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Posted on 07/16/2003 2:06:15 PM PDT by countrydummy
Homestead Land and Water Alliance 12752 Platti Road Tracy, CA 95304 (209)835-7974 "mailto:sharon@inreach.com"sharon@inreach.com
June 7, 2003
Dear Editor,
A recent Tracy Press article, “County to Benefit From New Agriculture Program” sounded so philanthropic! It spoke of a program, PACE (Purchasing Agricultural Conservation Easements), developed by Great Valley Center and American Farmland Trust, two big Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) to help save the poor farmers in their time of need. These NGO’s are going to give farmers “a nice lump sum of money that they can use to improve their operation or for anything they want”.
A major problem with these ‘free lunch’ programs is that the NGO’s never tell the taxpayers these programs are funded with grant money derived from government grants which are invariably funded by tax dollars.
Talk about tax deficits--here is a great way to cut some fat out of the state or Federal budget. Stop giving tax dollars to NGO’s and other “non-profits” so they can buy property under the guise of protecting the environment. If you follow the money, you’ll find that the non-profits and NGO’s obtain property with our tax dollars. Often this property is then resold to the Federal government for a profit as it was done by The Nature Conservancy in the Klamath Falls water wars. The Federal government cut off irrigation water to the Klamath farmers in order to provide water for a sucker fish at the behest of environmental groups (the National Academy of Science declared this action faulty science and unwarranted). The result was bankruptcy for many farmers. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) stepped in and bought the property for pennies and promptly resold it to the Federal government for a profit. Deals like this have earned TNC the title of realtor for the government. Sounds profitable to me! How many taxpayers do you know willing to give you money to buy land and put it in your name and resell it for profit just because you said you would protect the environment?
Three major points about conservation easements were not mentioned in the article:
First, the ‘nice lump sum’ is in exchange for an undivided interest in the deed on the farmer’s property. The friendly NGO becomes the farmer’s not-so-silent partner. Sale of the farmer’s property becomes difficult--few will buy a property burdened with an undivided share with any agency, and surely not at full retail price.
Secondly, banks do not like to loan money on property encumbered with a conservation easement. The farmer could now only borrow on part of the property because he only owns part--he deeded away any opportunity for his property to accrue value when he agreed to the conservation easement.
Third, the conservation easement is forever. The agreement is not just between the current owner and the NGO but the property’s purchasers, heirs or assignees no matter what the best use of the property would be in fifty years or a hundred years, and FOREVER! ‘Best use of the property’ is always determined by the NGO--so much for the article’s claim that the farmer “keep(s) control of the land”.
The process to truly preserve agriculture is very simple. We in agriculture do not want to become zoo creatures supported by the government. We do not want our land protected so we can farm, and tourists can drive by and see how it was done ‘in the old days’. We are viable and we should be very important to each person in this country. We are resource providers. We will feed you and clothe you.
Put the profit motive back into the business! Farmers don’t need tons of tax dollars in subsidies. Eliminate free trade agreements with countries that do not adhere to our standards of safety and production such as workmen‘s comp, Social Security, OSHA, hazardous materials handling rules and controls over chemicals and fertilizers we apply. We never had to wash our food so carefully when we did not import food of questionable history. Using untreated human waste for fertilizer transmits many diseases as well as E. coli and Salmonella. We can produce more and better food just as cheap as the competing countries if they have to comply with the same standards and regulations as our farmers do.
Once the profit motive is back in farming we will get young farmers to take over the farms. People have always wanted to farm; it is an inherent trait in some individuals. Currently about 75% of our farmers are middle-aged and half are near retirement age with virtually no young farmers stepping up. There are few new farmers because government interference and ‘help’ has stripped farming of it’s profitability. No one wants to work that hard just so they can go broke!
Next, our trade deficit is ridiculous! For the last 40 years we have imported more of many commodities than we have raised. We could have raised plenty, but we were paid not to raise those commodities. For example, sugar beets can grow almost anywhere in the United States, but the government paid farmers not to raise beets even while importing that same sugar product from foreign countries. Thirty years ago sugar beets were a big crop in this area. They were processed in plants in Manteca and Tracy. Now there are no beets raised here at all, and the processing plants and all the associated jobs have disappeared. Meanwhile, we buy more imported sugar. We can produce sufficient quantities of virtually any commodity for our population and excess to sell to other countries. Selling our surplus is more profit for our farmers, processing and transportation industries and for our country. This is just good business!
Finally, establish Right-to-Farm laws that really protect farmers from specious and frivolous litigation. Too often, people want to look at farming operations thru a window from their favorite easy chair. They fail to realize that those same lush crops are raise dust when cultivated, that farmers get up early, tractors are noisy, fertilizers smell and so do some crops during harvest--until they move in next door.
In the next few years we stand an excellent chance of becoming the richest bankrupt country in the world. Our country has been stripped of its ability to produce oil though we have vast untouched stores of oil. We import lumber making our housing costs far higher than they need be while protected forests burn to the ground, largely due to government and NGO mismanagement. We have destroyed mining and import much of what we are protecting (we buy all our Lanthanides from Communist China since we closed our plant in the Mojave due to a fresh water spill--correct: fresh water). Our fishing industry is facing a 135-year fishing moratorium in large areas of the ocean. We are buying from foreign countries that which we already own; and we are paying a premium for it. We have destroyed our own resource provider families in the name of saving the environment.
We have made our own resources untouchable. We have intentionally made ourselves dependent on foreign countries, and now our independence is jeopardized by the whims of foreign governments.
Why have we been selling our sovereignty? Sincerely,
Sharon Votaw
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And how about the family automobile manufacturer, or the family telecommunications company, or the family pharmaceutical company...how are they doing???
This has baffled me for years. Why does the government provide free money to these leftist NGO’s (or any NGO)
The Fed also provides grants (more free money) so NGO’s can hire lobbyist to Congress to try to get there agenda past in to law. Or get more free money.
Seem to me that Congress is supplying the NGO’s with the money to buy Congress.
I think there is one major difference with farmers. The government did not finance the extinction of these other family operations. They suffered the winds of the marketplace.
And by the way, just cuz you be country, don't mean you is a dummy.
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