Food Deficit and Inefficient Nation

Why are over 30 million people in the U.S. going to bed hungry each night? Why are food reserves now measured in hours and days, not in years as in the past? When growing food to feed the world’s growing population, efficiency is often associated with economies of scale to promote large-scale industrial farms. But if the present industrial system of farming is so efficient and so good for our economy, why is the U.S. a food deficit nation?

The 12/19/06 Wisconsin State Journal article Fewer Farmers Grow More by Dinesh Ramde paints a distorted picture of Wisconsin farming that leads the reader to believe that high production industrial monoculture corn and soybean yields along with dairy cow confinement farming is efficient. Simplification and standardization does not necessarily equate to being efficient.

Efficiency by definition is the ratio of the work done to the energy supplied to it. But in regards to the spinach in your salad or the milk on your cereal, does that definition of ‘efficiency’ include the nutritional content of the final product or the health of the soil? When many experts at land-grant universities examine industrial agriculture, they measure it by how much a farmer can produce in any given acre without including any externalized costs such as environmental and social damage.

Higher productivity by itself has nothing to do with being more efficient. It does not make economic sense to burn out cows in less than 1 ½ years of their milking life, which also means they can only give birth to less than half enough calves to replace themselves. According to the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability, those dairy farmers with the highest net income are grazers with fewer than 100 cows. Similarly, it does not make economic sense to maximize corn yields if it leads to runaway soil erosion.

The article does not mention that this fossil fuel dependent farming requires high use of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers, which consequently are polluting our soil, our water, and our air. In addition, the nitrogen fertilizer ages our soil by hundreds of years. The fastest growing and most profitable sector for family farmers in Wisconsin is in organic and sustainable production—NOT commodity cropping or factory farming.

Most importantly, the article in question does not address the human social costs or the environmental costs of the farming system they describe. Driving people out of agriculture is not good for the economy—just look what subsidized corn dumping has done to Mexico, forcing millions of peasants off their land and over the border into the U.S. These state taxpayer subsidized factory farms along with subsidized ethanol production benefit the agribusiness giants such as ADM and Cargill who control both the corn and biofuel markets. This industrial food system is dependent on cheap labor to function, mostly from migrants.

From the late 1930’s through the 1970’s, Wisconsin like the rest of the U.S. had many small farms operated by family who never worked on Sunday or more than an average of 8 to 10 hours per day. They lived a life style of dignity with quality time for their families. A high percentage of their children graduated from college and the farm’s income made it affordable.

Today, many farmers are working 18 to 20 hours a day, often both husband and wife working an additional job. They are babysitting their small children on the tractor and in the barn. Overwork with resulting higher rates of suicide and violence lowers the expectations of the young people. It’s time to respect our farmers and bring back the dignity in food and farming.

Smaller family farmers are efficient. We rotate our crops: breaking disease, pest, and weed cycles eliminating the need for costly antibiotics and pesticides. We rotationally graze our cattle. Most of our fertilizer comes from wise use of animal manure. Pollution and erosion are minimal while we are enhancing and rebuilding our natural resources for future generations. On top of all of that, most of us produce more per given unit or acre than the industrial farming systems.

After 70 years of farming, take it from a farmer who knows.

John Kinsman, Wisconsin organic dairy farmer, is the Secretary of the National Family Farm Coalition and the President of Family Farm Defenders.