>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >New York Times, April 2, 2000 > >As Life for Family Farmers Worsens, the Toughest Wither > >By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF > >TRYON, Neb. -- Walking across the prairie, stepping carefully around cow >pies, Mike Abel confesses that he has told his son and daughter not to >follow in his line of work. > >He sounds for a moment like a repentant bank robber. But Mr. Abel, 45, is >in an even less promising field: He is a cattle rancher. > >Ranchers like Mr. Abel on the lovely desolation of the Nebraska prairie >near this hamlet, miles and miles from nowhere and nothing, evoke the >gritty determination and toughness of John Wayne on a good day. These days >the ranchers evoke something else -- poverty. > >This rural area, McPherson County, is by far the poorest county in the >country, measured by per capita income. Federal statistics show that people >in McPherson County earned an average of $3,961 in 1997, the most recent >year for which statistics were available, compared with $5,666 for the next >poorest county, Keya Paha, also in Nebraska. The richest, New York County, >better known as Manhattan, had a per capita income of $68,686 in 1997. > >Cowboys like Mr. Abel might seem the last people to cry. But with much of >the agricultural economy in deep distress, with dreams of family farms >fading like old cow bones on the prairie, even the cowboys' lips are >sometimes trembling. > >"What always hurt us was when we're at the table trying to figure out how >to make a land payment, and the kids are seeing us crying as we wonder what >happens if we can't make the payment," said Mr. Abel, a sturdy man with >flecks of gray in close-cropped hair. "We'd always hoped this would be a >family operation. But why should my son, Tyler, struggle and make money >only two out of five years when he could get a good-paying job in the city >somewhere?" > >While most of the American economy is going gangbusters, many rural areas >are undergoing a wrenching restructuring that is impoverishing small >ranchers and farmers, forcing them to sell out, depopulating large chunks >of rural America and changing the way Americans get their food. The gains >in farming and ranching efficiency are staggering, but so is the blow to >the rural way of life. > >Just a few years ago, the United States thought it had a plan to revitalize >the agriculture economy: the Freedom to Farm Act. > >Passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996, >the law aimed to phase out subsidies but ease regulations and promote >exports to make farming profitable without government aid. > >Almost everyone agrees that the law has not worked (although there is also >a consensus that it is the other guy's fault). Direct federal payments to >farmers last year rose to a record $23 billion. That is far more than the >federal government spent on elementary and secondary education, school >lunches and Head Start programs combined. > >With the failure of American farm policy, no one has much of a plan >anymore, even though the present course appears unsustainable. > >The growing cost of federal farm programs, the replacement of small family >farms with huge factory farms, the fading of rural hamlets -- all these >point to historic changes under way in American agriculture. Yet the >changes are happening without anyone guiding them or the nation paying them >much heed. > >The poverty statistics can seem misleading to city dwellers, for the poor >farming areas rarely have homeless people or anything like a slum, and in >any case cattle and hog prices are rising this year. But prospects look >dismal, adding to the pressure on many rural areas. > >The depopulation is evident in the grade school in Ringgold, a crossroads >village in the east end of McPherson County. Leah Christopher, an >effervescent eighth grader who is an outstanding gymnast, will graduate >from the school in a few months at the top of her class, and at the bottom. >She is the only eighth grader. > >The entire school, from kindergarten to the eighth grade, has only one >teacher and seven students, four of them from Leah's family. Another grade >school in the county has just four students and will drop to three next year. > >"I took a training course once where the other teachers were talking about >using the school psychologist and other resources like that," said Elnora >Neal, the teacher at the Ringgold school. "Well, I'm everything. At this >school, I'm teacher, nurse, psychologist, P.E. teacher and janitor." > >McPherson County had 1,692 people in 1920, and since then its population >has been steadily falling, to about 540 today. At its peak, it had 20 post >offices, 5 towns and 63 school districts; now it has 1 post office, 5 >schools and, if one is generous enough to include Ringgold, 2 towns. The >average age in the county is in the late 50's, the average American farmer >today is 54. > >Complete article at: >http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/farm-poverty.html > > >Louis Proyect >Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/ > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
