NFO-90(AV10496) US Farm Report: NFO With Sen. Ron Bass

us farm report rural area public relations program brought to you in the interests of agriculture rural business and the well-being of our nation by members of the national farmers organization in this listing area and others interested in seeing the farmer receive a fair price for what he produces now here is mr. Herschel Ligon president of the Wilson County chapter of the NFL welcome to another NFL program from Nashville Tennessee NF o is the National Organization of farmers farmers that are determined to keep the family farm system from going out of existence every day in the United States 324 farmers acquitting farming in Tennessee 62% of all farmers in the poverty class Farm Credit is an all-time high the only reason farm loan and agencies continuous to loan money depent contain the lowness money is our real estate has increased in value they don't loan us money on our farming operation because they know it won't make any money we are most happy to have a very important person on the program a person that has served 12 years in Congress he was on the House Agriculture Committee now he's on the Senate Agriculture Committee we are most happy to welcome to our program senator Ross bass from Tennessee thank you very much Herschel and it's a real pleasure to be with you and to visit with you on this program in the interest of a better prices for the farmers products as you say I served on the Committee on agriculture in the House of Representatives for eight years and then immediately after being elected to the Senate two years ago I made application for and was elected to the Senate Committee on agriculture I've always believed that particularly in Tennessee agriculture is the basis really for all of our economy and if the farm people are not doing well then we're in trouble you mentioned the fact that 62% of farm people were in poverty so many times in particular this is true at the national level when they start writing programs to assist people to try to elevate them out of the cycle of poverty they think only of the slum areas of the cities but there's a matter of fact a great percent of the poverty in the nation today is in the rural areas and this is the reason I've been so interested in legislation that I know the National promise organization is interested in also in trying to promote programs to let the farmers help themselves self-help programs and of course we supported programs to try to elevate the standard of living of the farmer to try to get him closer to parity of income to try to design programs really that we hope may someday they be self-defeating we hope that someday these programs will put the farmer in a position so that he can go into the marketplace market is product since receive a price for them without having to carry on what it referred to as a subsidy programs and I think that that is really in keeping with what your interest are as a farm leader since I know well back better than 30 years ago we had to have some kind of a farm program because the nation was broke and that was started because the farmer went broke first and we've had thank goodness we had those farm programs because they actually saved the nation I believe when they saved their grocer they saved a nation but it has gotten to where now that looks like there's not a whole lot the federal government can do about this farm problem looks like it's it's just but come to the end and we and nfo appreciate what the federal government has done for us but we hope very soon to get this agriculture situation to where we can get along on our own and I'm sure you people in the Congress will be glad when we can do that and take a little burden off you won't you well I'll say this to you nothing would please me more than to be able to see the Tennessee farmer and of course the farmer all over the nation be able to produce his products is farm commodities take them to the marketplace and receive a fair share of the consumers dollar you know just recently we've had a lot of talk about farm prices increasing and this increasing the cost of goods to the consumer well this is just not the truth the farmer today receives less than he ever did of the consumers dollar or has in many many years only 37% of what you go into the store and buy actually goes to the farm itself this includes meat products wheat products dairy products everything else combined and so being a member of the Committee on agriculture knowing how important these commodities are and the prices that go into the economy in Tennessee we have worked very very hard to try to elevate the position farmer and you guitar went back to the Depression of the 30s well Hershel I was born on a farm you know actually I was born on in a log cabin on what we call a hillside cotton farm in Giles County and I know what it is to live under those circumstances and I know as you know that in 1932 from 1932 on through 1935 the farmers were just about starving to death about the first job I ever had was helping measure land under the old Triple A program well after President Roosevelt became president and we put in some of these programs it became necessary to come in and start regulating the production of some of the crops and to get rid of some of the surpluses so that the farmer could receive something for his products and this was very important I worked in tobacco myself as a farm boy so I have had the experience of knowing what these problems are and I might add here you don't mind if I get to talk a little bit about politics to yours since I'm a candidate for re-election the United States Senate I don't know of any legislation that comes before the Congress probably with the exception of taxes that is any more complicated than farm legislation and having had ten years of experience in writing farm legislation I believe that this is important to the people of Tennessee to have some unknown to on the committee on agriculture that does understand the programs the history of the programs the necessity for meone having lived on the farm himself and this is what my own personal situation is and so this is the reason that I have tried to stay on the committee on agriculture to try to elevate the standard of living of our people give you an example I was elected to Congress first in 1954 at that time the tobacco program was just about to be destroyed the warehouses were bulging with tobacco and the prices the prices were being depressed and we had to almost rewrite all of this legislation well I had lived and worked in tobacco as a matter of fact I got my social security number