NFO-126 (AV10626) Responsible Action

there should be take number one welcome to us farm report a public information [music] welcome to us farm report a public information program brought to you in the interest of agriculture rural business and the well-being of our nation by members of the national farmers organization in this local area the national farmers organization takes great pride in inventing a marketing system to meet the needs of the 20th century collective bargaining for agriculture NFO represents new thinking and a new generation of farmers u.s. farm report presents responsible action with the moderator Ed Shima and our guests the Reverend E W Mueller a staff member of the department of church and community planning the Lutheran Council in the United States of America Chicago welcome to another edition of us farm report before we get in today's to into today's program I think I should explain real briefly the reason for the NFO the NFO basically proposes to improve farmer's income through collective bargaining and contract marketing the reason for this is that farmers income over the years has been consistently lower than the income of the rest of the people in our society and economy currently the parity ratio stands at about seventy four percent of parity which is a pitted with a low level the average income of farmers compared to non farmers is about two-thirds as much I think these two things in themselves they explain quite vividly the reason for the NFO and the reason for our trying to improve our bargaining power and on today's program I'd like to at this point introduced Reverend E W Mueller who is with the Department of church and Community Planning of the Lutheran console in the USA and he's headquartered at Chicago today's program we will go into some what the the responsibility of the individual in his community in terms of improving his economic losses as the various religious social aspects of this and so on at this point I'd like to turn to Reverend Mueller and ask him the reason that he is interested in though this basic issue and and some of the ideas that he has in terms of improving that Reverend Mueller well I have been working in the area of the church and the Town and Country for about 20 years and I'm very much concerned about the improvement of the total quality of the rural living and we know that unless the countryside is Anna sound rural economy we cannot make much progress in any area of life and so we're very much concerned about improvement that various people are trying to bring about and we're for the advancement of the modern America modern rural America and I think people can do something about it in terms of improving the general situations what are some of the things that individual people would need to do along its line well I think the first thing people need to recognize their own responsibilities that things are the way they are not just because of some sinister force or some outside enemy that has done this it often is a result of the lack of responsibility that we have accepted and I would like to sort of quote Thomas Paine here that people have the power to begin the world over again and I would say that rural people can rebuild rural America if they put their mind to it what are some of the basic principles that you feel they would need to follow in doing this Reverend Mueller well I would like to identify three basic ifs that we might discuss I think that rural America can is that your people rural America can rebuild a countryside if they will dedicate themselves to basic values for basic goals and if they will repent of irresponsible individualism and if they will regroup their forces well this word irresponsible individualism sort of that is an impressive sounding thing would you care to elaborate on that somewhat more yes we work for individualism and but I think when we have over emblem sometimes overemphasize it and rugged individualism as ended itself can be harmful I would say we are probably there are two basic diseases that sort of plague society today and the one disease is referred to as collectivism this we had from the Congress the countries where the group is over emphasized and where the individual no longer counts and so the as a result community disintegrates because the individual is robbed of its own individual significance own individual decision-making and this is a disease that hurts the community development rugged individualism is quite different yet it- quite a different disease but it has the same effect it tends to disintegrate community because it over emphasized the importance of individual and destroys the group now I think what we need here we want strong individuals people who think for themselves who are in the position to make choices but they need to be they'll must also have the capacity to meaningfully relate to the group and and to be a part of the group and they need some basic goals and to follow also yes they need some basic goals to to follow and they need to be aware that they cannot achieve these goals by themselves as the we're in a quite different situation than we were years ago tickler farming we're no longer in a pretty agrarian intimacy when the farmer made his own linen churned his own butter and produced his own meat and milk and so forth and his own fuel for- for like oats for use for the horses then he was pretty independent but today the farmer is no longer independent about 70% of the things that he needs on his farm he vines therefore he is quite dependent and therefore he can't just go alone and we are in an age of groupism or organization and if and it's this rub individualism which i think is certain injure the farmer or rural people are just the farmer but rural people I'm really zeroing in on their problem and they have looked up sometimes too much the government for the answer I think the answer really relies with themselves if they can take this rub individualism in tow I'd like to refer to it sometimes as self-centeredness and self-centeredness is a basic sin because it tends to put us or the individual the eye in the center of