The Rural Voice, 1985-01, Page 25can be built and maintained more
cheaply.
All of which makes one wonder: if
there were a clear-eyed, independent
reassessment of agriculture today,
what might be the outcome? Farmers,
for instance, are among the largest
consumers of Hydro's product. They
also spend highly on petroleum pro-
ducts. They keep the chemical in-
dustry going through heavy use of
chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and
i nsecticides.
All of which has rewarded farmers,
and society, with greatly increased
yields in the past four decades. So the
farmers are well off, right? Wrong.
Instead, after four decades of steadily
knocking farmers off the land, we
still face the biggest crisis in farm
history. One-fifth of farmers are in
financial trouble. The increase in the
output of farms has done nothing for
farmers, only for consumers. The
huge surpluses created have only
dropped prices and put more farmers
in trouble.
Farmers have increased production
by greatly increasing input costs. The
higher capital costs and the need for
more land to make use of economies
of scale have put farmers in the posi-
tion of paying today's costs with next
year's crops. Costs keep rising but
prices don't because there is a glut on
the market for nearly every product.
Farmers have helped the banks, the
utilities, the chemical companies, and
the consumers, but not themselves.
Most farmers could live quite well if
they had the money they spent on
Hydro, fuels, fertilizers, and chem-
icals for themselves.
It would be interesting to see some-
one who cared only about the welfare
of farmers and not the "agricultural
industry" take that kind of fresh look
at the situation. It would be in-
teresting to know whom the
economies of scale in farming have
really benefited. n
Keith Roulston is the originator and
former publisher of The Rural Voice.
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JANUARY 198' 23