working in on a warehouse floor you know in what they call the prize room in selling tobacco so I've had this experience in working with agricultural products agricultural commodities not only in producing them but helping work all the way and so this is what I'm drawing about politics I hope that the people of Tennessee this year will not sacrifice the experience and the knowledge of these programs though tobacco cotton wheat dairy and everything else and I hope that they will return me the Senate so that I can continue to work in the interest of the farm well something we know from past experience fact dependence from recent experience that that there's no substitute for experience now you know the the problem we got into about you mentioned them in a row about well it actually started with President Johnson's Council of Economic Advisors were advising him that the reason cost of living had risen was that the farmers were receiving too much for their production you called me in Washington right right you said are you doing I told you I was going to happen you believe that they are dead well that's right there we found out later is the perfect example of not having sufficient experience because they found out that there was nobody on President Johnson's Council of Economic Advisors that had any knowledge of Agriculture whatsoever and and as a matter of fact I remember our conversation very well and I call the Secretary of Agriculture mister Orville Freeman and he came to my office after my conversation with you and some other people call me Tennessee and I think he had been misled himself and actually sort of fell into a trap of some of the people that were advising the President on the situation and after that after our conversation if you remember he issued a statement so backing off this whole problem because the farmers were not getting too much for their commodities I'm happy to be able to sit here and say today that since 1960 as an example the farm prices have increased in Tennessee by 23 percent now the beef and pork producers if you remember two years ago and by the way this is an example of not having a control program the the meat producers don't have one and they do well but in my two years in the Senate the price of beef products for the producer has gone up 20 percent well this has meant hundreds of thousands of dollars into the farm product pocket so the farmers of Tennessee and we're happy to do this or we didn't have to really established any controls one thing we did was to control some of the imports that had been coming this country on beef but the the call from you as an example coupled with other information and then my ability to be on the committee and call the Secretary of Agriculture I think it took some of the onus off of the farmers in this area right you know the old store goes around that we won't call you politicians but you people candidate for public office where they say all they'll promise you anything look at Dellen you forget you well now that has been untrue with my relationship with you soon after you were elected to the Senate you know I was very anxious to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee to get this true farm story before the public and it wasn't convenient but secretary of agriculture was coming to lunch Berg and you invited me to meet down there well you got the late in Washington get to make the meeting but I was at the meeting I remember setting up the meeting and this is something we always try to do being on the Committee on agriculture is to see that the Tennessee story is told to the Secretary of Agriculture and I remember very well the meeting that I set up which you attended will the Secretary of Agriculture and I know that it was productive he came back and told me of the meeting he had with Tennessee farmers in which he appreciated very much while he was in Lawrenceburg and the Secretary has been here on many occasions so this connection this connection I think is important as far as the Tennessee farmer is concerned now Hershel I think it might be wise for you to let the people know here exactly how you feel on some of these programs as might be compared to the record that I've had in the Congress and as you say talking about politicians making promises I like to run more on a record of what I think I have accomplished and I think that the record will show that I've carried out the platform that I announced two years ago in the Senate and a part of that was the agricultural program which I stated that we were going to try to improve prices and I gave specific ways that we were going to do it all of this has been enacted into law another example was recently a bill that we were able to pass to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in the pockets of the Tennessee farmers on the cotton program where we were able to get a bill through I know I stopped my campaigning I went back to Washington to introduce the bill which allowed farmers to plant soybeans on the cotton acres that have been drained and this will mean thousands of dollars so this type of legislation or this type of service to me is the thing that gives me a pleasure about being in the United States Senate didn't order try to help people so there's one thing about that Lawrenceburg meeting that I'm sure you didn't know about but at that time I was a rookie in there phone number but I told the Secretary of Agriculture as an NFL amendment just what the farm situation was and that Corral with a Nashville Tennessean loaded up as an NF old member telling the Secretary of Agriculture what was wrong with the federal farm program and that was the biggest boost and our poll had had in the south at that time it was it was a trend of tremendous boost for NF oh well I think it's very important for the farmers to have a spokesman before our various committees and I know your organization has been formed before our committee and testifying on legislation I think one of our big problems in the commodity area is is having people who know the problem and having it on get together and without a great deal of confusion and I know that what you're interested in I think as an organization is to get the government out of the farm business I think this is one of your main programs well nothing could please me more I would like to see the day when the farmer could go to the marketplace with his products and receive a fair price for them and not have to worry about government regulations and controls now we have had those because of the depression of the 30 we started these programs and they've been necessary but as a committee