Opinion

What the future holds for the American farmer

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

I just want to set some city and town people straight. That is, the ones who do not know or understand the actual problems of the American farmer. Too often I hear local talk that the farmer has it made with all those "government handouts." What a "crock!" The farmer has one of the most misunderstood and dangerous occupations going.

If the price per bushel of grain would go up along with the cost of living, maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad. When other people work a 9 to 5 job, they get a cost-of-living raise, and most get an annual job evaluation raise for doing a good job. But never the American farmer.

Instead the price per bushel of grain (corn) now is about the same as in the '50s and '60s. Yet, the cost to raise that same bushel of grain has increased 500 percent.

The farmer is at the mercy of the weather, the board of trade and the government.

The so-called government "handouts" are not even a drop-in-the-bucket for all the bills a farmer has throughout the year. And, it has been even worse these last three years of drought. The bills get larger and the crops get smaller.

Too many times I have overheard a town person say, "Well, there goes another rich farmer." The only farmers that are getting rich are the big corporate land-hogs! They keep buying all the little farms that can no longer stay afloat, and the little farm that has been handed down several generations.

Is it any wonder the sons and daughters of farm families have to move to the cities because they have no future if they stay.

So, someday, just take a drive out in the country and see all the abandoned farmsteads. That is what the future holds for the American farmer.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: