James Abourezk speech on impending crisis facing United States farmers

Programs | Midday | Topics | Politics | Business | Types | Speeches | Economy | Grants | Legacy Amendment Digitization (2018-2019) | Agriculture |
Listen: 25982.wav
0:00

South Dakota Senator James Abourezk speaking at Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association meeting in Minneapolis about the impending crisis facing United States farmers. Often described as a political populist and friend of the family farmer, Abourezk began his speech by listing three problems he believes farmers must address.

Read the Text Transcription of the Audio.

First of all the need for new markets. Secondly the energy crunch thirdly the future of the small farm in America. On 1890 the US Census Bureau formally proclaim the closing of the American frontier. A myth which was certified as a historical fact three years later in Professor Frederick. Jackson Turner's famous, essay. Now the official closing of the frontier intensified, but I call the ongoing struggle for economic Primacy between the rural agrarian and urban industrial forces in our society. In recent years, it's become a valiant but not a vain struggle to preserve the best of agricultural America. The small farm from exploitation by those who Farm the farmers the commercial grain trade the packing house has the agri-business conglomerates and the money man who provide the financing for all of those money making operations. Not to make matters worse. The numbers and the money have steadily moved over to the other side away from you the small farmer. In 1790 the first Nationwide census revealed that more than 95% of the country's population were engaged in some form of agricultural endeavor. By 1920 the Census Bureau had decreed that for the first time in our history America could not be labeled as an urban rather than a rural Nation by 1976 the Census Bureau counter the farm population of little more than eight million people in a nation of more than 214 million. That is less than 4% of the total population know when I first got into politics. I used to talk about Farmers being 5% I've been in politics 7 years. And we've already lost exactly 20% of those who were farmers of this country in the seven years. I've been in politics you can see I haven't helped a lot. But this drastic demographic decline has been accompanied by a similar decrease in the farmers political clout at the national level. And the executive branch, although the Department of Agriculture was created by Congress over a hundred years ago in 1862. It did not attain even cabinet status until 1889 20 years after the first serious sustained decline in farm prices had begun. How the secretary of agriculture has rarely been a spokesman for the farmers too often in the recent past. He has been little more than a mouthpiece for the Secretary of State or for the Office of Management and budget which is the real government in Washington indeed Farmers have become the political Tar-Baby of the 20th century. In off election years when there's no election politicians at the national level don't really know what to do with the farmers. They want to get them off their fingers, but when it comes time for an election campaign, nationally, then everyone becomes the farmer's best friend, if you could just have that election your prosperity in the other three years. Everything is going just fine. But every fourth year you get it and that's all you get. But now finally I think we have a president and a secretary of agriculture who are both experienced Farmers Jimmy Carter. Bob Bergland are bright and decent men with a proper instincts about what's best for the future of the American Farmer. But unfortunately, even they seem to have bigger fish to fry. So it remains for organizations such as yours to create the pressure necessary to bring about some kind of innovative reform. at the Congressional and state legislature level the single most important factor in the past Century has been a steady decline and Farmers state representation and power. This is been due to population growth elsewhere in an ever-increasing stream of emigration for the midwestern farm bill as early as 1889 Western, Kansas and Nebraska began experiencing serious population declines in the brief. 1898 to 1914 almost a million American residents many of them from The Dakotas and the Minnesota migrated to the wheat provinces up in Canada, or why did they do that? Did it because when the crunch came back in those days from the big Banks the utilities and the transportation networks the government failed to step in and try to help them. They not only took themselves and their families to Canada, but they took with them their commitment to radical reform and economic Justice attitudes, which have since served their descendants and their adopted country of Canada very, well, the principal consequence of the migration was the collapse of the populist movement, the only sustained indigenous social and economic Reform movement, which this country has ever known the real populist then as now accepted the reality of industrialism. But they opposed it's ruthless