78-03-A5
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Farm Day[edit]
Transcript[edit]March 20th is Agriculture day or Farm day, whichever you choose. It's an annual event staged by the entire Agriculture-business combine to make us better informed about the American Farmer and what he means to all of us. In these decades of continued inflation we've heard the complaint, "Food prices are too high." We should ask, "compared to what?" Food the thing we buy most often has become an easy target for gripes about inflation. And of course the villain is the producer of food--the farmer. But is he? If he really is the villain then why is he parading those tractors in protest? Well maybe he is caught in the cost price squeeze, even more than everyone else. Let's take just one crop. In 1976, wheat was selling for $3.33 a bushel. In 1933 it was selling for only 72¢. But today $3.33 will only buy what 55¢ would buy then and now the price of wheat has dropped $2.30 and that's less than it costs to grow it. The wheat farmer gets 2½¢ out of the loaf of bread you buy. The wrapper on the loaf costs almost 3¢. If the farmer contributed the wheat free of charge there wouldn't be much of a drop in the price of bread. But of greater significance (and consumer advocates please note) if the price of wheat doubled, the price of bread would only go up 2½¢. Wheat is just one example. In France a worker has to put in almost two hours, in Russia 2¼ hours and in Japan 4½ hours to buy one pound of sirloin steak. In America he works 24 minutes. Twenty five years ago one out of seven Americans farmed and each farmer raised food for 16 people. Today only one out of 22 is a farmer and each one produces enough food for himself and 55 others. In the last 25 years the farmer's per-man-hour rate of production has increased 5.3 percent a year, more than double the rate of productivity for all other industries. If non-farm production had matched the farmers increase there would be no inflation. During these 25 years the cost of food as a percentage of our after tax income has fallen more than 30 percent. It now only takes 14.8 percent of our income after taxes to put food on the table. And only a little over a third of that 14.8% goes to the farmer. We eat better for less money than any other people on earth. And yet a congressman about a year or so ago asked, "When are we going to see dollar a pound steak again?" The man he had questioned replied Mr. Congressman, 20 years ago your salary was $12,500 a year, now it's $42,500 and on its way to $50,000 or more. We'll see dollar a pound steak again when we see $12,500 a year Congressmen again. The farmer is receiving fewer dollars then he did a year ago and the dollars buy less but he's paying more for everything he buys. On Agriculture day, March 20, say a prayer for the American Farmer ... and a thank you. |
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