things rather than being concerned about being a meaningful having a meaningful relationship to the rest of society now it's uh rather than being too individualistic as maybe some farmers or people are if they would group together more in terms of group action what are some of the benefits they could receive from this over the pattern they have today well if they would do group together and work together then they could achieve whatever desired goals they have they'd have to turn what the desired goes on for example I would say they are justified at present in their complaint that they're not being adequately rewarded for their input of capital and labor in the farm enterprise I think this is well known fact now I don't think they can solve this unless they are willing to work together thing but here again they have a basic problem and this what I like to call is the lack of commitment the I think the farmer or rural people in general find it difficult to make a commitment to a group and to stick with this commitment even when group interest is contrary to self-interest for the immediate moment because they don't make this commitment is difficult really to get a strong organization and the- to get this commitment they have to be aware they have to stick with it even sometimes when it when it hurts then I suppose that this is something that farmers have sort of grown up with over the generations that they would that they've been sort of taught and because of necessity had to be rugged individualists and this probably in today's organized the economy and so on society this sort of creates a problem then he tends to look back he doesn't look back and that was a day when he was quite independent and and I don't want to be misunderstood here that I'm for independent decision independent choices but he has to be willing to think in terms of working with other people and here he must be willing to take some risk and Marketing Association's aren't new we've had them for years remember we had them way back when my father's on the farm but however on the other hand the behavior of people was this way if I they belong to a certain rocking association and then through a another association or another marketing structure they could get a 1/4 of cent more for their product they would desert their own association in the interest of that 1/4 cent in other words they were asserting their individualism so to speak and no circumstances to right detriment to their own detriment and I think we have to recognize you cannot have a strong countryside or a strong society unless we pay adequate attention to two factors the importance of the individual and the importance of the group and that would heat it to the balance between the importance of the individual and the importance of the group now interest groups on the other hand and the farm organization may be an interest group interest groups have to remember that they are not the nation and that they can't put push their interests to the detriment of the total nation they have a right to push their interest is he long as it's equitable and just but the moment they push their individual interest to the heart of the nation then they are damaging the group now at this point in our societies the one we've seen various social groups organized religious groups and political groups and so on at this point of course we have farm organizations but as such farmers have not organized economically very much at this point and what do you tribute this to well I would say they have organized this had farm organization and every crises seems to- every war seems to give us a new farm organization see but I was I was referring to farm organizations that dealt in the economics of farming or the selling of their products there didn't it- no one has really zeroed in I would say until now NFO has zeroed in on really trying to get the farmer a better price there have been many farm organizations that have done good work and they had worked for better legislation they worked for better programs they have developed cooperatives to help the farmer to be to buy in the to get a better buy for the things that he that he buys but I think the the real weak point has been that no one really has helped him but put him into a position that he could put a price tag on human effort its expended and I think this is one reason why well why we had a problem that we do have because young people they are free they're not tied to rural America and they will go where they can get the best return for the human effort that they spend and unless we can in rural America can put an adequate price tag on human effort rural America is always going to decline at this point in it would seem then that these people have rather than to move ahead in terms of improving their economic situation have have not made a commitment to any group of people and so on in terms of improving this situation is this basically right then this is right and they had not stuck with it this is why I am saying I would say to you and I say to your organization or any organization I don't care organization belong to if you want their organization to do something for you then stick with it and for the moment sacrifice yourself interest in order that you may as a group act responsibly and achieve responsible thing at this point I just like to move into the other if if I mean okay the standpoint of we ought to have some- some bas- getting ourselves some basic goals the basic values and I want emphasize here we got to remember that man is a steward of God's creation and when we say on Sunday which most of the churches confess I believe in God the Father Almighty we are saying that this is not our world this is God's world and therefore we are responsible for what we do in God's world how we manage God's world and we must be responsible stewards and workmen that need not be ashamed and as a as a farmer meets to understand the soil and be a good steward of the soil he also needs to develop other structures in order that he may fulfill his responsibilities as individual and as a member of a group for example we