exploitation of the working people then has now they were committed to the proposition that human rights are a sham unless predicated on the equitable distribution of wealth, then is now they supported the efforts of the laboring class to obtain economic Justice. For example A Woman by the name of Mary Ellen lease is perhaps best known for her famous challenge the farmers. She said you ought to raise more core or more hell and less corn. But she was also an Ardent champion of the homestead steel workers in their struggle against Andrew Carnegie and his private Pinkerton Army. And she toured the farm States raising money on Provisions for the locked out Strikers because she was convinced that in her words in this fight. The labor force is in all departments must stand together Farmers working people all of those who are being taken advantage of and who are victimized by the money men of the country and those who operate with them. I only wish that the unions and the farmers had heeded her calls for Unity because sad to say the problems confronting each or basically the same today as they were almost a century ago. Now is then the farmer is confronted with a never hire mortgage indebtedness is cost of production is too high for the price. He receives the Farmers Only salvation today. You can call it that is the increase in loan value on his land. So farmers now have the privilege of staying in the farming business if they're willing to pay the price and higher interest rates and greater Mortgage Debt. Now is then the farmers the prisoner of unfair Transportation rate structures arbitrary grain grading standards and a price-fixing. Adverse marketing arrangements are too often dictated by such a great business Moguls is bunge Continental grain or cook Industries, the classic example of this rip-off mentality at the expense of the farmer was the great grain robbery of 1972 as you may recall and I think all of you do in the summer of 1972 the Soviet Union purchase more than 19 million tons of grain from the United States worth approximately 1.2 billion dollars in addition to the 246 million bushels of corn 37 million bushels of soybeans the Soviets purchased 433 million bushels of wheat at about $0.02 per bushel less than the market price of a dollar 61 a bushel. Now within a few weeks. Thanks to the secretive duplicity of the Commerce Department in the venality of officials and the Department of Agriculture officials such as Earl Butz Palm be pulled ramacher. The Russians had cornered 1/4 of the entire world grain market. The agribusiness insiders were able to make millions and millions more in profits because of their early exclusive knowledge of the pending sales. Within a year we in this country was send selling for around $5 per bushel, but bread and beef prices at the supermarket had risen through the roof. This was also the same. In which the farmers production costs skyrocketed by a multiplier of God knows how much? We all thought at the time that because of that Russian weed sale and the price increase of wheat things were going to be much better but it didn't take long since the farmers. Most of the farmers themselves did not take advantage of the higher prices in the first sale. It didn't take long for the cost of production to catch up and even deprive the farmers of that little bit of profit that they were I think deserving. No, such inside information on the wheat salad and passed on to the farmers by government officials rather than to the the grain companies. The resulting profits would have gone where they should have named Lee to the farmers themselves, but instead the farmers received not profits but blame for the week sale. The farmers as producers were victimized by print and electronic news coverage which established new boundaries for ignorance and bias. It's an unfair negative image which they are still trying to live down in the media centers of this country. The Soviets were caricature does stereotypical Marxist machiavellians who had Hornswoggle the innocent capitalist. Even Richard Nixon complained at the time that the deal harm the cause of Freedom. That's Richard Nixon's words, and he also wanted to know why we should pull them out of their trouble and make communism look better but then having said all that for public consumption Nixon approve the deal in the secret campaign contributions to Nixon's committee to reelect the president or creep is it was called increased? Done both the short and the long-term the American farmers suffer because of the poor Public Image of the media pinned on him and without really profiting from the sale. He was further victimized by the inflationary spiral of escalating production cost. Especially those caused by the four-fold increase in Energy prices in the wake of the OPEC oil embargo in price increase in 1973. That was a result of the search for easy scapegoats and the idiot logical paranoia, which is prevalent in certain areas of our society. The American Farmer has been inhibited in recent years from aggressively seeking new markets for his products outside the country. Why is it possible for Donald Kendall of Pepsi Cola Company was a professional anti-communist to Proclaim that trade is going to be one of the main means of solving the problems between the United States and the Soviet Union. a Kendall said this after he obtained virtual monopoly rights to sell Pepsi-Cola in the Soviet Union, but when the farmer tried to emulate Kendall success And develop more overseas markets George. Meany of the AFL-CIO was screaming for an embargo on grain shipments to Russia and virtually all of the Communist Bloc Nations. Why is it permissible for Kendall to sell Pepsi Cola to the Soviet Union's but not for the farmers to sell weed to the same the very same people that one final note in this regard an author named Richard Barnett argues in his new book. But even the 1972 grain deal was not all one-sided. It helped shipping and farm equipment companies and caused the favorable shift in the u.s. Balance of trade. But if that's the case my question is why does not the farmer get his share of all of these wonderful profits that everybody else made? So I would strongly urge you to explore Ways and Means for expanding your role in the export business at the present time direct exports by farm coops represent a little more than 8% of the total agricultural exports at the coops control 40% of the market share at the local elevator level. Most of the other 92% is controlled by five major grain firms. During the. 1970 to 1976 us Farm exports exclusive the public law for 80 rolls from four and a half billion dollars to 22 billion dollars. The who's been siphoning off the Lion's Share of these profits will I think you know it's time I believed to put a screeching halt to the Stranglehold that the grain companies have on the export trade. Why should they determine where and to whom and in what amounts we ought to be allowed to export what is to prevent GTA from exploring suitable new markets based on need and fair profits. Let me cite some examples. a recent study by the food and agriculture organization of the UN reveals that because of drought and other severe climatic conditions there already severe crop failures and food deficits this year in China Morocco, Cape Verde Chad Ethiopia Angola Mozambique, Tanzania Egypt and again this year and you've all read about the shortage of this year in Russian, but think of the possibilities of reopening agricultural trade with a country such as Cuba The country which used to be the seventh largest importer of us agricultural produce. What about the prospects for trade with the Arab states of the Middle East recent studies indicate that we will only have 16% of the Agricultural Market this year in the Middle East? Compared with 17% 17 and a half percent that we had as early as 1974. Think about what a reciprocal exchange of food for oil would mean for the economies of the countries in both parts of the world. In a world in which at least 15 million children will die of hunger and malnutrition this year. Wouldn't it be better to have this government more concern with increasing the scope of our agricultural exports then with the incessant promotion of arms sales to all comers regardless of the Radiology it we can if we can export missiles to the Arabs Jets to the Israelis computers to the poles and Romanians corporate bribes to the Italians and Japanese and murdered a Chile and Korea and why can't we ship our grain and other agricultural exports to whomever we want in a And at fair prices and profits without government interference or collusion with corporate middlemen. Next to the agribusiness combines and their Unholy alliance with the money men the single biggest threat to the economic survival of the small farm is the uncontrolled increase in production costs. That's not news to anybody in farming that everything is gone up in price during this past year land fertilizer energy Congressional salaries, but there has to be a limit I think somewhere The principal element in factoring the cost production equation has been and continues to be energy modern farming is probably the single most energy intensive industry in the country and Industry whose cost multiplier effects of increased with each passing year. For example, the fuel required to produce an acre of corn increased from 15 gallons of gas per acre in 1945 to 22 gallons per acre in the year 1970. One Authority on the subject argued in a recent study. That we are currently using an equivalent of 80 gallons of gasoline to produce each acre of corn with fuel shortages and high prices to come. We wonder if many developing countries will be able to afford the technology of us agriculture. Every piece of Machinery that's used in farming requires a great deal of energy for its manufacture when the Machinery is used in the field and requires even more energy for operation. Natural gas which is used to heat 60% of the homes in this country is also the base element in the production of fertilizers, and it's used in massive amounts throughout the country. American agriculture cannot long survive. If Energy prices continue to rise at their present rates. It is a farmer who has been and will be the first to feel the catastrophic impact of a new round of energy price increases long before