NFO-80 (AV10486) US Farm Report: Rural Renewal

the national farmers organization presents Midwest farm report the NFL presents rural renewal with today's special guest pastor Alvin P Brock Locker who is now serving the Florence Rural Lutheran Parish of the American Lutheran Church pastor Brock Locker has a deep interest in rural America and its survival and he addresses himself to farmers small-town businessmen and professional people in urging them to unite in the spirit of Christ to solve our present problems here now is pastor Brock Locker hello folks I would like to talk with you today about a problem which concerns all of us that problem is the loss of our farm people which stems basically from a loss of farm income not too long ago I read a portion of a book entitled God's back pasture this book was written by a minister by the name of Arthur Wentworth Hewitt in which he made a statement and I should like to quote it all throughout the countryside with which I am acquainted the farmer is at a disadvantage he is the Atlas of all labor and it is he on whose shoulders the world is carried if we get down to stark primitive needs he is the only indispensable man for he feeds all physical hunger and stands between the human race and death why then is this bitter thing that he should have to struggle with debt and mortgage all his life and be forever clamped in the vise of markets which he can either control nor influence for justice some blessed cooperative action seeks to strike off these shackles a new and unforeseen factor arises with heavy chains and rivets aplenty the weariness and the disheartened death our opponent for the man who does the work which God gave to him and blessed in Eden is now amongst the last for economic justice to find and so long as this is true the rural Church will be relatively poor my friends I would like to talk to you as one who speaks out of an experience with that poverty the poverty first of all I would like to point out is not one of economic poverty although this is at the root of the problem the poverty is one of people and leadership we should never forget this one thing about agriculture and that is that the main product of Agriculture is people but today many of the people in agriculture are suffering from a loss of morale and are making statements like this there is no future in farming farming is a game a gamble and other such statements and there is on the part of many a general attitude of give up itis and throwing in the towel and saying that there is nothing that we can do now we should all realize that the average age of a farmer is 59 years old this means that in another five to ten years where our farmers be coming from because a lot of these same people are saying to their sons there is no future and farming for you do something different we could very well realize if this loss of people continues we could very well realize a very serious problem unless it is halted and that is why I would like to speak with you today because I believe that there are several things that we can do but we must understand that we are all a part of it the businessman in a small town who thinks that he is not affected by this problem will need also to realize that when the farmer loses a dollar of ends income he will be one of the first one to suffer from it for every dollar that the farmer makes in 100% of parity our nation in all of its segments of economy will profit seven times over whenever he suffers a loss anything less than a hundred percent of parity our economy too will suffer that loss we must remember that we can never replace earned income with credit and that man who turns over the raw materials from the soil must be rewarded now there are many solutions being offered today for example in 1963 the Committee on Economic Development made a study and came up with a net adaptive solution to a grow culture and the solution was to dismiss 2 & 1/2 million people from the farm this began in 1963 and it has been progressing according to that standard today we hear from our Department of Agriculture that the solution to this problem of inflation inflation which stems basically from the loss of farm income tracing it all the way back to our raw materials and resources that the solution here is lower farm prices it is also put forth quite a bit that the solution will be in Congress or in legislation we will need a lot of assistance here but the ultimate solution cannot come from legislation it can only assist we also hear that the answer and the solution to what is happening in agriculture today is bigger farms but yet there is one thing forgotten here and that is for economic reasons we may go to big farming and forget that the major product of Agriculture is people so I would like to say that the area in which the solution lies will be one of prevention we have heard so much about adaptation and adjustment we've got to face the trends and we've got to to accept the changes and yet for these last hundred years since the beginning of the department of agriculture in our United States government we have not had a total solution we have received help yes but the problem has not been answered in total we must turn to attack team the causes with prevention instead of attacking the symptoms with cure and I would like to say that they're basically three areas in which the problem can be solved and it must be solved by the people who feel the need and the concern and the rank and file of the farmer and agriculture including the small town businessmen and all the people at first directly related to the farmer you know the first area will be one of realizing and understanding the disadvantage of the farmer now we will all agree at this point that the farmer has never had it so good he's never had so many advantages this can be true in production but not in marketing the farmer has made great strides and agriculture has made great strides in production and yet there is a