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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

MDL Editor Redefines "Local" Agriculture

MDL editor and publisher Jon Hunter shows his big-business stripes in last night's editorial. Ignoring the hopeful message for small farmers carried here yesterday and on his own pages a few nights ago, our man Hunter touts a "growth spurt" for "local agriculture."

But wait -- "local"? Let's look at some phrases straight from the good editor:

  • "Perhaps an overall theme to our growth could be the decades-long trend to larger operations. Observers correctly say that larger farms have reduced the number of farmers, but the efficiencies gained by larger operations have boosted productivity to remarkable levels." Fewer farmers means fewer local farmers.
  • "The Madison Farmers Elevator will handle more than 22 million bushels this year, up from only about 3 million a year twenty years ago. Increased yields have contributed, but the biggest boost has been the increased deliveries from farmers farther away.The investment in the 110-car unit train facilities has paid off tremendously. As small-town elevators have shrunk or closed, Madison has been drawing in business from farther and farther away." Small-town elevators closing, farmers traveling farther to deliver their products -- again, that's a decline in local agriculture.
The editor of our local newspaper reflects what appears to be the persistent mindset of the business community: bigger is better, efficiency and productivity equal success. The raw dollars brought to town by increased farm productivity look good in the ledgers, but what about community? According to Hunter's essay, Madison's economic health has been built on driving ever more farmers out of business and off their land, concentrating land ownership in the hands of a few industrial-sized owners, and crushing the economy of an ever-widening circle of smaller communities.

We may be holding our own economically by importing business from bigger and more distant farms, but the decline of small, diverse farms has to be related to four decades of population stagnation. Fewer farmers means fewer families buying boots and shovels and steak dinners in town, fewer kids in the school district, and fewer people bringing their ideas and spirit to the community.

If Hunter's happy conclusion is correct, "local" agriculture will reach its apotheosis when Stips or the Hutterites or BP Ethanol finally buy up every acre and consolidate the whole county into one big hyper-productive cornfield farmed by remotely controlled GPS-guided tractors. The local economy would ring up great profit... there just wouldn't be any local people left to enjoy it.

2 comments:

  1. Don't you think that what we're seeing in ag is also what we see in retail, banking and education. Economy of scale is driving consolidation where costs can be controlled. Once you know your costs, you try to grow your gross revenue by becoming larger and creating an improved profit margin. What we really need is to bring the customer service jobs such as call centers to Midwest communities like Madison, where we could service the telemarketing needs of larger corporations with intelligent people who have good language skills and hard work ethic. We can't buck the trend, but we can alter the trend through service center and industrial development in our region. And Lake County doesn't want to fully fund their share of worker development? Shame on them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are seeing the same bad trends in retail, banking, and education. That's why we have a struggling main street -- the retail is draining away to big corporate outlets. (Hang in there, Stan's!)

    But can't buck the trend? Come one -- let's have some optimism (naïve or quixotic as it may be). Wisconsin dairy farmers are finding ways to fight the trend; so is Jacob Limmer of Glacial Till Farm and Cottonwood Coffee.

    Suppose we ask a young person what her goals are. Compare these possible responses:

    (1) "I want to farm."
    (2) "I want to run my own clothing store on Main Street."
    (3) "I want to service the telemarketing needs of larger corporations."

    The day our kids decide option #3 is their best (or only) option is the day we lose our soul. Our hope lies in the spirit of CT@DSU and independent farmers like Charlie Johnson, not fatalistic submission to the big corporations. (Even if we can't buck the trend, I'd rather go down fighting!)

    ReplyDelete

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