a member of the Committee on agriculture I certainly would like to see the time when the farmer could go into the marketplace and could market his products and not have to depend on the government to either supplement the price or to say he can't raise but so many acres and this sort of thing and I think this is the aim of yer ain't something Noah it's possible at you and I are near the same age we both remember just exactly what the Depression was well I'm very complimented if you seem to think that I'm as young as you are oh sure what you probably off but the point I'm getting at is this we remember we were all enough to remember that what happened to the nation when our York osha went both the night coach was broke but no question about it you know many people don't realize that just how much the whole nation depends upon agriculture you know we've produced 70 percent of all raw material produced in the world the problems are the largest consumers in the world well here is one of the things that actually scares me about farming and talking about our ability to produce I know we get condemned many times as farm people because we can over produce today in in in the United States fewer than 10% of our population are actually working in the production of food and yet we are able to produce all of the food and fiber that we can consume in this nation in the best fed nation the best best clothes nation in the history of the world yet there are other nations for eighty-five percent of the people are actually working and trying to produce food in fiber and they still go hungry and do not have adequate clothing to protect themselves so to me this is a blessing that we have this this great situation I wish that we could increase our exports this is the one of the one of the real problems we're going to have to learn to to trade more and to get into more markets and sell our commodities so that our farm people can continue to produce but now even though today we think that we are overproducing and we do have some surpluses in the wind in our warehouses this is not the thing that really concerns me as far as the future is concerned because although today we have all of this extra production in our area in our area in Tennessee today in Middle Tennessee the average age of the owner-operated farmer is 55 years of age and you find very very few young Tennesseans today who are graduating from high school going back onto the farm and becoming farm producers now this is really going to be a problem in 20 years if this situation continues to exist we're going to be worried about where we're getting our food supplies instead of having a surplus now the the problem as far as I can see it is the fact that the investment today you mentioned the cost of farming and then the coastal and the investment in in farming today is one of the biggest investments in any other kind of business to operate a 200 acre farm today it costs actually more money the cost of the land the cost of the machinery the cost of the home on the farm and all of the other clip it costs more money than it does to go down on the square and put in any kind of a business all that you can have and so with this increased cost in running and operating only a farm has run the young farmer out of out of the farm and before too many years we're going to get into a proposition of having the big corporations run the farm if we don't do something to to increase the incentive for the young man to stay on the farm that that is what we are worried about most in its corporate farming a lot of people might think oh well let's get the big corporations in farming and they'll be so big and efficient that our grocers will be cheap well they must remember this there will be such few corporations farming that they can get together and there'll be no limit to what they'll pay for the grocer is in you know other countries have farming but they found no farming setup as efficient is the family farm now I'm glad you mentioned that about the age of the the farmers of the America today you know some people have the idea that the only solution to the farm problem is for the farmer to get him a part-time job practice we have a former commissioner coach in this state that says only a solution he knows of us for the farmer to get him a part-time job well now you said there were J's is 55 years I don't mind telling you I'm 48 so today what what company would hire me at my age what wage would I couldn't even make labor wages and then there to you know the the Extension Service encourages efficiency and I guess that's the reason we're the most efficient farmers in the world but now you can't tell me you will be efficient when you're doing two jobs and that's what we'd have to do as one of INF home members said I guess I guess he wants us to to continue to feed the world working 16 hours a day like we are and then get us an eight-hour jabe job to feed our family and pay our debts well what do you think about it part down job well it's impossible really for the farm operation be operated efficiently on a part-time basis of what we need is full-time farm operators people who are on the farm interested in the farm owning their own land and owning their own machinery and trying to do the job to produce food and I believe that it can be done and can be done efficiently in this kind of an operation I know that many of our communities now are trying to integrate farm and Industry now this is one thing and I think it can be done I think many of the communities in our small rural areas have to have some industry in order to take care of the overflow as a result of some of the farm operations but it would be difficult for me to see how a man can be a part-time farmer because of course even though the machinery is a lot different from what it was when I was back flying a mule or something you can plow a lot more acres with a tractor it's really still a full-time operation to raise the various commodities and of course we in Tennessee at the versified we we raise almost every commodity in this state that can be raised either without irrigation our tropical weather so we in Tennessee have a really a diversified farm operation and one that will allow a farmer to devote a part of his time raising one commodity and he can go back and devote the other part of the time we have many farmers that raised they'll have a dairy beef cattle raised row crops tobacco wheat corn all of the other so farming can be a full-time job and if we can see that the farmer gets closer to parity of income and see that he can go into the marketplace and sell his products then