A new agriculture organization, The Hand That Feeds U.S., has been formed to explain the farmer’s side of the story to the media. The effort is in response those critical of farmers on various issues, including areas of food costs and the environment, the group said.
“It makes no sense that we’re being demonized by many of the nation’s top newspapers,” said Linda Raun, a rice grower in Texas. “We haven’t done a good enough job telling them our story.”
Monday, two U.S. senators, Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., wrote an open letter to U.S. media outlets noting that opposition to debate leading up to the 2008 farm bill was “largely marked by misinformation.”
Andy Quinn, a Minnesota corn and ethanol producer, said, “We’re the best farmers in the world, but we’re far from being master communicators. For too long, we’ve let a handful of environmental extremists and coalitions bankrolled by big business define our industry in the news.”
Among tidbits of information cited by Farm Policy Facts:
- Americans spend 9.8 percent of their income on food _ less than consumers in any other country.
- For every dollar Americans spend on food, farmers get 20 cents.
- Of the $2.99 retail price for a one-pound loaf of bread, farmers receive 12 cents.
- Only 10 percent of funding in the farm bill goes to farm programs. More than 70 percent of the farm bill-related spending goes to food and nutrition programs such as food stamps.
- 95 percent of U.S. farms are run by families, farmer partnerships or co-ops. Less than 5 percent are corporate farms.
3 Comments
There are good farmers who grow crops we eat.
There are farmers who grow things for subsidy that may not be crops we eat.
Then there are farmers who aren’t farming. The CRP gravy train recipients, or better known as rural community killers.
Give me a break. If you have to defend your job. Somethings wrong. These so called farmers are given every break in the book. They pay no tax’s hardly. Given a nice check for growing nothing and they want more. If they can’t make it on what they sell the stuff for. Then go get another job like most people do. Some work hard but 90% are seen mostly at the donut shop or beer hall. Give me a break. Did anyone ever tell you why a farmers bill on his hat is shaped like a half-moon. So it can fit in the mailbox. Looking for that government check.
Nobody grows “for subsidy.” Subsidies are paid when market prices are too low for farmers to break even on the production of a crop that the government, in its infinite wisdom, has determined is necessary and should be grown whether or not it is profitable in the market place. There was plenty of howling last year when market prices hit profitable levels but I didn’t hear a lot of celebration (or even mention) of the huge drop in subsidy payments. And by the way, most farmers do “get another job.” More than 80 percent work off-farm jobs in addition to farming. As for getting a “nice check for growing nothing” didn’t I hear an outcry about the world-wrecking environmental damage being done by planting more acres of corn? No wonder urban dwellers don’t hear the farmers’ side of it. They can’t hear anything above the din of their own whining.