NFO-231 (AV10731) US Farm Report: The Dedicated People

hello everybody and welcome to us farm report this program is seen on this station each week at this same time my special guest this week is the president of the National Farmers Organization mr. Oren Lee Staley Oren Lee we've had our new series of u.s. farm reports on the air now for a number of weeks and as you know I've asked you on numerous occasions to come and appear on this show and you've been very elusive about the whole thing but at last I've caught you well Bill of course is a reason for this and basically the reason is that I believe that in leadership it's teamwork and that no one individual can be the organization or can be the one that has to have the attention focused on it I believe that the best thing in my belief at least is that we first exposed the many qualified leaders that the NFO head and then reluctantly finally I came on another reason I enjoy this thing with people and I enjoy also giving my viewpoints as well as the organization on almost any subject that pertains to agriculture but at the same time I have a reluctance to go on TV I'm no TV star but nevertheless I'm glad to be here Oren Lee the National Farmers Organization NFO has been truly I think one of the most controversial organizations in the entire world wouldn't you agree with that yes I would agree now you've been called many things you've been called militant you've been called communistic what is your reply to all of these charges and to to the charge that you are a controversial organization well first I think that we have to historically looked at any organization or any change that's been brought about in the country George Washington or Abraham Lincoln as individuals or movements that have brought about change in this country they have been controversial at their time particularly at their inception because if you're going to bring about change it's by necessity a controversial subject now if we were not termed controversial then I wouldn't feel that we were doing anything because we wouldn't try to be bringing about any change as far as being militant I think that this goes in with the same definition of being controversial as long as you remain there within the framework of the laws of this nation and as long as you respect the rights of others but are willing to disagree with their opinions or their philosophies or to wage an economic battle on behalf of people then I think the word militant is a compliment because then you're doing something about bringing change as far as Communist concerned this seems to be a worn out word of anybody that happens to disagree with you most of the time without substance sometimes of course probably a substance to it but as far as being communistic the NFO if anyone understands the philosophy of communism and the philosophy of the NFO where the direct opposite because we're trying to protect individual ownership we're trying to protect a way of life that maintains private and individual ownership within a free enterprise society communism is directly opposite of this the other thing as far as being able to verify the fact that we've been checked out by all government agencies is that just recently I was called in to be a part of the food and nutrition effort set up on the White House you're of course given security clearance when you do i imagine you are I've been to the White House several times before you go there you're you and your organization are given the clearance so there's no substance to these at all but the main thing is to be controversial and militant in the context that you're changing things are bringing about change we consider the compliment is Oren Lee NFO is changing isn't it a lot of changes have occurred through the years Bill uh the change is in the chains and methods and the addition the change in philosophy or goals no the same principles apply that farmers have to develop enough economic power to be able to get into position to compete in today's economy so they can have something to say about the price they get for their products rather than going to the marketplace and saying what will you give me as far as a change in methods we've added new methods and new strategy we have made many changes because as we have progressed and built success and as we brought in new and an imaginative leadership throughout the NFO at the county district state and national level this means that in order to reach our goals we have brought about many changes the organization as far as the methods is much different this year than it was last and much different than it was five years ago and really what happened is that we started out in a debate really over philosophy a debate of whether collective bargaining was right or whether it was necessary for American agriculture that debate has been won in our favor almost everybody now realizes that collective bargaining bargaining at some type is necessary in American agriculture to compete today bill now then we get down after the debate was one of actually putting it into practice of carrying out the these steps meeting the problems making the changes necessary in adapting to those problems and this is where you have not only a change but in a great enlargement through each experience so that you meet particular problems that's that's where the change is coming about well now there are several farm organizations in the country how does NFO differ what does NFO offer that is exclusive to NFO and different from any other organization in existence well so many basic differences bill that I would want to hit on a few of them that are to me the most vital of them vital importance first the NFO is made up only of farmers and producers this is a very vital importance we cannot go into business we only have one thing to offer and that's a service now this is good we don't have to for example spend our time worrying about a balance sheet on a business as such to make a profit off of people and our main interests in and in fact our entire interest has to be directed toward doing a good job in behalf of