Washington DC (July 12, 2000) – Leroy Watson, National Grange Legislative Director, today told members of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee that, like the famous Tennessee Williams character Blanche DuBois in the ic play "Long Day’s Journey Into Night", U. S. Farmers are “surviving on the charity of others” under current federal farm policy. Watson likened the supplemental farm payments provided by Congress and the Administration to charity that alleviates the situation but does not solve the underlying problems.
“We believe that past and current farm policies have contributed to the decline in the quality of life in rural communities,” Watson told the Committee. He claimed that current policies are promoting the consolidation of farm production assets into fewer and fewer hands, and that, today, “we have the fewest number of farmers, either full time or part time, in our nation’s history.” Government intrusion on the rights of farmers to mange and husband their land and prohibitive capitol gains and inheritance taxes have discouraged and prevented new generations from carrying on the family farming tradition. The Grange believes that, unless federal farm policy changes to encourage greater individual and family participation in U.S. agriculture, the number of U.S. farmers will continue to decline until U.S. farm production is in the hands of the very few and the very large.
According to Watson’s testimony, it is not farm policy alone that is affecting rural America. He cited increased rural crime, rural public school consolidations, inadequate health facilities, and lack of high speed Internet and communications access as factors contributing to the decline of rural communities.
The National Grange “Blue Print for Rural America 2000”, in fact, represents National Grange involvement in issues affecting all of rural America. It deals almost equally with farm and non-farm rural issues. The Blueprint reflects the needs and desires of grassroots America. It is modified each year through a resolution system that starts at the Local Grange levels. Resolutions then pass up through county and state Granges and are voted on each Fall at the Grange National Convention where several hundred policy resolutions are processed each year.
In terms of specific farm policy, the 2000 Blueprint includes these recommendations:
The National Grange is the nation's oldest general agricultural organization, founded in 1867. It has grassroots units in 3,600 local communities in 37 states, with nearly 300,000 members. Its activities include and serve farm and non-farm, rural families and communities on a wide variety of economic, educational, legislative and family issues.
I wish our urbanites would understand that maintaining a good strong agricultural community in the rural areas is important to our nation.