he can't have a full time operation you know an NF o we aren't even asking parity prices we are only asking a price that'll cover cost of production plus a reasonable profit and you know the whole problem is senator we are the only business in the world let go to the marketplace and say well you give me and then turn around give the seller what he wants for everything we buy everybody else prices their production let suit you have own that was priced and I'll tell you one thing if you hadn't given Wonder Boy you wouldn't have gotten it so that's what we plan to do if we don't get our price we're just gonna keep it well do we get a price that's that's an F Oh only while we asking is a price it'll cover cost of production plus a reasonable profit well I think there's nothing unreasonable about saying that because I doubt that there is any group of people who put in him any more time in their job than the farmers do i well you know they what is the old saying a man's works from Sun to Sun and a woman's work is never done or something like that well that's just about the truth that the farmers work is from Sun to Sun he doesn't operate on an eight-hour for the hour weekend he can't if he sees a farm owner producer because of the necessity of time involved and because of the seasons and actually a lot of people don't think about this farming is one of the most hazardous occupations in the world we the farmer has to depend on the seasons the the weather and the natural hazards of everything that can strike anything and strike the farmer and he has that investment he's got it he's just fertilizer preparation and actually I think probably for his investment and for the amount of time that he consumes in producing the food and fiber to feed the nation is about the least percentage of income of anyone else and let me say this you know we're now involved in in a war once again American fighting men are on foreign soil in Vietnam trying to carry out our commitment there to help prevent aggression from the north nakhon take over in South Vietnam I was in the military both in the infantry and the Air Force I was an officer in the Air Force on an f3 old and I know that the the soldiers that I served with a great number of them came from the farm and I know the kind of Steinem that they had and the way they were dedicated and patriotic I know of no group in the world is more patriotic than our rule people and I hope that something can be done to bring about an early conclusion of this struggle in Vietnam but almost every time when you find one nation fighting another one nation trying to take over additional land it's somewhere the breadbasket is involved and you show me a well-fed nation and then one that this producing the food and fiber necessary and most of time you find a happy nation one that's not going out and trying to acquire other sources of production and now today one of the problems in vietnam south vietnam is one of the richest areas in rice production agricultural they really don't know how but this is one reason that that China and the North Vietnamese are so interested in acquiring this part of the of the world to feed their own nation there's a breadbasket involved right you know you brought out something there that I've been strong on for quite a while you and I were both captains in World War two and I know the kind of soldier that a farm rear boy makes they know how to work there will work and above all they have good character and that's something that it's just hard to get around and when I started fighting this farm situation that was the first thing that came in my mind a lot of people don't agree with me but you know we have these wars quite often and I don't think we can get better soldiers from anywhere in the world then boys that are reared on the farm and lots of time it's a pretty good idea to have some good soldiers I'll tell you right now yeah and in that connection I would like to say that as a senator we face these grave problem and involved in trying to see that I men are well supplied I as I said I hope that we can find an early solution to this problem but one of my basic concerns as a senator has been to see that the American fighting man in Vietnam has everything necessary to carry out his commitment in the way of supplies materials and otherwise and recently we had a problem of a ship type and I also serve on a committee on commerce in addition of the Committee on agriculture and the chairman of my committee asked me to go into this I actually plan to go to Vietnam but about the time they had the internal uprisings there I did not go because the Secretary of State did not feel that it was wise to go at the time but I called him the Under Secretary of the Navy and the people in the shipbuilding business in order to see that our men were being taken care of now this problem has been greatly relieved and our men are being supplied with the materials but you and I both having been in the service we understand what it is I as you said I was a captain World War two I was Obama there I don't want to see anyone have to go on the Battlefront because I've been there I've been shot at and I've been hit and I've been shot down and I know what it means and I know what their sacrifice it many of our mothers and sisters and well brothers aunts uncles and fathers are going through and so for this reason I hope that before you and I have a chance to sit down again and talk about farm problem as some honorable solution can be brought about to this Vietnam War something you know we're running out of time it looks like you're not pretty well talk the same language and I wish them had a lot more time to talk about this thing but time as time is getting close but I'll say this much as I said before when I called you in Washington y-you said rest assured your Senators on your side and I'll guarantee that and immediately after that you state you what the sieved you call the secretary a grush and he came to see you you there was a statement running the local paper here that that you will own the farm aside and they wasn't receiving too much for the production we made a TV and I sincerely appreciate what you have done I think it's a shame you people have spent so much money to get elected we want you back on that Senate Agriculture Committee I'll tell you right now anyone interested in additional information about nfo contact this station rural area public relations program was 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 area and by others interested in seeing the farmer receive a fair price for what he produces this program was a videotape