NFO-32 (AV10439): US Farm Report: Trends in Rural America

NFO take BB [music] welcome to the u.s. farm report a program brought to you in the interest of agriculture independent business and the welfare of the nation by members of the national farmers organization my name is J.N. Robinson I'm an assistant promotional directors from the national farmers organization we have as our special guest on the program today our national secretary mr. Harvey sickles of fontanelle Iowa mr. sickles is not only national secretary he's board member to the national farmers organization in the state of Iowa and also legislative representative for the national farmers organization mr. sickle lives near Fontanelle Iowa on a 440 acre farm and how long with the rest of these works and legislative works that he has to do and his farm operations keeps him a pretty busy man I would like to take this opportunity here today for you people in the city and to tell you a little something about what we'll totally talking about here today on this program we'll be talking about the trends in rural America and how it affects not only the farmers in the small towns but everyone in America because of the food and fiber that is produced by this agricultural industry and mr. sickles I'm sure that with your travels and your many duties and your visits to Washington in their own that this gives you a pretty wide spectrum of not only the farming conditions but along with what other people and how are the people outside of agriculture see this farming industry and the problems of rural America and would you like to give us a little rundown now as to your duties in the national office and kind of what goes on down there well yes Joe and thank you for that nice introduction I always feel a little bit inadequate after being introduced by one of my fellow members of NFO because we are supposedly and not supposedly but are actually a militant aggressive group and this carries over into the things that we have to say the bylaws of the organization state that the National secretary is responsible for all the records of the organization now this would be an impossibility for any one individual so as helpers and assistants and actually the people that really do the work we have employed in the national office approximately 40 stenographers cycle workers file clerks and so on we have an office manager and she has an assistant and we have about 12 officers in commodity heads an executive personnel that work in and out of the office we have a printing and mailing room and all the things necessary to maintain the records and to disseminate the information that's pertinent to the problem at hand now I don't believe that you can explain too much about the office just by talking we have the space that was formerly taken up by three grocery stores this has been converted into or three stores I should say because one of them was a clothing store and I think back in the history of the organization one part of it was an insurance agency but these have all been taken over and converted into office space gives us quite a little room but the thing is we never have enough we continue to grow and we are maintaining our national office in the town of Corning it's a small town and this of course helps defray the expense of running the national office giving us more money available to organize and promote the actual work of the organization which is to establish a price for farmers products yo you have yeah well actually Harvey it looks like then one of the main things that's been going on in the past few years as far as our national farmers organization is concerned that Corning Iowa has been a continuous growth in the expansion within the office force and all over now I'm sure that you have other work that folks would like to hear about here and maybe you could give us a rundown here on how it looks from the people down in Washington and what they're thinking about this rural problem today yes I would like to add about this office space this one store was added about two years ago and we probably will have to expand again before very long now the people of Corning and I'd like to give a little credit to the town of Corning in this report they have been great cooperative they do all they possibly can to see that we have everything that we need of course we appreciate it and this is an opportunity for me to publicly acknowledge all of the things that they've done for us now getting to the legislative work that I do in Washington we are not a legislative organization we are organized for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to establish a price for farm products for our members now the last time I was in Washington DC this little pamphlet had just been issued it's April 1965 it's put out by the Committee on agriculture for the House of Representatives and it's compiled by their staff and in the foreword of this written by congressman Cooley there are four items that he says that this material shows number one is there is an ever-widening spread between the price of farmers received and what the consumer pays for food due to the efficiency of our farmers and notwithstanding the in cost increased cost of processing and marketing food is now is cheaper in relation to the wages received by Americans than in any prior period of our history or in any other country the farmer is the least benefited of all our people by the wealth of abundance he has created the attrition in the farm population and in the number of farms continues unabated I'm not going to read the entire pamphlet to you I just want to point out some of the information that's available in this little book they have one paragraph to the consumer and it says that due primarily to the exploding efficiency in agriculture and the decline in prices farmers receive the overall cost of food to consumers in relations to their earnings continued to decline so that in 1964 food costs represented only eighteen and 5/10 percent of the average family's income after taxes as recently as 1950 food costs represented 22 and 8/10 percent of consumer income if the cost of farm programs were added to food bills food still would take only about 19 and 5/10 percent of the family income the 18 and 5/10 percent of their income Americans pay for food contrasts sharply with family food costs in other parts of the world by the latest figures available from the United Nations consumers in the United Kingdom spend 29 and 5/10 percent of their income for food in Russia 53 percent in France 30 point six percent and so on down the line with the remainder that they have listed just about