any other segment of our economy does so let me lay it on the line American agriculture off to have the biggest snake of all in constraining and withholding the power of the giant oil companies that seem to be able to run the country at will These are companies whose sole motivation for acting in the manner. They do at the present time. Is unmitigated greed I'm here to tell you that the American oil industry has no concern whatever for the public interest. The only concern they have is to maximize their profits and they'll use any means available to them legal or illegal to achieve their objectives in 1956. When the oil industry first try to deregulate natural gas in the Congress of the United States. They tried to bribe South Dakota Senator Francis case. But Francis case reported the bribe the attempt at the bribe and publicly denounced the oil companies from the senate floor that sent them scurrying down the rat holes for about 20 years and they came back out again a few years ago in 1973 of the oil industry saw a golden opportunity for achieving its objective. That was the renewal of the war in the Middle East. They tried to exploit the crisis by claiming the existence of the severe Supply shortage in this manner. They tried to coerce the Congress and the public in the raising both oil and natural gas prices whether or not such prices were needed for additional research and production. They renewed the attempt of deregulation. They did it in the form of an amendment by then Senator James Buckley of New York and it was defeated. But only by a margin of two votes in the senate in 1973. However, the oil industry continued to attack. They were encouraged by promises from a Nixon appointed Federal power Commission. Which sandwich told them that deregulation was just around the corner The oil industry made the withholding then of natural gas and integral part of its basic strategy. The dual purpose of this withholding of gas reserves was both to create artificial shortages and to save their gas reserves for the day that deregulation would come So 1975 Senators Benson of Texas and Pierson of Kansas offered another deregulation Amendment which passed the Senate two years ago by a 52-41 margin. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives refuse to accept it. Deregulation at that time. They believed was tantamount to an Express train to economically Oblivion for the American Farmer in the American Consumer and it is to this day. It's important. We look behind the facade of oil industry propaganda and get at the true facts of this gas and oil pricing situation when the Arab Nations placed an embargo on their oil exports in 1973. Only six to 10% of our oil imports came from the Arab countries. 70% of the oil we used In 1973 was produced right here in the United States. The other percentage came from countries like Canada, Venezuela India ran all non-arab countries. but because of the tremendous publicity of the oil embargo In the complicity of the Nixon Administration and the oil companies. They scapegoated the Arabs who were only providing between 6 and 10% and they drove up the oil prices in this country 400% That is where the most of the inflation came from not from imported oil, but from oil produced right here at home. The oil companies scapegoated foreigners and then pocketed all the profits that they made from that scapegoating action, and it was all done at the expense of the American Consumer in the American Farmer. I make no mistake about it. It was the unconscionable increase and US oil prices us domestic oil prices that sent the title waves of inflation cascading across the American economically landscape one needs only to examine the profit margins reported by the major oil companies during the past three years to grasp the full dimension of the oil industry's total disregard for the public welfare in the same vein. The oil companies lied to the Congress and they lied to the public about last year's shortage the shortages last year of natural gas were not caused by Supply shortage. They were caused by the unusually severe winter of 1976 and 1977. and the inadequate gas transmission facilities which are currently in use This year faced with a new round of Industry Scare Tactics and arm-twisting which is seldom. If ever seen in Congress. I join was Senator Howard metzenbaum of Ohio and trying to slow down the oil industry Steamroller. We began one of the most difficult jobs in the US Senate a prolong filibuster designed to prevent the oil industry from having having its way on the issue of deregulation after a 13-day struggle. We lost by four votes, but I think we accomplished one major objective after 2 weeks of bitter floor fights in the US Senate. The American public is finally aware of the oil industry's blatant attempt to plunder the Public's purse. No one yet knows what will be the outcome of this fight since it's not over yet, but I can say one thing for certain. It is the support that I received from American farmers and consumers and especially the good people in South Dakota during that filibuster that allowed me to hang tough at a time when the pressure from the other side