What Would Rural America Look Like If
Fourth in our continuing series, this month we share John Crabtree’s letter to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin about the kind of farm bill that rural America truly deserves
The farm bill debate in the U.S. House of Representatives has been, to say the least, disappointing. Increased and weakened farm payment limits will mean larger subsidy checks to the nation’s largest farm operations being used to drive more of their smaller neighbors out of business. The following are excerpts of a letter I wrote on behalf of my family to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) earlier this year.
That is what it would look like if rural America truly mattered, the opposite of what is happening in thousands of rural communities across the nation – more thriving family farms and ranches, more kids, more rural main street businesses, and prospering rural communities everywhere.
And in the end, that is what it will look like if rural Americans – North, South, East, and West – stand up and let Congress know that we will not accept another farm bill that destroys family farms and that we want a farm bill that invests in family farms, ranches, and rural communities.
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with comments.
The farm bill debate in the U.S. House of Representatives has been, to say the least, disappointing. Increased and weakened farm payment limits will mean larger subsidy checks to the nation’s largest farm operations being used to drive more of their smaller neighbors out of business. The following are excerpts of a letter I wrote on behalf of my family to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) earlier this year.
Senator Harkin, no one will ever farm our farm again after we leave, not if things remain the way they are now. Of course, someone will till the soil, plant, and harvest. But no one will farm here; no one will live here.
… The current farm bill has driven up land costs to the point where young farmers have no chance. The only so-called “farmers” who are still buying land are mostly speculators or very large operators that do not even live around here.
We own some of the best land anywhere. There should be lots of farms with kids and with livestock and lots of building for the future. … I urge you to stand up to the Southerners in Congress and tell them we will no longer write nor tolerate farm bills that destroy family farms. If they want to destroy their family farms, let them have their way with cotton and rice, and may God have mercy on their souls.
But let us have a farm bill here in Iowa … and the rest of the nation that supports family farmers, especially beginning farmers, and the communities that have grown up around them. Let us have a farm bill with real payment limits. No more tricks, no more loopholes … but real farm payment limits that level the playing field and bring young families back to our communities.
That is what it would look like if rural America truly mattered, the opposite of what is happening in thousands of rural communities across the nation – more thriving family farms and ranches, more kids, more rural main street businesses, and prospering rural communities everywhere.
And in the end, that is what it will look like if rural Americans – North, South, East, and West – stand up and let Congress know that we will not accept another farm bill that destroys family farms and that we want a farm bill that invests in family farms, ranches, and rural communities.
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with comments.
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Support for John Crabtree from a city-slicker
Being a couple generations removed from a small Kansas farming community and currently residing in a rapidly diminishing California agricultural area after growing up in a Texas urbanized area, you can understand my sympathies to the life of the small farmer have ebbed and flowed over the years. But I am certainly sympathetic with Mr. John Crabtree's letter at this point of my life and I would like to thank him for sharing his letter with us. I can think of no more rewarding lifestyle than owning a business, and the small farming business would seem to be the best among that category. But, sadly, I see no good prospect for a return to my farming heritage of so many years ago. It really shouldn't be this way. Keep up the good fight!
Rural America and Absentee Landlords
For years I taught in a very small rural Nevada town. I loved the land. I loved teaching several grades in one room. I loved having kids who said they wanted to grow up to be cowboys, and realizing they were not being silly or romantic, but seeking to follow in the footsteps and stirrups of their daddies, and sometimes mothers.
But I would often have to get to school early to open it up, so that my kids who had no running water could come in to wash. And I struggled to communicate with children who spoke little English or Spanish, because they were Spanish Indians who spent almost half their year in Mexico, and the rest with me. These were good kids, respectful, resourceful, able to do many things at the age of six or seven that I could not do at forty. They were poor beyond anything I'd ever seen working in Reno's toughest schools. And none of them came from families that owned even a smidgen of the land their parents ranched.
All the land was owned by absentee landlords. The one small settlement that was the livelihood for four families which belonged to a rich man who lived on that land was sold lock, stock and barrel to a corporation that used it as a tax write-off and evicted everyone. These families came here to realize the American dream. Instead, the American dream turned into the Mexican nightmare of rich land owners and poor tenants. With NAFTA and CAFTA, this is our future. And a country without food security is a country that cannot last long. This isn't just a rural issue. This is a fight for the survival of America. Oh, and by the way...when we finally close the border, it won't matter much to the rich absentee landlords--there will be so many starving Americans willing to do anything to survive that they will have all the camapaneros they need.
It is all connected, and it is not accidental. The starving out of the small American farmer and the globalization of trade are just part of what most of the world calls neoliberalism, but ironically is called neoconservativism in America. For those of you who continue the fight for liberty and for the independent farmer, don't give up. Never, ever, ever give up. There is nothing more noble or more deserving of our life, our liberty, and our sacred honor.
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