from 32 to 50 percent the efficiency of our agriculture is reflected clearly in the fact that one farm worker in America produces enough food for 33 persons while in Europe the average farmer produces enough for 10 persons and in Russia under a collective system one farm workers production feeds only 4 or 5 persons this is where the farms are big American consumers are the greatest beneficiaries of farm programs and food abundance now they have this to say about the farmers agriculture is the nation's largest and most vital industry during the period of the nation's greatest prosperity net farm income in the last 10 years 1954 to 64 inclusive was less by 23 million six hundred and ten twenty three billion six hundred and ten million the net farm income of the previous ten years nineteen forty five to fifty four inclusive the per-capita income of people living on farms now is only little more than half that of non farm people now some in information that I'd like to throw in here that isn't in this book at this point is that when they compile the income of farmers by the US Department of Agriculture they add to the net income two and a half billion dollars for the value of the farm dwellings that you live in in other words if a farmer owns his own buildings and his own house he is charged two and a half billion dollars for rent of the buildings that he owns he's also charged one billion dollars for the consumption or the home products that he consumes this is added to the twelve point six or is included in the twelve point six billion dollars now the rural America the farm population has decreased by almost 50 percent in the last 20 years from twenty four million four hundred and twenty thousand in forty five to twelve million nine hundred and fifty four thousand and sixty four the number of farms has declined from five million nine hundred and sixty six thousand to only three million three hundred and eighty three thousand farms today now I wouldn't attempt to discuss all the farm programs that we've had or that we've been offered or to try to prove to you rather or not they have been effective or not been effective but there is one little thing that I'd like to point out and this is information that is not publicized to any great degree for eleven consecutive years prior to 1953 the average prices paid to farmers were at or above a hundred percent of parity with the rest of the economy this was an era of great prosperity in Agra culture the government supported the prices of major storable crops for 20 years 1933 to 52 inclusive at an actual profit of 13 million dollars to the government that's right profit of 13 million dollars to the government this profit was earned by selling commodities sweet corn cotton tobacco rice and peanuts taken over in price supporting operations so that's one of the things that can happen when the prices of farm commodities are at a reasonable level even the government made money on now mr. Cooley in closing his foreword to this little book that I hope that you will all take the trouble to obtain and it is available is to develop the essential bargaining power with or without government stabilization machinery will require great unity and cooperation among farmers in other words you've got to work together to solve your problem he recommends this document with its wide range of information on agriculture to all of those who are interested in the trends of food costs in farm income and generally and expectations for agriculture in the years ahead now back in the inside of this little booklet there is some figures that I think you might be interested in at least I am and this tells you how much the farmer gets out of the things that US consumers buy he gets 37 cents of each dollar spent for food overall he gets two and a half cents for the corn in a 29 cent box of cornflakes 54 cents of each dollar spent for choice beef and two and a half cents for the wheat in a 21 cent loaf of white bread about 22 cents from a gallon of milk sold in stores for 48 cents for clothing about 28 cents for the cotton in a man's four dollar business suit shirt just to be sure you got that straight I'll repeat it about 28 cents for the cotton and a man's 4 dollar business shirt well these are some of the things that we're faced with and as you talk to the congressman in Washington DC and you talk to the other people that I meet they are encouraging our efforts they think that this is a very very worthwhile program that we have and many of them have told me personally that they can see a very good chance for us succeeding and when it comes right down to it why shouldn't we everybody else prices their products when they get ready to sell them now farmers have for some reason that I as a farmer have never been able to realize have always excuse me have always sold their products for what they could get and yet after it's sold everybody from there on to the consumer puts the price above his cost of handling and so on on the product and he gets it Joe would you have any comments or well it seems that what you've been saying here is that actually the trends in agriculture and in rural America as a whole is one where farmers continue to get less for their products that they produce the consumer continues to pay more the spread widens and also the trend is for many many farmers are leaving the farming industry because that there isn't a decent opportunity in farming any longer and this affects rural town and there's an all-over picture here with this kind of thing going on mr. secretary would you have any comments on the bad effects or the effect that you think that this is really having on America as a whole well I I wish that I was one of these people that can remember all the figures that we see but I viewed one of the previous films that we have out on the circuit the other day and mr. Paulson of Minnesota quoted some figures and we're the agricultural dollar multiplies seven times in the economy and I don't know too much about the figures I understand that these are generally accepted but I do know what happens in my own town and I know what happens in Corning and in fontanelle Iowa where I live I know that the stores that businessmen that go out of business that have been there for 20 30 40 years as long as I can remember and some for some reason they close now they tell us that this is because that due to the transportation that's available the farmer can go a lot further and so on and therefore he buys all of his goods from the big cities like Des Moines where we're making this film and this I don't believe I think that it's because we have actually