The
Family Farm Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
http://albertpeia.com/familyfarmwipedoutinamerica.htm
An entire way of life is
rapidly dying right in front of our eyes. The family farm is being
systematically wiped out of existence in America, and big agribusiness and the
federal government both have blood all over their hands. According to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States has
fallen from about 6.8 million in 1935 to only about 2 million today. That doesn't mean that
there is less farming going on. U.S. farms are producing more than
ever. But what it does mean is that farming is increasingly becoming
dominated by the big boys. The rules of the game have been tilted in
favor of big agribusiness so dramatically that most small farmers find that
they simply cannot compete anymore. Back in 1900, about 39 percent of the
U.S. population worked on farms. At this point, only about 2 percent of all Americans now live on
farms. Big agribusiness, the food processing conglomerates, and big seed
companies such as Monsanto completely dominate the industry. Unless
something dramatic is done, the family farm is going to continue to be wiped
out of existence. Unfortunately, it does not look like things are going
to turn around any time soon.
The way that the farming industry is
structured today, it is simply not economically feasible to operate a small
family farm. According to Farm Aid, every week approximately 330 farmers leave their
land for good.
Many old timers are trying to hang on
for as long as they can. A very large percentage of family farmers are in
their fifties, sixties or seventies at this point. Today, only about 6 percent of all farmers are under
the age of 35.
Most young people these days are not
too eager to choose farming as a career. A lot of young adults that grew
up on family farms have decided that investing hundreds of thousands of dollars
in a business that requires you to work 12 hours or more per day most of the
year for very meager wages is simply not worth it.
In recent years, many family farmers
have been forced to find second jobs in order to support their families.
Many farm families are constantly on the verge of financial ruin. It is a
really tough life for many of them.
Sadly, less than 25 percent of all
farms in America bring in gross revenues in excess of $50,000. The
following comes from the EPA website....
It
has been estimated that living expenses for the average farm family exceed
$47,000 per year. Clearly, many farms that meet the U.S. Census' definition
would not produce sufficient income to meet farm family living expenses. In
fact, fewer than 1 in 4 of the farms in this country produce gross revenues in
excess of $50,000.
On top of everything else, the
federal government and many state governments just keep endlessly piling more
rules and regulations on to the backs of farmers.
Big agribusiness has the resources to
deal with all of these regulations fairly well, but most family farms do not.
With each passing year, the farming
industry becomes even more centralized. If current trends continue, big
agribusiness will eventually control nearly all of it. The following is
from the EPA website....
By
1997, a mere 46,000 of the two million farms in this country accounted for 50%
of sales of agricultural products (USDA, 1997 Census of Agriculture data). That
number was down from almost 62,000 in 1992.
In certain industries the amount of
consolidation has been absolutely stunning. For example, between 1970 and
today the United States has lost 88 percent of its dairy farms.
Another factor that is shaping the
farming business is the incredible power that the giant food processing
conglomerates have accumulated.
Today, there are 10 corporations that
control most of the things that Americans eat and drink on a daily basis.
If you doubt this, just check out this chart.
The giant food processing
conglomerates have a massive amount of influence over how food is grown in the
United States today. Small farmers that try to go against the tide often
have a very rough go of it.
That is also true when it comes to
seeds.
For example, approximately
80 percent of all corn grown in the United States is grown using
seeds that have been genetically modified by Monsanto.
If you want to try to defy companies
such as Monsanto, you are playing a very dangerous game. The predatory
business practices of Monsanto have been well documented. Monsanto has
taken countless numbers of farmers to court, and they are absolutely ruthless.
Plus, it certainly does not help that
there is a constant revolving door between Monsanto and federal government
agencies. If you doubt this, just check out the chart about Monsanto on this page.
Amazingly, in spite of all this there
are still some small farmers that are able to overcome all of these obstacles
and run successful businesses.
But that is where the federal
government comes in.
In recent years, the federal
government has become absolutely obsessed with going after small farmers.
For example, a recent Food Freedom News article
detailed what the feds have been doing to Randy and Karen Sowers. They
were keeping their cash deposits under $10,000 so that they would not have to
fill out a bunch of paperwork, and the federal government came down on them
like a hurricane....
“Structuring,”
explains Overlawyered.com, “is the federal
criminal offense of splitting up bank deposits so as to keep them under a
threshold such as $10,000 above which banks have to report transactions to the
government.”
While
being questioned, the Sowers were finally presented with a seizure order and
advised that the feds had already emptied their bank account of $70,000.
The Dept. of Justice has since sued to keep $63,000 of the
Sowers’ money, though they committed no crime other than maintaining their
privacy.
Without
funds, they will be unable to make purchases for the spring planting.
When
a similar action was taken against Taylor’s Produce Stand last year, the feds
seized $90,000, dropped the charges, and kept $45,000 of Taylor’s money.
Knowing
that most farms operate on a very thin margin, such abuse of power wipes out a
family’s income, and for a bonus, the feds enhance the monopoly power of
Monsanto, Big Dairy and their supply chain.
At many other small farms across
America, the feds have conducted military-style raids at the crack of dawn over
the smallest infractions.
Some examples of this were detailed
in a documentary entitled "Farmaggedon". The following is a short trailer
for that film....
The sad truth is that the federal
government has been using your tax money to go after small farmers in
absolutely vicious ways.
For example, the feds raided one
Amish farm at 5 AM one morning.
So what was the big crime that the
feds were so concerned about?
Well, the Amish farm was selling raw milk.
Oh the horror!
The feds seem content to leave big
agribusiness pretty much alone, but they are constantly going after small farms
in hundreds of different ways.
Did you know that the Department of
Labor is instituting new regulations that will ban children from doing
many kinds of farm chores?
Just another way to kill off the
family farm in America.
America is changing, and not for the
better.
Just like the middle class, the family farm is heading for
extinction.
Eventually, the big corporations and
the federal government will have near total control over food production in
America.
So what do you think about all of
this? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below....
