RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen

Big Ag Farms the Government

Back around May 10, the Chief Administrative Officer of Missouri’s Farm Bureau put out an op-ed that asked, “What exactly does the term Big Ag mean?” And, when a ‘Farm Bureau flak speaks, we listen. As The Hill describes Farm Bureau in its list of top lobbying groups for 2017: “The farm policy powerhouse is tracking issues like crop insurance, voluntary labeling requirements for bio-engineered foods and disease surveillance response — and that only scratches the surface of its work.”

As noted by Donald Carr, writing for Civil Eats, speakers at a national American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) convention offered “emphatic opposition to federal firearm registration, argued against attempts to address climate change through cap and trade, and decried the so-called “war against Christmas.” Attendees went home with a “lobbyist bible” that defined marriage between a man and woman, called for national voter identification, and demanded the repeal of Obamacare.”

Those issues don’t have anything to do with farming, or with the insurance sales — auto, home, farm, life, crop and so forth — that provide AFBF with income. Instead, these issues are chosen to poke rural residents farther into the right-wing camp.

Back to the May 10 op-ed and what people mean when they use the term “Big Ag.” The writer asks: Is the term a reference to the size of the land managed? By the ownership — whether family or corporate? By its connection with agribusiness corporations that develop seeds and equipment? And why is “Big Ag” always said in a disparaging way?

Answering the first two questions with “no,” adding explanations why family farms are more prevalent than corporate-owned farms, the writer tried to argue that agribusiness corporations are allied with family farms, apparently hoping for a positive response from the readers when he mentioned that agribusinesses “develop new seed, herbicides, tractors or irrigation equipment ... finish our cattle, purchase our grain or transport our commodities.”

So, why, then, would speakers and writers use “Big Ag” to mean a negative? Here, the writer rambles off in a disappointing way, but don’t worry if you don’t get it. Obfuscation is a Farm Bureau specialty.

Leaving the rest of us to take up the conversation. Because, it’s obvious, to much of rural America: Big Ag defines the operations that are farming the government, taking as many handouts as possible, destroying communities and exporting much of what they produce. If you want to find the Big Ag winners in your county, check out EWG’s Farm Subsidy Database and look at the top ten dollar-gainers.

It’s not that a deserving farm shouldn’t get some help. In the current financial climate, where hotels get tax incentives to expand and big box stores vie between cities for the best deals, subsidies are part of the landscape. Ordinary producers with their high costs and low sales income, may have to depend on grants and benefits to stay in business. But there is a class of operation — call it Big Ag — that ignores the helpful and “farms the government,” in business mostly for the handouts.

These are the folks that derail programs that might have helped small producers. The EQIP program, offered Environmental Quality Incentives to small producers when it began, but was expanded to provide upgrades on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and water diversion strategies to the biggest grain farmers.

Big Ag also means the guys that change the rules and even the vocabulary, to confuse consumers. As soon as the little guys get a label going, the giants co-opt it, bend the meaning and use it to pull the wool over consumer eyes. Buying organic? You should know that organic ingredients can be combined in all sorts of unhealthy ways, and that organic growers haven’t made any promises about how they treat their workers. Worse yet, any kind of manure, made with any kind of GMO inputs, from inoculized or sick animals, can be certified organic and spread on organic fields. And, worse worse, the rules on GMOs and chemicals are changed every year, at the bidding of Big Ag.

Many farmers who want to sell locally and feed their own communities abandoned the organic label years ago. Some adopted the word “sustainable.” “Sustainability” has a definition. It means, according to the UN Commission on Environment and Development, “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” And, “sustainable agriculture” is usually defined as agriculture where the inputs like fertilizer and seed come from the local ecosystem, production is used by the local community and the farm is profitable.

So, when “sustainable agriculture” became adopted by the corporate powers like Monsanto, many excellent farmers became worried.

As always, we can sum up the question of “What’s Big Ag?” with a bit of advice: Buy from your neighbors … know where your food comes from. Don’t fall into the Big Ag trap.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2018

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