractors and drive home in a dramatic way their desperate need for
relief.
In Minnesota, for instance, 17,000 tractors drove to the steps of the
state capitol building demanding action. And in 1979, tens of thousands
of farmers from across the country converged upon Washington, D.C. Peanut
plantation millionaire Jimmy Carter dismissed the protesting farmers as
simply being "greedy."
Numerous militant farm organizations began to spring up as a result of
these protests, such as Groundswell, the Family Farmer Survival Association,
and the American Agriculture Movement.
In addition, under the pressure of small farmers, many of the traditional
farm organizations, such as the National Farmers Union, the National Farmers
Organization, and the Farm Bureaus Federation began to raise their voices
in support of government relief to farmers.
Betrayed by political "friends"
What followed this wave of protests and militancy, though, can probably
be best described as a wave of betrayal. The main betrayers, of course,
were the Democrat and Republican politicians-who had held the farmers up
as a model of "family values" in their election campaign speeches-and
turned their back on the farmers as soon as they felt they could get away
with it.
The farm bills and programs they enacted did little for the family farmers
who needed it, and instead ended up helping the agribusiness giants. Instead
of a moratorium on farm foreclosures or real economic aid, they handed out
tax breaks and welfare to the likes of Cargill, Archer-Daniel-Midlands,
and Purina.
One absurd program these politicians did enact was to provide farmers
with subsidies or tax breaks if they took a certain number of acres out
of production. The idea was to reduce the amount of crops harvested, and
force up the prices.
This was at a time when thousands were dying of starvation around the
world, and when even in America there were thousands of children with not
enough food on their plates. Nothing illustrates the irrationality of capitalism
more than paying bankrupt farmers not to raise food in a world where people
are starving.
But in addition to the politicians, there stood in the ranks of the betrayers
many of the leaders of the farm organizations. Although there were some
notable exceptions, most of these leaders came to their members in tailored
suits claiming that farmers needed to set up their own lobbying groups in
order to get what they needed from Washington.
They then exaggerated the benefits of whatever farm legislation was passed
to make it look like their members were getting something for all the money
they were paying in dues. In reality, a couple of tailored suits were all
that the money bought.
The decline in farmer militancy that resulted from this misleadership
was seized upon by the ruling class and their media as proof that the farm
crisis had ended.
And although prices did inch up a little here and there, and the number
of farm foreclosures fell as the weakest of farmers were pushed off the
land, this represented simply a slight decrease in the severity of the crisis,
not its end.
Farmer debt still totaled up to almost $200 billion, and this figure
has continued up to today, just slightly less than its mid-1980s peak. Also
the number of farmers overall has continued to fall; despite having hit
an all time low in the mid-1980s of 2.1 million, today the number is even
lower, at 1.9 million.
Rise of factory farms
Aggravating and contributing to this situation is the continued rise
of factory farms. Even though the vast majority of farms in America are
still small family farms, in certain sectors of agriculture-such as pineapples,
strawberries, grapes, exotic fruits, poultry, pork and vegetables-factory
farms are becoming the norm.
Where I come from, for instance, in western Wisconsin, poultry used to
be a common source of supplementary income and food for most farmers. Today
though, massive chicken sheds that have price tags of $200,000 and that
turn out up to 60,000 chickens a month have completely taken poultry out
of the hands of the small farmer.
Another serious problem is that even when prices do rise somewhat, as
they did in the early and mid-1990s at times, it's often offset by the continuing
rise of operating and maintenance costs. The giant farm implement manufacturers,
which in the 1970s were caught engaging in price fixing deals, have now
eliminated the risk of getting caught by simply merging.
While once upon a time there were dozens of farm equipment manufacturers,
today you can count them on your hand and have a few fingers left over.
The result is that a new, top of the line, eight-wheel tractor now costs
as much as a Rolls Royce!
Since no family farmers can afford such prices, they are forced to try
to keep running machinery that is decades old. In my county it's quite common
for farmers to be using equipment that is 30-35 years old. Growing up on
the farm, I remember spending as much time repairing machinery as using
it.
In the 1990s farmers have been responding to the ongoing crisis in an
uneven and contradictory way. Again, misleadership plays a big role here.
Additional millions are being tossed into the lobbying shredder by the bureaucrats
sitting on top of the farm organizations. On the few occasions a protest
has been called by these bureaucrats, they use every excuse possible to
either cancel them or direct them in a worthless direction, such as campaigning
for left-sounding Democrats.
The American Agriculture Movement (AAM), which during the late 1970s
and early '80s had been the most militant of the farm organizations, has
been both marginalized by the more traditional and conservative groups,
and has been wrung free of many of the militant farmers who once proudly
filled its ranks.
While in the 1980s the AAM took the initiative of founding the North
American Farm Alliance and the North American Farmer newspaper to link together
the struggles of farmers on both sides of the border, today it organizes
demonstrations on the Canadian border demanding government policies that
will keep Canadian grain and beef off the U.S. market.
Frustration with these farm organizations has led some desperate farmers
to look to the dangerous right-wing demagogy of the likes of Lyndon LaRouche
and Pat Buchanan. In the last presidential elections, for instance, Buchanan
won the Republican primary in Iowa with the vote of thousands of angry and
confused farmers. Thus we see the desperate need for an organized socialist
alternative to which farmers can turn.
The fact that family farmers still run 99 percent of the farms, are the
largest owners of land in this country, and still produce the majority of
agricultural produce, makes them an important ally of the labor movement.
What is needed today is a strong alliance between farmers and labor that
is independent of the misleading Democrats and Republicans, and that is
equipped with an internationalist perspective recognizing the need for solidarity
with all working people, regardless of borders.
Such a force can and will wrest control of this country from the hands
of big business, and put it in the hands of those who through their sweat
and labor truly deserve it.
Socialist Action /October 1999 |