Kansas Agriculture Secretary Adrian Polansky wrote a commentary in Sunday’s Eagle criticizing the Bush administration’s proposal to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion in the coming year. “The president’s timing couldn’t be worse,” he wrote. “Kansas farmers are facing high fuel prices, higher interest rates, high fertilizer costs and, as in much of the Great Plains, a worsening drought. Now is not the time to scale back this important safety net. It will have a negative impact on our farmers, as well as our smaller rural communities that depend on their patronage.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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23 Comments
They’ve been on the government milk for way to long. They need to produce crops or develop farming practices that are competitive and do not require subsidies.
They’ve been living off the backs of the American worker for way too long, so kudos for the Ag Sec.
We are all facing higher fuel prices and everything else is raising in price. Farmers have to deal with the same as the rest of us. Drought and crop damage should still be left up to insurance.
I have no idea why people still have the old romanticise perception of the American farmer, as if they are an endangered species that must be protected at all cost.
If Kansas farmer can’t grow wheat because they can’t get government money, then they can turn their fields back to grass like is was in its natural state. We can get wheat overseas.
Joe…Like we get our oil overseas? Yeah.. that is working well for us!It matters not how efficient your farming practices are when you are getting pretty much the same prices for your products that your grandfather was getting. Give them a raise..maybe they can survive on their own…..By the way.. they ARE turning their land back into grassland because the government is paying them to do so. Just wait.. that is a practice that will one day hit us all in the breadbasket!!
Interesting comment, how the prices of grain have not changed in two generations.
One small detail left out there.. the yield of bushels per acre has climbed dramatically. Forgot that one, did you, Sam?
When this country can no longer feed itself, it will be over.
“One small detail left out there.. the yield of bushels per acre has climbed dramatically”
Raptor, that is true, but the cost to EVERYONE of that increased production is astronomical. The increased use of chemical fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide, etc. all require increased moisture for the crops. That water is either supplied by mother nature (how is THAT working for us!) or by irrigation.
So the next time you all complain about the quality and quantity of water in Wichita, thank that “dramatic increase” in the yield of bushels per acre. The damage to the land and water will not be paif for by big ag. It will be paid by you someday on your water bill…or your hospital bill.
Sheesh, you all forget that water runs downhill. Whatever the chemicals or confined animal waste we flush into the water supply will eventually end up in your water glass.
“By the way.. they ARE turning their land back into grassland because the government is paying them to do so. Just wait.. that is a practice that will one day hit us all in the breadbasket!!”
Kansassam, the govt pays LANDOWNERS, not necessarily farmers, to take marginal land out of production and return it to grass in the interests of soil and water conservation.
I am not sure that is particularly profitable for landowners except that the money is guarenteed for a period of time (unlike crops!) and because the land was unproductive, unprofitable, and for environmental reasons, should have never been broken.
CRP land is not eligible to be hayed or grazed unless the gov and the feds declare drought conditions as mentioned the last few days in the WE. When it goes out of production, it GOES OUT OF PRODUCTION!
The purpose of CRP is to improve the land, stop soil erosion, and keep silt and run off out of the water supply. Its purpose is NOT to make money for the landowner, and it really doesnt financially help the people who actually cultivate the land.
Why am I giving this reply to kansassam’s comment? The amount of food that was produced on CRP land was marginal at best. The lay of the land caused it to be unproductive and its crops contributed only slightly to the food supply.
However, if the conservation benefits are allowed to continue, eventually we will all benefit from keeping water clean and dirt in the fields where it belongs.
The real culprit in the decline of farm acres planted is urban sprawl. More crop acres are lost to subdivisions than anything else. Not much of that going on here in western ks, but around the urban areas of ks, just take a look. All those new houses are built on what was crop land.
Is that bad? I dont know, but dont blame CRP for massive reductions in food producing acres. Blame the high cost of houseing and the growth of edge cities.
As usual, Bush chooses the WRONG cutbacks to make in spending. If he brough our people home from Afganistan and Iraq, we would be able to pay the subsidies need for farmers, handicapped, health, etc.
My only problem with farm subsidies are the ones paid to mega-farms. I think those do need a close look at. Subsidizing water to these mega farms means they have no accountability for how they use, or abuse, it. We do pay for that . . . big time.
Hee hee walker, the big ag big irrigators pay for it too. Look at the campaign donations to governor leadership that come from the irrigators!
Information is available at http://www.ewg.org and the Kansas Ethics Commission website.
Sorry to continue the rant. I have now had enough coffee to BLOVIATE!
The god damn subsidies are what created the need for CRP and other land restrictions!! That rough, unproductive, and environmentally sensitive land was mostly broken out the LAST TIME restrictions on planting were removed and prices dropped with the increased supply.