farmers or we will not continue to exist so this puts a pressure on us not to make a profit off the farmers but rather to make a profit for them this is a very vital important difference and basic difference for most other groups another very basic important difference is the type of a battle that we're waging we're waging an economic battle where that we're building economic strength so that farmers can compete in today's organized economy you see today is not 1950 or 1930 but we're entering the 70s and bill in the 70s whether we like it or not we're living in an organized economy for example if I buy repairs for my tractor it's cost more this year than it did last year and almost unbelievably more than it did five years ago now there has to be a reason for this and it's the reason is that if you trace it back far enough their economic power blocs organized labor and I'm not critical of the working people getting together to compete in fact I think it's something they had to do but they have been able to bargain out a better wage a higher weight and more fringe benefits so we pay for that as farmers but industry for example it just didn't happen at Bethlehem Steel for example announced the price increase on steel and everybody else followed now they didn't have to follow all the other steel companies or Bethlehem Steel would have had to come down but it must have undoubtedly been a basic decision of the industry why if the steel industry does not make a profit ratio that's comparable to other segments of the industrial it means nobody will buy stocks in the steel companies so as this profit ratio wait up the farmers pay for it so what I'm really saying is that we have to be organized so we can pass our increased costs on whatever they may be labor interest still costs or whatever they may be so what the NFO is all about is building this economic bloc to compete now as far as any other organization doing something of this nature I don't see that they have the structure or and the people because the people that make up this type of an economic battle have to be emotionally different than the people in a normal business operation they have to be charged emotionally that they don't want to lose the battle and that the economic battle is their life and their dedication or only what do you feel is NFO's greatest asset well an organization such as ours really only has one asset and that's the people that make it up because really you start with the members then you go to the leadership level in the counties and then on to the leadership level at the national level the people and this is something I'm proud of we have one goal as far as leadership is concerned we think we've already reached but if we have it we're not going to take any chances we're going to surpass what we've gotten now and that is we intend to build the best staff in America we think we already have it from an educational standpoint from experience and background because these people have to be a part of a team now leadership in an organization such as ours is not just one individual or not two but it's a leadership team that you're able to develop and by developing a leadership team you also divide the responsibility of decision making I came to the conclusion a few years ago but if I had to make every decision as president of the organization then it could only give us as much as our big as the time I had to make decisions they probably get just a little bigger than that and then when I got there bogged down and get down below that level so consequently as we have developed capable people we've not only given them possibility but we've also given them the responsibility to make decisions and by spreading out the decision-making it builds leaders and then our job is coordinating the total effort and by coordinating the total effort building it into a national bargaining structure which is the only type of structure that can compete with the big companies that buy in every agricultural area in a few words how would you describe NFO's leadership as it stands today at the national level for example well we've made many many changes by changing departments by restructuring by setting up and dividing responsibilities of leadership but the main key point there is a dedication I see these people at all levels they give their time their money their efforts leave their families not because they want to leave them but because they're dedicated to a cause they don't want to leave any more than the people that stay at home they don't want to be gone from their home communities but they realize that there's no future in agriculture that there's no future in rural America unless they help build that future and make it the dedication the long hours and not great pay much lower pay scale many times then although we're trying to get more competitive on this and are but it wasn't the money that they're looking at it's a dedication to a cause and when you have a cause you have the the people that make full commitments for their of their lives almost in their families to that cause and without that and the type of an organization we've gotten we wouldn't make any progress and that's really it and I this is going to be a little unusual bill I'm going to do something that probably that you haven't had happened to you many times and that is you are interviewing but I know that your vast experience in interviewing some of the top industrial leaders of this nation and that in trying to get this story out a factual story the NFO as part of the team that you are that you've been able to meet our leaders you've been able to compare their abilities with others that you've interviewed and some of the largest industrial companies in this country as well as the political leaders so I'll ask you what is your impression of the caliber of leadership that the NFO has gotten in the dedication at the beginning I was amazed because I didn't know now it is a matter of what shall I say something I expect these people are absolutely outstanding Oren Lee I don't know that I have adequate adjectives to describe