statement that is still being said farming is a gamble why is this statement being made I believe that the origin of this statement is not in the area of production but in the area of marketing a farmers who the history has learned to wrestle with the elements is learn to live through hail and he can take out hail insurance to safeguard here if there is any disease upon the face of the earth he can get medical care for his livestock if the soil acts fertility he can find it through fertilizer there are many ways in which the farmer can take the risk and the gamble out if it was ever there so I do not believe that the gamble as it is so-called is in production and on the inside of the fence line of the farmer the problem which the farmer faces are on the outside of his fence line and to move into these areas he will need the help of his neighbor and he will need to turn from his success as an independent individual person in farming and worked together collectively with his neighbor in marketing now God has promised the farmer a living as well as all other laborers in Genesis 8 verse 22 we read seed time and harvest shall not cease God has promised man a living from the soil but his neighbor and his fellow men has not this is the point the weariest oftentimes even Christian thinking people will say that we ought to be content and satisfied I say yes we need to learn contentment with what God has given us but we must not always be satisfied with what man gives and this is the point it is not so much that farming is a gamble but that farmers are gambling and will continue to do so as long as they move that production of theirs God's blessings from the inside of the fence line to the outside of the fence line into the area of marketing as individuals this will take unity and as man has learned to work as an individual he will need to learn to work together with his neighbor the second area in which the solution lies is in realizing the fallacy and the belief which is being said a lot today and that is that the farmer can be dismissed with or the dispensed ability of the farmer Arisa statement has been said about the only lesson that man has learned from history is that man has not learned the lessons of history and I think this is true with the American farmer we are in the 33rd civilization of the world thirty two other civilizations before us have fallen and gone into decline basically I believe is evident in traceable in history because of the dismissing of that indispensable link from the soil to the superstructure of any nation the workers on the soil are an indispensable link we need a certain amount and a proper proportion of our people on the soil take for example now in ancient Greece only about one-fifth of their land was tillable but ancient Greece was able to survive the devastations of time for quite a while because the land was in the hands of many people I would say when we began to think that corporation farming today is going to be the type of farming of the future we ought to consider the dangers of such a move in the first place the danger of moving the land from many to the hands of a few secondly we ought also to consider the danger of an impersonal agriculture where there are fewer and fewer owners and more and more workers who do not own the soil upon which they live and their farm this is what happened enrolled first of all those who own the land moved to the cities they had people hired to take care of the land after a while they lost concern they cared nothing for the soil it was brought to ruin they too had to move into the city and what do they do they added to the unemployment lines and in the last part of the Roman Empire they lived off of imports from other nations a nation was brought to ruin because farming was brought to Aroon basically when the people were dismissed from the land now in the Bible the Book of Isaiah chapter five verse eight we are warned of this woe unto you who add house to house and join field to field until you only are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land what does this mean increasing larger and larger farms and adding more and more houses in urban dwelling William Jennings Bryan said burn your cities and your farms will continue to prosper but burn your farms or in other words dismiss your farms and the farm population and grass will grow in your city streets it is important for us to realize when we are told so much about the concern of economic efficiency and production and the corporation's concern for a profit that we must never forget there must also be efficiency in the social life of people who live in this world and on God's earth we must be just as much concerned about the people who live in the soil as the production of food and fiber from that soil we must never forget that man was first taken from the soil and finds him subsistence in a closed identity to that soil now in the third instance the third area which I believe the solution lies is an understanding of disparity disparity is the opposite of parity parity as far as we can understand means they just rewards for the man who works in bringing God's blessings from the soil and given in service to others our Lord Jesus Christ in the tenth chapter of st. Luke verse seven said this a laborer is worthy of his hire now who did he mean did he mean only the disciples who were first called to follow him or did he mean all people who labor and all people who work whether they be on the farm in or in factory or any other occupation and place of vocation in a hymn book which I have which we use in our church we have a prayer God grant them the just rewards for their labors now this has great meaning to me there's one thing that I cannot quite understand and that is how many people today can sit down to a good square meal and pray come Lord Jesus be our guest and let this food to us be blessed and then say ah Men and partake of that food and yet forget or not realize that there