I wasnt farming directly then, but I think it was in the late 70’s that farmers had the “yoke of acreage restrictions” removed in what was to be a grand and glorious return of the FREE MARKET in terms of crops, particularly grain crops.
Free from the hand of govt, the “invisible hand” would now direct farmers to produce grain out the wazoo, and the world market would lap it up! Happy days would be here again!
How did that work for us? Remember, this was the time that interest rates were in the high teens and early 20’s. (no kidding) Farmers were encouraged to plant “fence row to fence row” now that they were free to determine how much they should plant. Incidentally, that would also mean bigger equipment and more chemicals in addition to breaking of bad land.
So…every piece of ground that was even remotely flat enough to farm was broken out of native sod. I drive by “stranded windmills” everyday. Land that used to be, and was meant to be, grass and pasture. Land that somewhere along the last 30 years, got plowed up, and no one bothered to remove the windmill from the middle of a wheat field.
The result of that production frenzy? Over production of grains we couldnt give away!! The prices for grain dropped through the floor, grain sat on the docks and rotted, and farmers scrambled to get more production from their existing acres when they couldnt find any more shitty land to break out! Then they started canibalizing each other.
The wave of bankruptcies and farm forclosures and sales skyrocketed in the early to mid eighties. (Remember the posse guys on the court house steps?) So did the demise of small ag equipment manufacturing, and thus began the consolidation of companies like international harvester, ford tractors, new holland, etc. In the early 80’s there were three tractor dealerships in my hometown. Now…there are NONE!!
Little farmers were forced to sell, and the only ones who could afford to buy them out were big farmers. You know, the ones making their income from subsidies? Suddenly, mid sized farmers became land barons and big ag. Little guys went to wichita and looked for jobs in the aircraft industry :) The price of used farm equipment hovered at scrap metal prices.
It was the begining of the true march of “get big or get out” philosophies that benefit only big ag and the USDA.
All that consolidation and extra production did nothing but drive up the cost of land and drive down the price of crops. Eventually, the CRP idea emerged to lure LANDOWNERS, not farmers, into putting waterways and other marginal land back to grass to keep the soil from washing away and the water where it needed to be. And, coincidentally, to also curb production of grains in a flooded market. (Think reagan and supply side voodoo economics.)
The end result of all this was environmental destruction and the destruction of both the quality and quantity of u.s. produced food. Farmers (big ag) became dependent (dare I say addicted?) to handouts and subsidies that would shame the most brazen of “welfare mothers”.
Today, food production and our food supply have either been destroyed or outsourced. Food production is no longer a home grown industry and retail food prices continue to climb. Nutrition content of commercial food continues to fall.
Nice work. Keep those subsidies coming and we will eventually be begging foreigners for a crust of bread and a glass of milk for our kids. Except…I think kansassam is already doing that for the folks he serves.
High food prices and hunger in America, brought to you by your local big farmer/big government/big irrigation partnership.
Stay tuned for more great ideas from these folks!
I still recommend Jonathan Rabin’s book “Badlands”. Great story of ag in the early part of the 20th century, the growth of small towns, and the eventual demise of the small farm and small towns of “flyover country”. A great read on how we got where we are with ag.
Also good, the book “Can Man Survive?” by Gary Huelet and Gene Fleharty. I may not be spelling their names correctly, and the book may be out of print, but if you can get it…read it! Especially the “tragedy of the commons” part.
Tip o’ the hat to walker here, you might also want to read “Cadillac Ranch” about water wars in the west.
I could go on and on ….:)
Do you want to know who gets these subsidy payments? Do you want to know who supports Adrian Polansky? Do you want to know FACTS about subsidies?
Go here:http://www.ewg.org/reports/Slickers/exec_summ.html
Effect of subsidies on small towns:
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=904829
EVEN BETTER ARTICLE:
Fred Kirschenmann, an Iowa farmer who heads Iowa State University’s Aldo Leopold Center at Ames is blunt about how federal policies have pushed people out of the Great Plains.”What’s happening is not inevitable,” said Kirschenmann.(SNIP)
Korth, who has been active in trying to restructure federal programs, agreed the bias toward bigness “is not happening by chance. It’s happening by plan and design.” Efforts to redirect farm subsidies to small and medium-sized farmers have failed repeatedly in Congress.
Read the rest of this article:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/04/smalltowns/feature1.php
I believe Farmgrrl is most qualified to speak to this as she is well……you know a farmer.
I see that she is doing so……and well……and extensivey…..
Just teasing KFG. It really is very educational.
I would only like to address the idiotic idea upthread that we let the little farms die or outsource our food production. How moronic.
Little lesson here. Remember how nice Wal Mart was to both its customers and employees years ago when they still had COMPETITION? (imagine me a liberal having to explain free market competition to a conservative) Wal mart is not so accomodating to its customers these days. And of course its poor serfs get to sing the mandatory Wal mart loyalty anthem. I don’t think we want to play the same race to the bottom game with our source of food!
