Guest editorial

Farmers must vote more carefully

by George Naylor

Now that the election of 2004 is history, voters must face some important questions.

Will our political system take time, amid political fund raising and heated rhetoric on cultural issues, to focus on the plight of family farms and rural communities?

Will Wall Street be the only winner, as indicated in a recent Associated Press article?

Will our government reflect the general concern that our country "is going in the wrong direction," that "growing the economy" results in more and more concentration of farms and processing companies, and that our food and energy often come from foreign lands?

If elections turn on personalities and cultural issues like these of 2004, the future of family farming and rural prosperity must turn on voters' attention to their elected officials.

Benign neglect or policy that benefits giant multinational agribusiness corporations will mean rural America is relegated to being the home of private hunting preserves or factory farms.

These offer unhealthful and low-paying jobs along with polluted streams and a stench that literally takes your breath away.

Gone will be diversified farming where livestock is raised with fresh air and room to roam. Gone will be crop rotations that benefit the environment and provide economic opportunities throughout the year. Gone will be the rural communities of mutual support based on the Golden Rule and investment in local schools and county hospitals. Election rhetoric and crazy TV ads may get people elected, but what are we electing people to do, and will their performance matter in future elections?

Family farming was once recognized as the institution that guaranteed democracy and economic opportunity for all our people.

In a letter to James Madison in 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "It is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state."

In the latter half of the 1800's, the Republican Party championed the rights of family farmers, small businesses, and free labor as the polar opposite to the slave system and the economically underdeveloped South.

The tragedy of the Great Depression resulted in government policy that supported family farm agriculture with price floors on basic farm commodities (as opposed to government payments), conservation programs, and low interest loans to fulfill Jefferson's ideal of farmers owning their own land.

The economic footing of family farming has been so neglected that 70 percent of farms earn less than 25 percent of their household income from the farm. Less than 2 percent of rural residents earn their primary income from the farm. Farmland in many regions is worth much more for hunting preserves and development than for producing healthy local supplies of food.

The blessing of small farmers growing organic and sustainably raised produce for the local market is threatened by the importation of competing products of dubious quality thanks to free trade agreements like NAFTA.

Major commodities like corn, soybeans, and wheat are priced so low that only billions of taxpayer dollars provided in the U.S. "farm bill" prevent a complete collapse of the rural economy.

These commodities serve as cheap livestock feed that benefits corporate livestock factories that buy all their feed.

Isn't the future of family farming a moral issue, too?

Family farming can be the engine for growth and economic opportunity if voters focus on the issues that assure fair returns to family farmers, widespread ownership of farms, and the promotion of free and open markets not dominated by multinational corporations.

Every citizen and our nation's security will benefit if we demand that our elected officials support our food sovereignty. They must also respect other nations' right to reap the benefits of family farms and democracy.

If voters tell our elected officials to write a new farm bill that restores price floors under basic commodities, renews opportunities for farm ownership and local markets, and halts free trade agreements that hurt our farmers and those in other countries, America will deserve the respect of people all around the world and of future generations. The 2004 elections are over; it's time for action!

George Naylor is a corn and soybean farmer from Churdan, Iowa, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and President of the National Family Farm Coalition. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) was founded in 1986 to serve as a national link for grassroots organizations working on family farm issues. www.nffc.net