the leadership I have seen not only here at the national level in Corning Iowa but out in the field out in the counties and in the towns these people are first of all vigorous young well-educated capable and each has a tremendous sense of dedication and so the leadership of NFO is the greatest leadership I have ever seen anywhere I'm glad to hear you say that bill we think so of course now Oren Lee why in your opinion is NFO important and to whom is it most important well bill of course the primary importance is to the farmers they have remained unorganized their prices and many commodities are lower than they were 20 years ago when that establishes the need secondly I do not believe that the rural business people really realize how important in fo is to them their accounts receivable are only going to be paid if they're adequate profit returns from agriculture and that means fair prices and the NFO is the only tool that there is really to use at this time to do that and then I think to the total economy the people have to realize that the prosperity of rural mare is just not farmers alone but it makes up about 25 percent of the population of this nation that are dependent directly upon the profit level in agriculture so consequently the wealth that it feeds to the entire nation is of vital importance to the entire nation as you know US farm report fairly recently took a field trip along the west coast and up into the Pacific Northwest I would like to report to you that on this trip it became most apparent that acceptance of NFO is growing that opposition is diminishing that membership is soaring is this the way it's going all across the country really it is or there are a few isolated spots here and there that maybe the proper leadership hasn't come forward or they do not understand the progress we're making but generally yes and of course in the West Coast in the Pacific Northwest these people have fantastic investments and operations and they're businessmen and they know that they have to work together and they have to do something about spending time and effort to get a price so this this is the fact that now we're succeeding you have a situation where that there is full acceptance of the fact we're going to be here and then the fact that we are succeeding and raising farm prices on many commodities the evidence is there just many price increases nobody expected or predicted so the only new factors the NFO so anyone with a logical conclusion or one that will sit down and make a fair analysis will have to realize the NFO is raising farm prices and of course when this happens it becomes obvious to many people that they better get in and do a better job during our discussion Oren Lee the word dedication has cropped up whenever we've talked about NFO members NFO staff people anyone connected with NFO this particular adjective dedicated also cropped up in a recent interview that took place at national headquarters in corning Iowa two members of the National Catholic rural life conference came through Corning to visit national headquarters and while they were here they talked about NFO and its great dedication they talked about many of the facets of the National Farmers Organization veteran farm news analyst and my colleague Phil Allen interviewed these two distinguished guests and we'd like for you to share that interview at this time we certainly welcome both of you to the national headquarters office of the NFO Monsignor Webber I know that we've talked on previous occasions now sister Thomas Moore supposing we have the rule ladies first and I'd like to have you tell our audience what work that you do is the National Catholic rural life conference I know you speak at a great many foreign meetings and you're well known to farm audiences can you just describe your work well I'm a board member of national Catholic rural life and I'm trying to implement a resolution that was passed by this organization back in 1964 to work for the Federation of existing farm organizations so the lectures that I've been given giving throughout the country in the last well we almost 5 years now I have to do with the same message trying to preach the gospel of unity among farm groups what was your impression of the headquarters of the NFO well I'm very much impressed with the headquarters of the NFO I think first of all you obviously have progressed progressed in a material sense from your beginnings but I I was happy to see that the thing that has always struck me about this organization is present at headquarters and it's still very much alive and that's dedication to a cause I think I don't know I know you've done a lot relative to bargaining and pushing the price up but I think that this organization has contributed something that's much more valuable really and fundamental to farmers and that is a sense of dedication to a cause this is one of the reasons why most farm organizations are in the bind they're in lost a sense of purpose and the membership is you know pretty deadhead I think and this sense of dedication which I see at the bottom is obvious at the top - and this impresses me the fact that it's extends from the top down and it's still alive in a farm organization we're concerned with a number of material facts that had to do with prices and marketing and whenever we talk to churchmen we like to get their point of view about what other values you see in the rural life and in working with the institutions of rural America that a church is properly concerned with other than marketing they lie in the regard to the question of the values one of the great values that I like to stress are the spiritual values that are associated with farming I take for example the man plants his crops he put the seeds in the ground so on about what can he do about the sunshine about the rain and so on so there is the opportunity there for this particular individual to think about his relationship with his maker so there's a natural opportunity there we might refer to the space age at the present time I am sure that one of the byproducts of our exploration of the