Sorry to be a thread killer here with long posts. I want to add one more thing…
David Pope, the chief water engineer who has, for twenty years been over appropriating kansas water (read: giving away more water than exists) WORKS FOR ADRIAN POLANSKY!
Polansky is a political hack, a career democrat who is married to democrat royalty. The equivalent of the kennedys in kansas. He was appointed by governor leadership for POLITICAL purposes, not for the good of ks water or ag.
I often wonder who was governor leadership’s worst appointment? I am torn between Mike Hayden, Adrian Polansky and Joe Harkins. What do they have in common?
WATER USE AND WATER POLICY. I guess that arena is the new dumping ground for tired political hacks. We dont need no stinkin’ competancy!!!
Maybe governor leadership could appoint “heck of a job” brownie to the water office. After all, a crony in need of a job is a crony in need of a job. Adrian lost his after Clinton lost his job.
Google Polansky and see what his “career” has been.
ksfarmgrrl…you go girl! the subsidies to the mega corporate farms could be done without.. I’m only concerned about the family farmer who inherited the farm from “dad”, is fighting takeover by the corporation, and is truly in survival mode.oh.. another thing on the “grass program”. did you know that there are probably thousands of acres out there in the program and the ground is pretty much good for nothing… except for producing oil (and grass program money) for some large land grabbing oil interests?
MEMO TO RED STATES: HOW IS YOUR SLAVISH DEVOTION TO BUSH WORKING OUT FOR YOU?
KFG,Awesome, grrl, awesome. The info should be printed in the Eagle, front page, but would they ever interview someone who actually knows whats going on AND has solutions, but has a history of, shudder, gay relations? Why, the very thought probably has the Phelps clan, along with about 70% of the Kansas population wringing their hands in horror.
The same water problems are going on in Calif. The only difference is blood has been spilled on a regular basis. But you wont hear about it in any newspapers. Having been raised and lived there there for over half my extensive life, I took a major interest in both the politcs and consequences of water. It was an eye opening experience to say the least.
The oil problems in this country cant come close to comparing with the water problems. Hopefully, people like you will help bring it to the forefront of the political process.
Farm payments should not be cut. They should be ended and farming should be subjected to the same market forces everybody else has to live by- supply and demand.
Bush tried to cut socialism for big agri-business by 3 billion the first year he was in office too.
Welfare-for-the-rich howled so much, they made him back off.
I’d be surprised if this goes anywhere either.
That’s an excellent idea, Kev, except there are no “market forces” in big agri-business anymore.
Try independently raising chickens and see what you get for them. Or pork. My father quit raising chickens on a small operation when he finally realized he could buy them retail at the grocery store cheaper than he could raise them himself.
Chicken and hogs are all raised under contract with big monopolies–Tyson, Archer-Daniel-Midlands–these days. There is no spot-market anymore because there’s only one market controlled by the few big buyers out there.
You do it their way at their prices.
Once again, the Eagle’s all for cutting spending until it comes to, well, cutting, um, spending.
News flash: Kansas agriculture was CREATED BY BIG BUSINESS. Kansas ag has generated vast profits, for food processors, farm-equipment makers, banks, insurers, oil companies, railroads,commodities brokers, et al. It’s been tremendously successful. Just not for farm families. They were sold a bill of goods. You can’t accrue profits producing low-value commodities on a small scale. That would violate the laws of economics. So Kansas farmers have to either figure out how to create high-value crops, or else cultivate huge farms. If Canadians and Dutch can grow winter tomatoes, and if Iowans can grow fresh herbs in winter, why not Kansas farmers, particularly those who sit on top of natural gas reserves that would nicely heat greenhouses? Or maybe raise no-additive bison.People who have money to spend want healthful food. They’re willing to pay for it. Or get Kansas’s congressional delegation to get earmarks for KU and KSU to do cutting-edge research so Kansans can make farmaceuticals or bio-fuels, instead of being contract farmers who work for people who live in other states who profit on invention.
Ya know heartlander, I have a friend in KC who makes this fabulous red pepper dip, and she always gets a fresh red bell pepper at christmas to use as a serving container.
Last christmas, she was bitchin’ because EACH red pepper was almost $4. She said it had a tag on it that said “imported from Canada” and she figured that was why it was so expensive.
So I patiently asked her, a PHD scientist, if she thought December was prime growing season for red peppers in Canada. heheh. WTF?
Either the pepper was grown in a hot house in Canada, or the pepper was grown in a warmer climate and just passed through Canada on its way to the u.s. table.
Either way, why couldnt that pepper have a u.s. sticker on it? Our food and farm policies are a joke on the consumers while providing obscene profits for food middlemen.
I wonder how much the grower, no matter where he/she was located, got from that $4 pepper.