were people who made it possible for this food to be on that table and many of these people who were laborers were not given a fair price for those blessings it has led me into an area of deep concern and what I call a total understanding of stewardship to me before I is a minister can speak about stewardship in the use of a man's money from his pocket up to the offering plate I must first of all understand the Aryan speak about stewardship and the income that he never received we talk so much about stewardship that is a man should use rightly what he receives from God that is true but today we are even living in a world and in the world of Agriculture where marketing is essential for a man's livelihood now the past history of the farmer reveals that he has never been able to sufficiently organize himself to be able to take these blessings and say this is what I must have for this production instead the history of Agriculture has been one where the farmer is taking these blessings that have come from the earth and put them on the market as individuals and has asked what can you give me here again I believe the distinction and the understanding must be considered and that is in the area of stewardship to me it should be the concern of all ministers of people who call themselves Christian and of our whole church especially in the field of Agriculture whether being South Dakota North Dakota and Iowa Minnesota Nebraska or any other state in the Midwestern in our nation that if the farmer is not receiving a fair price for that production we ought to encourage our people in agriculture to take steps to do something about it now I do not believe that this is going to be answered from outside the rank-and-file of people in agriculture I know that there are many who believe this today but I I firmly believe that it is the people who are basically involved in this loss today who are going to have to come to the solution to this problem and come to it together now there is an understanding any place in which we as ministers and and Christian people lay people in our church can help and that is we ought to encourage our farm people to explore and to its and to study the history of the farm organizations over these last hundred years I know that a lot of people have given up and have said that the farm organizations have never helped the farmer but here again we've got to understand that it takes a lot of time sometimes for people to grow together in understanding sometimes this can become a long complex and involved process but I don't think that the hundred year history of the agrarian movement and the farm organizations has been for nothing I believe that it has been moving toward a fulfillment toward a goal and it has been true that maybe the solution has not been has not been offered or or been such that it could make a difference but we cannot let go of all of this work and effort with the concerns and the heartaches of people down through the ages of history and especially in these last hundred years in America today a new farm organization has come on the scene within the last 10 to 15 years called the National Farmers Organization there is one thing that we must all understand and that is the principle of collective bargaining if we will study the Constitution of the United States we will see that it is in built and written in the Constitution the right to bargain for goods and services in a free market in 1922 the farmer received the right to bargain in this manner take a look at the Creed of the Future Farmers of America and you will see it stated there concerning more power in bargaining ninety percent or over ninety percent of the segments of an economy in our nation used collective bargaining in some manner way or another we must understand the principle which is basically people working together who should be working together in love to solve a common problem and here I would say to me the biggest area of solution today is if the farm organizations can get together around the table and start to talk things out to me and to many others it becomes understandable that there should be more things that the farmers and the farm organizations have in common than not and it's going to take a while to talk over these differences but a federation of the farm organizations at least a way in which they can all work together sit down around the table and talk things out for I say what do the farmers and the farm organizations have more in common than the production and a price for that production and we must come to an understanding I believe today as Abraham Lincoln said that if this nation will not perish it will take a government of the people by the people and for the people but today we have many people who want to look to a government to solve their problems for them and to do things for them we cannot have a government for the people until we have a government of the people and by the people and this means that every last person in agriculture together with his fellow man and his neighbor has a great potential and stands on the threshold of a new era in agriculture if he will unite in the spirit of love and Jesus Christ this does not come easy but I feel as a minister that I must continue to urge the farmers and the farm organizations to unite and to find some way whatever policy it may be to solve this problem from within and amongst the people in agriculture today because we are all depending upon what happens in the farm problem today by those who live in agriculture the Midwest farm report was brought to you by the national farmers organization the nfo with the interest of rural america and its survival has brought you worl renewal with Pastor Alvin T Brock Locker of the Florence rural Lutheran parish of the American Lutheran Church for more information on the n fo attend meetings in your area or contact the national farmers organization corning iowa family farm agriculture the grassroots of America