Message from Larry Brewer, President…March 2010

In recent months I have been asked the same two questions by a number of individuals, so I thought I would take the time to answer these in an open message to all who visits the Small Farms Conservancy web site. The questions are: 1)”isn’t our agriculture the best in the world and aren’t we already producing more food than we can use?”and 2) “why does the conservancy express such urgency about re-establishing small farms in North America?” The answers to these questions are closely connected, and not brief. I’ll answer the first question on this page and get back to the second question in my next President’s Message.

The current agricultural era, which has been marked by corporation-manipulated government policy that has crippled small scale independent family farming, is also known as the era of industrialized agriculture. Many proponents of the industrialization process have credited it with the so called “greening of America”. To the contrary, I believe future historians will not be kind to the architects and practitioners of the agriculture industrialization movement that has perpetuated massive soil loss, derailed a diverse and healthy agricultural economy and disemboweled agricultural communities across our continent. One only has to visit small rural communities anywhere in North America to observe the effects I’m describing. While this industrialization has added handsomely to the economic wellbeing of many corporations, it has cost the public millions of tons of lost topsoil and steady degradation of public nutrition and health.

While the burdensome downsides of subsidy-based industrialized agriculture are becoming obvious to an ever growing number of people, a relatively small percentage of our population, and an even smaller proportion of our political leaders, have truly comprehended, let alone acknowledged, that food as a stock market commodity doesn’t work toward the best interest of the people and, therefore, will not succeed over the long haul. Few realize that the “well oiled”, industrialized agricultural machine is about to go over the proverbial cliff. Even corporations driving the machine, and their supportive government agencies, and even university programs, do not yet see the catastrophe heading their way. However, the indications are numerous, convincing and onerous.

We know that in 1959 there were 4.2 million farms in the U.S. and today there are but 2.2 million. We know that the vast majority of tilled acres in North America are farmed under modern industrial ideology, characterized by large tracts of monoculture corn, wheat or soybeans nutritionally augmented by petroleum-based fertilizers and the subject of chemical warfare against an ever increasing avalanche of invertebrate pests that thrive in the monoculture ecosystem. We know that the vast majority of meat production takes place in high density animal rearing facilities that generate and perpetuate poor animal health and produce low quality, and potentially health-threatening, protein products for human consumption. Such animal production practices, combined with other industrialized food processing practices may keep our food bills low, but they maximize our health care costs and reduce quality of life.

Industrial tillage practices result in unacceptably high, long-term, soil loss and extreme depletion of soil carbon stores. This in turn further depletes the beneficial invertebrate and microbial organisms essential to maintaining the healthy soil required to produce nutritious and healthful food. About 17% of total oil consumption in North America is consumed by agriculture, contributing to our national oil gluttony and security-threatening dependence on foreign oil. The majority of this petroleum use is in the form of artificial fertilizer, followed by direct burning of fuels for food transport and farm machinery. Annual soil loss in Iowa averages 5 tons per acre per year, while in the Palouse country of Washington and Oregon average annual soil loss is about 8 tons per acre per year. Soil carbon stores on arable land have been depleted to 50% of historical levels. The cumulative result of this soil degradation is declining agricultural productivity and declining ability to meet global demand for grain.

The crop subsidy program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as mandated by the National Farm Bill, involves political skullduggery aimed, in part, at keeping grain prices low and the multinational food processing industry happy so as to perpetuate corporate money flow into political coffers. The U.S government subsidizes (with public money) the growing of certain key crops to hold down the prices at which those crops are purchased from growers, rather than allowing the influence of supply and demand dictate price. The food processing industries buy cheap grain and soybeans on the commodities market, extract numerous individual components and reconstitute these components into what Michael Pollen termed “edible food-like material,” marketing them through misleading advertisement to generate enormous annual profits along with steadily increasing, long-term public health problems.

North Americans suffer the highest occurrence of heart and vascular disease in the world and an increasing proportion of our population (especially young people) are afflicted with diabetes. The current rate of increase in diabetes occurrence is unprecedented in our history. These health problems have been definitively linked to inappropriate diet steeped in overly fat meats, unhealthful processed foods and minimal vegetable content. Available produce is predominantly represented by nutrient-deficient fruit and vegetables mined from poor quality soil. The health effects related to overuse of growth hormones and antibiotics in the meat production industry are in question and under study, but largely unknown. There seems to be maximum concern for the quantity of food produced and minimal concern about quality.

These circumstances fill me with frustration have festered a growing anger as I have watched, in just lifetime a single lifetime, the growth of massive corporate wealth, corporate control of food resources and continent-wide devastation of farming communities, all of which have contributed directly to degradation of public health and economic stability. The good news, which I try to keep in focus, is that these problematic circumstances can be reversed and that we know how to do this! The pathway to changing the very circumstances that hold hostage our public health and agricultural stability involves the establishment of 4 to 6 million additional independent, small-scale, family farms and reestablishment of economically stable agricultural communities across North America. The first stepping stones on this path must involve: 1) leveling of the economic playing field to allow for independent, small-scale farming to be profitable, 2) Successful programs to stop the conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses and 3) re-education of the public about how more small farms and sustainable practices can solve the problem, and about why we need to accomplish this in short order. Agricultural preservation and sustainability are dependent upon inspiration and sustenance of independent small farms and farming communities. Once the public fully grasps this concept, and we demand the necessary changes, democracy will move to make them happen. We the people have to take a stand on these issues and see to it they are resolved toward the best interest of the general public. You can learn the details of the Small Farms Conservancy’s programs and what you can do to become part of the solution right here on our web site www.smallfarmsconservancy.org. Our programs aim to regain agricultural diversity and stability toward the over-arching goal of reclaiming our public health and restoring regional economic and ecological balance. The Small Farms Conservancy is a public benefit, non-profit organization. We need your intellectual and financial support. Our objectives and programs make sense!

In my next message I will address why more small- scale sustainable agriculture is the only solution to the problems described above… The Small Farms Conservancy exists to sustain and inspire small-scale, independent farming worldwide.