Farming as way of life or way to make a living

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32774, 26 November 1971, Page 9

Farming as way of life or way to make a living

(N.Z.P.A, Staff Correspondent) WASHINGTON,

November 25.

The Senate wrangle this week over confirmation of President Nixon’s choice as the new Secretary of Agriculture carries echoes of farm problems in other parts of the world. In the United States, as well as New Zealand, Germany, France and Belgium, the small farmer is giving way to the large. Small farming units are amalgamated into bigger more economic lots run by an individual who is more a manager than a farmer in the old style. Politicians come under increasing pressure to do something about the plight of “the small man.” The situation in America is dramatised by rapid growth in wha| has become known as the agri-business sector. Big United States food processing companies have bought or lease large acreages of land to such an extent that they now control

24 per cent of the United States food market

During the last 30 years some 30 million small farmers have left the land, their farms usually becoming a part of a larger tract. The trend continues. About 2000 farms a week are sold off to the agribusiness concerns.

The economic plight of small farmers is emphasised by statistics of the Department of Agriculture. These show that large farm controllers such as the agribusiness concerns, average a yearly income of some $270,000. The small man, reckoned to be a farmer who sells no more than $5OOO worth of produce yearly, earns less than $3OOO. These small farmers hold an 8 per cent share of the farm market.

Dr Earl Butz, President Nixon’s nominee to replace Mr Clifford Hardin as Agriculture Secretary, says that farming is not a way of life but a way to make a living. In the Mid-West, heartland of American, fanning, this view does not go down well. Nor did Dr Butz win friends by making a .prediction two weeks ago that the 20 mil-

lion farms of America wouli be reduced by a further one million by 1980. Thus when his nomination came before the Senate Agriculture Committee it came as no surprise that opposition to his appointment was voiced by Democrats from farm areas, among them the Presidential aspirants. Senator Hubert Humphrey, oi Minnesota, and Senatoi George McGovern, of South Dakota. Even the Republicans, Senator Jack Miller, , oi lowa, and Senator Milton R. Young, of North Dakota voted against his confirmation. The White House is confident of eventually winning confirmation for the appointment. It believes that the

d Democrats really want Dr : Butz elected so that they will have a convenient "whipping i boy” to attack during their - time on the hustings next i year. In the meantime, howi ever, the American small ; farmer is assured of having i his case for more Govem- ! ment assistance espoused in ■ the United States capital.