Socialist Action /October 1999
Minnesota Farmers Facing Disaster
By ADAM RITSCHER
As an example of the deepening crisis affecting small farmers across
the country, the federal Farm Service Agency released a report this month
predicting that nearly 6500 farmers were likely to lose their farms this
coming year in Minnesota alone.
That number represents almost 10 percent of small farmers in the state,
and is six times the average number of farmers that have been forced to
give up their land each year in the last decade.
In some areas of Minnesota, such as the northwestern part of the state,
11 percent of the farmers are likely to be forced out of business, and already
nearly one-fifth of the region's cropland is being left unplanted by desperate
farmers who've given up any hope of getting anything back financially from
planting.
State officials have responded by saying they are considering asking
president Clinton for a disaster declaration that would allow sinking farmers
to apply for low-interest federal loans.
Such an act would be unprecedented, since up until now such declarations
have been used only in response to natural disasters, whereas this one would
be in response to an economic crisis.
State director of the Farm Service Agency Tracy Beckman said at a press
conference, "I'm not sure we've ever been to a point like this. We're
losing a generation of farmers, basically." However, as true as this
is, at this point, even if Clinton does issue a disaster declaration, according
to Beckman, "It's not going to save anyone."
The crisis facing Minnesota farmers is the result of a dramatic drop
in the price of farm commodities. Prices have fallen by $1.2 billion since
1996 in this state. Part of the cause of this drop has been the collapse
of the "Asian Tigers," which formerly provided markets for U.S.
farm goods.
Hearings that are being held across the state have also been yielding
some interesting facts about how capitalist agriculture works today in America.
Paul Sobocinski, a farmer from Wabasso, pointed out how the giant agribusiness
corporations are "cheating us every day," and instead of being
hurt by this depression, are instead profiting from it.
This illustrates the growing divide taking place in rural America between
small working farmers, who receive an estimated $2.53 an hour for the labor
they put into their farms, and the agribusiness giants who seem to grow
fatter by the hour.
What farmers urgently need today, in the Midwest and nationwide, is a
militant campaign aimed at the government and the big agribusiness giants
that they represent, demanding a moratorium on all farm foreclosures, as
well as a guaranteed minimum price for their crops and livestock that more
than covers the cost of production and allows farmers to enter the coming
year debt free.
And when state and federal officials balk about how there's no money
in the budget for such a "radical" program, point them to Archer-Daniel-Midlands
and the other corporate giants that for way too long have been getting rich
off the sweat of small farmers.
Socialist Action /October 1999 |