Farming has always been difficult, but it’s even more so today. Prices are low, input prices are high, and, in many cases, lending institutions are making it tougher to get necessary funding.
That makes it an inopportune time to ask growers to do more, but your farm’s financial health may demand it.
Recently, a local Mississippi Delta farmer, while discussing his disappointing yields and a blood-red balance sheet, remarked to me, “Surely the government will step in and help as it has in the past.”
Let’s hope that is the case. However, increasingly the people in Washington, D.C. writing farm policy have fewer on-farm connections than in years past, and the tail-end of a presidential campaign year is not the ideal timing for producing effective, and costly, legislation.
For many people without direct agricultural ties, it may be difficult to understand why a farming business with thousands of acres of land and rows of equipment would need government subsidies. Without understanding the balance sheet realities that come with buying or leasing land and securing the inputs, labor and machinery required to successfully bring a crop to harvest, commodity producers may not fit someone’s image of people who need help paying their bills.
For example, I’m betting that many consumers would be shocked to learn what portion of the price for a grocery store bag of rice, or a cotton blanket, is paid to the producing farmer. If growers want government farm programs that provide the safety net needed when prices dip below profitable levels or when Mother Nature deals a devastating blow, we need to communicate our challenges and market realities to our non-ag colleagues and friends.
The legislators in Congress are getting an earful from their non-ag constituents who don’t see a need to subsidize what they consider to be “Big Ag.” And while we know that “Big Ag” is mostly made up of family farms using economies of scale to try to remain profitable, that is not common knowledge for many of our suburban and urban counterparts. And yes, our commodity groups are working overtime to tell the story of ag, but it may not be enough.
Our industry is filled with great communicators. But much of that communication is insular, and there are increasingly fewer of us. We talk to one other, sharing agronomic practices, equipment modifications and marketing tips. But how often do we correct incorrect assumptions about food and fiber production? In other words, when do we preach to someone outside the choir?
It can be exhausting and time-consuming to correct every misleading or erroneous random comment and Facebook post about so-called corporate farming, crop protection, or profitability, but it’s an effort that’s needed. And, the fact is, there are more ways now to communicate our stories than ever before.
Not that long ago, farmers and others in agribusiness could complain — and rightfully so — that mainstream or “popular” media was biased against agriculture, and that the only news they were interested in printing or broadcasting was of the negative kind.
But communication has come a long way in a short amount of time. For better or worse, we are living in the age of the “citizen journalist,” where anyone with a WiFi or internet connection can be heard, and the public square is no longer dominated by only those with a printing press or a megaphone. It is also no longer limited to those within our local communities.
While this has proven to be a period of disruption and upheaval for established media outlets, it can be seen as a golden age for minority groups that, in the past, have had a difficult time telling their stories — groups such as farmers.
Not everyone is social media savvy, but it doesn’t take a great effort. If you see a falsehood about agriculture in an online news outlet, set the record straight in the “comments” section. If a neighbor, friend or relative is spreading lies about agriculture on Facebook or other social media sites, correct them immediately, and invite them onto your farm for a learning session. If you’re really feeling brave, start your own YouTube channel and give people a taste of real farming from a real farmer.
Nobody is going to tell the story of agriculture better than those people in the tractor seat. And now, more than ever, that story needs to be told if we want commodity agriculture, including cotton farming, to remain profitable for future generations.
— Doreen Muzzi
Shaw, Mississippi
Dcmuzzi@gmail.com