poverty out in the country and I think that I received an pamphlet from the Department of Agriculture of the day where they tell us that farmers now receive 76 percent of parody this is up 1% and as you start to read this little news item they go on and they say that farm prices have risen 3% but the things that he buys have risen 2% so you come up with 1% gain well this is an increase and it's fine but 1% won't pay very many bills when you're already operating at cost of production now courting a few figures and these are from our seminar material that we used around over the country I don't attempt to remember figures because I think anybody that does is pretty apt to make mistakes so I read the figures now they established the government did through some reasoning that any family with moneyed income of less than $3,000 is in the poverty class well to me it was quite a shock to find that 44 and 8/10 percent of the farmers in the state of Iowa then qualify for the poverty class I don't know that that's a very nice distinction but nevertheless that's what it says now the national average is 47 and 1/10 percent of all the farmers are in the poverty class now this means that they have $3,000 money to income or less now many people can't live on $3,000 how do farmers live on $3,000 well when you figure your income tax and you take your depreciation off then you have a little more money to live on in other words they're living off of their tractors and their barns and all the things that they should be doing to improve now I'd like to talk a little bit about our organization I think that NFO has an organization that can offer to the American farmers the opportunity to do something about his own problem I joined NFO back in the beginning I'm a charter member which probably doesn't make any difference to you but we have an opportunity to do something about the prices that we receive we do have to join in order to do something about it now we join many things in our lives we join fraternal organizations for the fellowship involved we join churches for the right to worship the way we want to we've joined other organizations for a specific thing and when you join NFO you should do so just for one thing because we have a very definite team and a very definite objective and as far as I'm personally concerned I hope that we don't get any members in the organization that don't want to work towards the one end of establishing a price for their products now as you join you sign a three-year membership agreement I've heard it said in the community where I live that you give up your freedom well I've been a member all these years and I'm still selling my products when I want to of course during a holding action I cooperate because I believe that this is necessary and we have all of the people in the organization working for us as individuals for the sum of 25 dollars a year yes this is right you're hiring all of the officers all of the some 300 people we have out in the field all of the people that are working in the national office and all it costs you as an individual is $25 a year now do you think that we can solve this problem most of my neighbors that haven't joined say well yes if you can just get everybody to join but they won't do it so he says I don't believe that I want to well he's really the problem here's the man that is the problem because if he joined then all the rest joined then the job will be done so I think that everybody that's interested in maintaining the family type farm and trying to solve the problem of agriculture and many of the problems of the nation along with it have a tremendous responsibility and I don't believe that they should set and wait for some one of their neighbors to make another trip over to them to ask them to join again I think they have probably been asked many times and I think that they have a responsibility to go join and do something about the problem now you've heard many things about the organization here's something that the Purdue University had to say about group bargaining power for farmers in order to secure beneficial results at the bargaining table the group must have some degree of power with which it can force concessions from the opposing side in order to secure a favorable solution to the negotiation and they're talking here primarily about the bargaining sessions and I think this is important you have to have power and you have to display the power and this is the reason for the holding actions because you can go out and say well we have all of this production out here under membership agreement but unless you display some power you don't prove to them that you have it now there's another little item published by the university of Minnesota that to do with agricultural bargaining power and it points out this fact apparently if farmers are to achieve greater bargaining power it must come about through group action since the individual farmer has little or no bargaining power this is some of the things that we need to tell you and I think that as you go along and study the problem as you move into the things that have to be done in order to achieve the Equality in the society that we live in you have to take the initiative you can't just sit back and let somebody else do it for you many of you say well I can't do those things all I know how to do is farm well ladies and gentlemen all I know how to do is farm too and the only reason that I'm up here today is because I want to raise the price of my products so that I can educate my children and so that the rest of the farmers in the country can do the same thing so that we can have equality of income I don't believe in talking about fair share or the things that we should have a share of anything I think we should have equality of income and I believe that there's only one way to do this and this is to organize together and go out and demand a price for our products it's been a real pleasure to visit with you and your homes this afternoon and I certainly thank you very much well thank you Harvey for our report as it looks from your position as Secretary of the national farmers organization and certainly with the trends that now face and has been explained by our secretary here today certainly every farmer in America should rally to this and become a member of the National Farmers Organization this program has been brought to you in the interest of agriculture small business and the welfare of the nation by members of the National Farmers Organization and we encourage you to write or call the national farmers organization for more information on rural America [music]