didn't conserve too much soil until we developed the Soil Conservation District there are many individual farmers who had an interest in soil conservation before the district but not until they developed a structure to which they could express their group actions did we achieve anything and the same thing I would say is in the area of a of a marketing we need to develop structures so the farmer can really express himself and achieve his goal now I'm a consumer that lives in the Chicago area I would like to give the farmer more for his milk but I just can't go to the store and say well now the farmer isn't getting enough I want to give the storekeeper two cents more for a quarter no I can't do this until the farmers themselves develop some kind of a marketing structure by means in which they asked for this then brings up the question of as far as the individual is concerned he probably would need to change his attitude just a little bit in terms of the direction he's heading and what would you say it'd be some of the more important points on this Reverend Mueller well I think I think he has to be concerned for other people you know we have this again might refer to rugged individualism but just from a little different angle is that the strong there's not all people are created free and equal all people are equal and all people have equal worth but all people don't have the same capability the same managerial ability and I think I'm a Christian standpoint the strong ought to help the weak rather than the strong exploiting the weak and I would say here isn't where we have to change our attitude there's a ten- a bit of tendency for us for the strong to exploit the weak now we have called this efficiency and I'm for efficiency to a point but if it hurts people then I think we need to begin to question it and that the efficiency as an end in itself can be evil actually for the strong individual that could provide the leadership and the know-how and so on even a rather than exploiting his neighbor to his benefit if he would work with his neighbors probably improve him more in the long run this is right but instead what- what has happened he tends to step up his efficiency he and then the man who is less efficient gets it squeezed out and then it's just a matter of time before it catches up with him this we might referred to as someone has called it the fallacy of composition but this I mean this you see is that which is good for the individual farmer may not be good for the farming industry for example so you get more efficient and do that right away you will benefit but when you all get this way you're back in the same rest now for example I may go to a football game and because I'm small of stature I can't see what's going on so I get on my tiptoe now I can see until everybody else gets on the tiptoes and I'm back where I was and and this so the point is we have to remember that what is good for the farming individual farmer may not be good for the farming industry and what may be good for me may not be good for my community and I need to be concerned about my own self-interest this is proper but I also need to be concerned about the total community well-being not just the farm but but the total community now going on to the three basic ifs and I believe your third tip is to regroup forces and what would this involve the regrouping forces I think this is a very important one which we aren't talking you haven't said too much about but rural America has moved into a new era there was a time when rural America were had political power and majority of people live in rural areas this is no longer true rural people are a minority up until very recently the majority and now they faced the task of playing the role of being a responsible minority and this role of being a responsible minority they can't fly up on the farm block or political pressure they're going to have to come up with their own creative ideas and ways of working together in other words this would involve setting up a social and economic structure that would that would do form the things that they haven't been able to do individually right now in this you'll have special interest groups like the farm interest groups and perhaps some labor interest groups but they're many more people in rural America than just farmers for example if you just take the non-metropolitan counties and by a non-metropolitan County I mean a county that does not have a city of 50,000 in it or is not adjacent to a city of 50,000 now if you just take the people in the open country and the people in towns up to 10,000 across America you will come up with a total population about 70 million people this is what I refer to as the rural sector this rural sector basically is voiceless now if the farmers were united in one organization then they would only speak for one fourth of this rural sector there're the other three force that we are organized but their future and their well-being would impact all the rest right and it's tied up remember the other in other words the farmer has quite a responsibility to the rest of the rural sector and also to the country as a whole yes because for this 70 million people I'm talking about the farming basically is the economic base and now we are getting some industry into rural areas this was a supplement in part the agricultural base but by and large agriculture for this 70 million will remain a very primary economic base we must find some way for these people to do work together now looking at this from a moral point of view in setting up the structure that would take to accomplish some of these goals what would be some of the guidelines that you feels that should be followed well I would say some of the guidelines we should follow here is the fact that the people themselves are put in the position to decide their own future that that the planning be done by the people whose lives are going to be effective and that be not primer done from people from the outside now for this to happen the people in the countryside need to get into what I call horizontal dialogue most of rural America is is vertically