If Rural Really Mattered
In January 1974, Don Ralston, Center for Rural Affairs Co-Director, wrote an essay for the Center’s newsletter entitled Fewer Shadows on the Land in which he asked, “What value should be placed on the shadow the farmer casts on his land?”
Don concludes that, “Land stewardship is best achieved by the man who owns, operates, and lives on his own land. The shadow this man casts is perhaps the most valuable of all agricultural inputs.” There have been numerous examples of such prophetic vision throughout the Center’s 35 years.
The 1975 Center for Rural Affairs report on vertical integration and large-scale hog production – Who Will Sit Up With The Corporate Sow? – accurately predicted the most onerous impacts that consolidation and vertical integration would have on family farm hog producers over the last 30 years. I invite you to read the full report again today at the Center’s website, http://www.cfra.org/who-will-sit-up-with-the-corporate-sow to fully appreciate what I mean.
The report predicts that, “as confidence in large scale production spreads, more sophisticated tax investment methods such as limited partnership schemes can be expected…. These developments will hasten a shift in production to the commercial companies like the giants of the cattle feeding business, where less that one half of one percent of the firms produce over half of the cattle.”
When rural really matters it will be in great part because we learn our lessons from history, especially from the prophetic rural voices of our past. Too often elected officials and policy makers ask us to believe that the changes that are occurring in our communities are inevitable, the product of invisible economic forces that cannot be foreseen.
Don Ralston’s essay and the Center’s Corporate Sow report, among many other writings, tell a different story. They remind us that our policy choices today will shape our future. And that the ideas that we bring forth now are often grounded in the work and wisdom of those who came before us.
Restrictions on corporate farming, a livestock competition title with a ban on packer ownership of livestock in the farm bill, farm program payment limits, investment in rural entrepreneurship and conservation… these are all ideas that are firmly rooted in the 35-year history of the Center for Rural Affairs.
And they are ideas that can help create a future for rural America with thriving family farms and ranches and vibrant rural communities.
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with comments.
Don concludes that, “Land stewardship is best achieved by the man who owns, operates, and lives on his own land. The shadow this man casts is perhaps the most valuable of all agricultural inputs.” There have been numerous examples of such prophetic vision throughout the Center’s 35 years.
The 1975 Center for Rural Affairs report on vertical integration and large-scale hog production – Who Will Sit Up With The Corporate Sow? – accurately predicted the most onerous impacts that consolidation and vertical integration would have on family farm hog producers over the last 30 years. I invite you to read the full report again today at the Center’s website, http://www.cfra.org/who-will-sit-up-with-the-corporate-sow to fully appreciate what I mean.
The report predicts that, “as confidence in large scale production spreads, more sophisticated tax investment methods such as limited partnership schemes can be expected…. These developments will hasten a shift in production to the commercial companies like the giants of the cattle feeding business, where less that one half of one percent of the firms produce over half of the cattle.”
When rural really matters it will be in great part because we learn our lessons from history, especially from the prophetic rural voices of our past. Too often elected officials and policy makers ask us to believe that the changes that are occurring in our communities are inevitable, the product of invisible economic forces that cannot be foreseen.
Don Ralston’s essay and the Center’s Corporate Sow report, among many other writings, tell a different story. They remind us that our policy choices today will shape our future. And that the ideas that we bring forth now are often grounded in the work and wisdom of those who came before us.
Restrictions on corporate farming, a livestock competition title with a ban on packer ownership of livestock in the farm bill, farm program payment limits, investment in rural entrepreneurship and conservation… these are all ideas that are firmly rooted in the 35-year history of the Center for Rural Affairs.
And they are ideas that can help create a future for rural America with thriving family farms and ranches and vibrant rural communities.
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with comments.
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