Moon is going to be that people are going to become more conscious of our Creator we're so fascinated by the vastness of this and we're only discovering something that somebody else has created already and all and so how powerful must God be to make all this so I'm sure that that's one of the values that I like to stress there chill values may I have put in here a minute this is one of the things that all puzzle me know I come from outside agriculture I'm I'm a laboring man's daughter and the this has always been preached you know how farmer is dependent upon God and all this sort of thing if anybody should know the concept of interdependence it should be a farmer yes yet he's always bragging about his independence and this is the thing that disunifies you know independence saying don't you think I think the fireman isn't aware of this value of applying the value in his relationship with his neighbor that he is quick to see as far as his relationship with God is concerned right and so there are many social and cultural values that are natural I know that Pope Pius the 12th made this statement that the land is the natural habitat for a Christian family because the entire families engage in this in this project of farming that's theirs and works as a unit it's sort of a team pulls them together it pulls all the family bonds strengthens them full good occupation as a unit and there's no reason why all the farmers shouldn't accept this concept than a sister pointed that out the other day in one of her lectures about the family concept of all the farmers not working together yeah that's right you know every time you come up with this this explanation of values which you have done in homily and for these organizations for these rural life days I can never see why it is that a farmer can't pick that up quickly and apply somewhere else down when you're talking about Federation of farm organizations and preaching unity with this thing in mind then organizations will come up and tell you this isn't possible well I can't see it why a family of farm organizations isn't possible you know you don't have to be what the other person is you can each keep your own identity as one doesn't a family and so it's just a matter of transferring this concept of the family over to your relationships with other organization well working for a number of years with what organizations will say to the public I'd noticed in the way well for example the way the press and the broadcasters have covered agriculture there's been a great deal of stress on production and this puts one farmer in competition with another and all all the time this seems to be stressed I think perhaps you're getting at a very good handle of this situation if you talk about how they can work together as a family in marketing whereas most of what's been said in public it seems to me is is how they are against each other and as producer speaking about the marketing angle see we're living in such a changing age at the present time we're very conscious of it oh yeah we're moving fast and too many times we are so slow in changing our attitudes and so marketing is one of the areas where the farmers have to change your attitudes because they can no longer exist in 100 years ago attitude we've got to come up to something new here that we have to work together as a team as farmers from all over the world marketing together I mean and I'm not trying to sell the NFO but then it's a change of attitude that's really required having all the rural people right I agree and I can I push this a little farther and say that even NFO has got to take the concept of marketing I think fathers and yes and that is to get the consumer in on this I mean they're really the host wife the farm organization that I admire very much for this very thing is National Rural Electric well the whole rural electric system when you attend meetings of this group they're really the only group that I've been associated with an agriculture that uses the word consumer more than 20 times you know in a session I think the other farm organizations better you latch on to this concept and I'm closing Monsignor Webber and sister Thomas Moore is there anything that you'd care to say to the non farmers in the audience or perhaps also to the farmers well I think on that point I would say this that if we permit our agricultural factory that we have so greatly established in our country here if we permit that to be weakened the end result is going to be that the Sumer is going to suffer just as much as the farmer if not more because if we weaken our agricultural production our whole nation is going to suffer it no doubt about that and one final point for the farmer I think I would add you have to inform yourselves that takes a lot of work and sacrifice to inform yourself on what is happening and as I said already before we are moving fast and so we have to put out our information inform ourselves and then judge and then act I would agree to that but you said father and I think farmers ought to know the consumers are interested and are willing to support them in this effort a report that was made by the Consumer Federation of America and published under the name of Father McEwan SJ stated that consumers realized that there are certain values that are very important that will be preserved if we keep a prosperous agriculture and so I think consumers are aware or at least want to help agriculture and farmers must become aware of their needs the needs of consumers and we've got to meet in the middle and we won't be ahead we certainly want to thank you both for your time and your effort and visiting us we always consider it a great honor to have busy people like yourselves come to the national headquarters office of the NFO thank you we're very happy to be here Oren Lee I want to thank you very much for being my guest today on today's u.s. farm report our special guest has been mr. Oren Lee Staley president of the National Farmers Organization US farm report is seen on this station each week at this same time until we meet again so long everybody [music]