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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Ag that includes people
  • Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 08:44:33 -0700



"Attention often focuses on large facilities, such as packing plants, or
processing food for export. [Instead] use local production and marketing to
create opportunities and capture the tremendous amount of local spending for
food. Benefits include higher commodity values retained by producers,
increased employment and efficiencies of direct marketing. Economic
development isn't just bringing in a new factory. Every county has an
economic system built around food distribution and consumption. The key is to
grow and market high-value crops such as produce, meat and flowers locally."


Ag that includes people
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/lsl/lspv15n2.html

EDITOR'S NOTE: Neil Hamilton will be the keynote speaker at the Land
Stewardship Project's 15th anniversary celebration Sept. 13 (see page 4 for
more information). He is an Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of
Law and the director of Drake University's Agricultural Law Center in Des
Moines, Iowa. Hamilton, who was a columnist for the now defunct New Farm
magazine, writes frequently about agriculture and the need for alternative
food systems that bring consumers and farmers together. Below are selections
from essays he's written for the Des Moines Register and Successful Farming.

By Neil Hamilton
The industrialization of ag

"Historically, a person not born on a farm or wealthy enough to buy land
would begin as a hired man. Then by saving, he would become a tenant,
building equity to one day own a farm. Once the farm was purchased and the
mortgage paid, the farmer could expand the operation. The opportunity to own
land and be their own boss attracted and motivated millions of farm families
throughout our history.

We are moving away from this view of farming. The farm crisis of the '80s has
been followed by ag industrialization ÷ the movement of food processors and
input suppliers into food production. While the merits of industrialization
are praised by some, the trend promises to take agriculture backward.

Contract production makes farmers employees on their own land, with limited
control over the production or marketing of crops, and little opportunity to
profit from rising markets.

Bill Haw, CEO of National Farms, one of the nation's largest and most
successful corporate farms, views contract production and vertical
integration with anticipation and promise. He sees the history of broiler
production, where 100 producers raise most of the chickens in the U.S., as
the model for pork and beef. He says an integrated production system offers
consumers lower-priced, efficiently-produced foods of uniform quality.

Ag industrialization is often billed as economic development because of the
jobs it may create. But what of the impact it has on existing producers?
Should we turn family farmers into employees of food companies, just so we
can buy a more uniform pork chop for a few pennies less? That is what
industrialization boils down to ÷ lower cost, more uniform and more
predictable food. There is no proof that farmers will be better off, land
will be better treated or rural communities will be healthier.

· Consumer tastes may determine which foods are in demand, but I question
whether consumer demands drive shifts in food production. If consumers want
lean pork, farmers can produce it without being under contract.

· Perhaps the most significant reason for the trend to ag industrialization
is the lack of alternatives. There are too few opportunities for farmers to
profit and remain independent. Finding these opportunities should be the role
of the land grant universities, farm organizations, cooperatives and the
government. Unfortunately, these institutions are often willing participants
in the industrialization of agriculture.

· If we don't make an effort, or our efforts fail, there will still be an
agriculture, but it will be without farmers."
Buying direct from farmers

"When Milt and I met in November I asked how chicken sales were going at the
store.

He said that never got going. His answer provides insight both to him and to
something that is wrong with our food system. He said the chickens the store
was buying from him for $5.50 would sell at close to $12.60. He wasn't upset
with the price he was receiving, but he couldn't stand what consumers were
being asked to pay. He said, 'My name is on those birds and I just didn't
feel right selling them knowing they would be charged so much.' You may think
Milt is old-fashioned or foolish or just doesn't understand modern business.
I think he understands it very well.

·Farmers who want higher profits are learning to sell what they raise as
products, not commodities. If you want fresh, natural food and want to help
those who raise it, look for ways to buy it from them. Frequent farmers
markets, join a community garden and seek out farmers selling directly to
consumers. No doubt Milt will have a few extra turkeys this year, so call
him. Better yet, find your own Milt ÷ you may make a friend."
Beginning farmers & community

"The Wisconsin Farmland Conservancy, a land trust helping individuals and
government preserve farmland, is developing projects using the concept of
community farms. The idea is for nonprofit groups such as churches or
foundations that own farmland to lease the land to new farm families.

One example is Shell Lake, Wis., where the 4-H and fair board were given a
200-acre farm. Officials' first idea was to sell the land to support their
projects. But then they asked which they needed more: money in the bank or a
new family working the land, with kids in 4-H participating in the fair? The
conservancy is working with officials to develop a conservation easement to
protect the land and an innovative ground lease for a family to farm the
land, renovate the buildings and develop equity in the operation."
Beginning farmers & urban sprawl

"[We should] integrate efforts to protect farmland and support beginning
farmers. Agriculture cannot continue without land on which to operate or
people to do the work and accept the risks and responsibilities. In recent
years the nation has given attention and funding to farmland preservation.

·Unfortunately, there is little effort to link farmland protection and
support for farmers. We may be preserving farmland but losing the battle on
whether a local farm economy will exist to employ the land."
Urban sprawl & developers

"·Part of the problem comes from our attitudes about farmland. To most city
planners and developers farmland is considered 'undeveloped' land waiting for
someone to 'improve' it. This attitude is most common in places like Iowa
where our abundance of farmland makes it difficult for people to consider its
conversion as a problem.

·Market-driven forces can integrate farmland protection with growth.
Education will be key to such efforts, educating developers and officials
about the value of preserving farmland and educating home buyers and society
of the need to do so."
'Defamation of agriculture' laws

"How could our respect for the value of civil discourse have sunk so low or
our trust in science risen so high? Do we have such little faith in the
common sense of people or in the quality of our products or in the integrity
of our farming practices? How could an agricultural sector that rails against
the proliferation of laws and bemoans the intrusion of government in its
business believe the defense of its economic future rests on creating a new
crime to threaten those who question [chemical-intensive agriculture and
large manure lagoons]?"
Using high technology to make food more marketable

"In his famous essay 'The Land Ethic,' Aldo Leopold wrote, 'When the logic of
history hungers for bread and we hand out a stone, we are at pains to explain
how much the stone resembles bread.'

If we really want to 'improve' the quality of our food, rather than just
increase its marketability, perhaps we should produce fewer stones and focus
on producing the high quality bread and peaches we all want to eat."
True rural development

"Attention often focuses on large facilities, such as packing plants, or
processing food for export. [Instead] use local production and marketing to
create opportunities and capture the tremendous amount of local spending for
food.

Benefits include higher commodity values retained by producers, increased
employment and efficiencies of direct marketing. Economic development isn't
just bringing in a new factory. Every county has an economic system built
around food distribution and consumption. The key is to grow and market
high-value crops such as produce, meat and flowers locally."





  • [Livingontheland] Ag that includes people, Tradingpost, 11/13/2004

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