organized but this I mean you have the small unit then you have maybe a county unit and a district unit then a state unit international unit and and so the conversation running from the front of small to the top but you have little horizontal dialogue first here is a town over here in a county with you have a thousand people in a county over here a thousand people and then their other six towns but it's the same county I would say seldom to the mayors of those towns get together and talk and by the same token the farmers in these various counties converse with each other across county lines very little also and this has been somewhat of a problem right you see you have you have you have plenty organizations you see we have so many organizations but these organizations with its soil conservation with its REA with its farm organization but its cooperatives these organizations instead of them tending to be bridges to getting into scores on a dialogue they tend to be walls from a local point to the national point now we need to think in terms of the larger area community this is multi-county and if these peoples began to think together then they begin to regroup their forces and if they do this they can reshape their their destiny see then as far as these people are discussing the various aspects of their problems and so on across the county and state lines and so on you have any particular guidelines that you think they should follow in terms of setting up a structure or organization and so on that would be no I think this I think the first thing is that people leaders believe there are leaders there these leaders should get into a conversation with one another secondly they should begin to improve their understanding of what is happening happening they get the facts and information and and try to identify alternate course of action what can they do and and I would say here I would say a word for what we call new development practically every county has community development knowledge supported by and pushed by extension a good deal and I would say the other guideline is that the farmers and Main Street have to work together traditionally there's been a sort of a feud going on between the farmers and and Main Street the farmer thought the man on Main Street had it easy and the man, fella on Main Street thought that the farm was making a lot of money now they're their future is pretty much tied together and I would like to say a word here for the fellow on Main Street in the small town the farmer is hurting but I would say the man in the Main Street he's also hurting in other words they need to work together all right common problem because if we don't the farmer can always sell his land at a good at a good price but if the economy of the area is not very good they'll be very difficult for a farmer to sell his lumberyard now there's sort of a tendency of in visiting with some of the people in the small towns and the farmers around them to not to become involved in any of these issues and and this basically isn't right what could be done about this well this basically goes back to our tendency not to want to become involved in somebody else's business each one sort of for his own I'll use an illustration here did he look at this point and I'll probably use it again some other time but but [unclear] ties it this way when the country was settled on the when the wagon train moved across Iowa Nebraska on West think there were some rub individuals who who felt well I'm not gonna wait for the wagon train I'm gonna go myself some need it but many of them didn't make it seem he was much more responsible action to join it with a wagon train but when you had a wagon train a very important aspect of the wagon train was the wagon master see and the wagon master almost had control over life and death he's like the captain of a ship so the farmer the man traveling with wagon for the moment gave up some individual freedom in the interest of gaining group strength to achieve its goal and I think this this illustration applies very fittingly to what farmers and business people need to do they need to begin to think in terms of individual action but be willing to give up a little individual freedom for the moment in order that they may gain roots group strength to gain the goals that they see in other words they would be somewhat like the pioneers going across the Prairie by grouping themselves together this is right and as someone has said and I think this is a very good statement that you don't predict the future you invent the future and as we have invented tractors and combines we also need to invent group structures we need to have and I think this is what NFO is probably trying to do is to develop a marketing structure to deal with mass production reverend wheel or our column is drawing to a close we appreciate having you with us today on US farm report I to the people in the audience I would like to have you investigate further the NFO in its program I think when you check into the NFO you'll realize that many of the principles that Reverend Mueller set out today apply to the NFO and the NFO has to a degree followed many of these principles in setting up the organization and structure that would put farmers in a stronger bargaining position so that they could correct some of the inequities that are in rural America today u.s. farm report has presented responsible action with special guest the Reverend E W Mueller a staff member of the department of church in community planning lutheran council in the united states of America Chicago members of the national farmers organization invite you to tune in again next week for more facts on agriculture and rural America which is the gear wheel in our economy that produces the majority of our nation's wealth the national farmers organization represents new thinking in a new generation of farmers for the farm income pattern sets the nation's prosperity tune in again next week at this same time for another edition of u.s. farm report sponsored by members of the national farmers organization in this local TV viewing area [music]