was the most intense I had ever seen. The natural gas deregulation issue is the first Battleground in a struggle that may well determine our future as a nation the central issue at stake is this will our national energy policy be decided by 20 oil companies in the name of greed and profit or buy 214 million American people in the interest of the entire country's well-being and of our survival finally a few strong words have to be said about the absolute necessity of Reserve preserving the integrity. The stability in the productivity of the small farm unit the two biggest obstacles to the survival and growth of the small farm are the Menace of the agribusiness conglomerate and the indifference of the agriculture Department. It is a statistical fact that the small family farm units are much more efficient than conglomerate Farms. The basic reason for this is that the husband the wife and the children all take part in working on a small family unit. They own the land they are interested in its full productivity and they quit when the work is done. Pop when the clock strikes a certain hour. Conversely the only areas in which conglomerate agribusiness and display any efficiency are in gathering capital in obtaining credit. So they can buy out small farmers this enables them to accumulate more land in order to eventually vertically control in many cases all aspects of production from seed to the supermarket the Department of Agriculture in spite of its protests to the contrary as continue to subsidize research for agribusiness at the expense of the research needs of the small farmers. It is disturbing to learn that we as a nation Constitute only 6% of the world's population yet. We control 54% of its wealth and consume more than 30% of its energy. And our share of the world agriculture research investment has slipped down to 6% from 12% in the past 18 years. A close examine close examination of the federal research and development budget provides an even more pathetic commentary on are inverted priorities. The defense budget consumes 48% of the total with space research a distant second at 16% agricultural research is a paltry 2% of the total of approximately seven hundred million dollars. The overwhelming portion of this figure goes not for the promotion of small farms but of giant agribusiness interest, especially in the area of large-scale chemical energy intensive farming. No, I chaired Congressional hearings last month in the Senate which dealt with the current research priorities of the agriculture Department. The findings clearly indicated that small farms are not receiving the attention. They deserve from Government research and from land-grant college research. Furthermore. There is no long-range plan or focus in the Department of Agriculture research program. This is a vacuum of knowledge and power which might be well filled by co-ops such as yours. There's a crying need for careful scientific investigation of the assets and liabilities of alternative methods of farming to those currently in practice. No, I think the answers in research and other areas are out there if the government is willing to reorder its priorities and spend the time the time and the money that's necessary the agriculture department and recent hearings in the same hearings pledged more of their future resources to the small farmers, but like you I'm more interested in performance than I am in promises. It's our mutual task to hold the department up to intense public scrutiny until these services are delivered. We fail It may signal the end of the small family farm as we know it. This is much more than an exercise in Nostalgia. It's a summons I think to prompt constructive and decisive action to preserve one of the foundation cornerstones on which this nation was built. So the message I bring to you today is not one of happiness but of hope it's not one of Despair but of dedication it's not one of complacency, but one of commitment it's a commitment to do what is right and best for all of our citizens, especially those most in Peril from the avarice and the affluent. And the indifference of political incumbent the small farmers need all of our best efforts. I pledge mine and I hope you as an organization will do the same and the days in the months that I want to thank you all very much for your attention and for inviting me here.

Funders

Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.

This Story Appears in the Following Collections

Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.

Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.

< path d="M23.5-64c0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.2 -0.1 0.1-0.1 0.1-0.2 0.1 -0.1 0.1-0.1 0.3-0.1 0.4 -0.2 0.1 0 0.2 0 0.3 0 0 0 0.1 0 0.2 0 0.1 0 0.3 0.1 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.2 0 0.4-0.1 0.5-0.1 0.2 0 0.4 0 0.6-0.1 0.2-0.1 0.1-0.3 0.3-0.5 0.1-0.1 0.3 0 0.4-0.1 0.2-0.1 0.3-0.3 0.4-0.5 0-0.1 0-0.1 0-0.2 0-0.1 0.1-0.2 0.1-0.3 0-0.1-0.1-0.1-0.1-0.2 0-0.1 0-0.2 0-0.3 0-0.2 0-0.4-0.1-0.5 -0.4-0.7-1.2-0.9-2-0.8 -0.2 0-0.3 0.1-0.4 0.2 -0.2 0.1-0.1 0.2-0.3 0.2 -0.1 0-0.2 0.1-0.2 0.2C23.5-64 23.5-64.1 23.5-64 23.5-64 23.5-64 23.5-64"/>