12
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 24. 19!
Agriculture - A Metropolitan Cinderella?
Editor’s Note:
While serving as western states
vice president of the Newspaper
Farm Editors of America,
Terence L Day, farm writer for
the Tri-City Herald, undertook a
personal campaign to get
Washington’s metropolitan
newspapers to pay more at
tention to agriculture One of the
products was “Agriculture, A
Metropolitan Cinderella.”
The paper was published by the
Cooperative Extension Service at
Washington State University and
received broad distribution
within the slate We felt LAN
CASTER FARMING readers
would be interested in Day’s
comments Many of the things he
says about Washington State are
equally true of Pennsylvania.
In the early Christian era one
full-time worker produced
enough food and fiber to sustain
himself and less than one other
person More than half of the
world’s workers were farmers
By 1850, American agriculture
had progressed to the point where
one farmer was producing
enough for himself and four
others Then, progress really
accelerated In 50 short years,
the figure nearly doubled to
seven Mechanization was
beginning to free labor from the
farm, triggering the migration to
the cities
In the next 40 years, the ef
ficiency of the farm pushed the
figure to 11. During the ensuing 20
years, by 1960, the figure had
reached 26 and in 1970 it was 46.
Estimates are that in 1971, one
farm worker provided food and
fiber for himself and 50 others In
the last 11 years alone, farmers
increased their productivity as
much as they did from the time of
Christ until 1960'
Who benefits 7 Farmers, of
course, if they’re adept enough to
stay in business If they aren’t,
they lose their farms and move to
Seattle, or Portland, or Chicago,
or Detroit, or to some other urban
center in search of employment
But the real benficiary, the man
who has gained the most, is the
American consumer, two-thirds
of whom live in urban areas and
95 percent of whom live in a city
of one size or another
How do they benefit 9 Well,
that’s an unpopular story which
Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz
is being castigated for telling.
Our great agricultural progress
has reduced food costs by 30
percent during the past 21 years.
As a bonus, Americans also get a
greater variety of food (ham
burger helper) than they have
ever enjoyed before, a higher
standard of eating (twice as
much beef), less kitchen
drudgery (frostmg-m-the-can),
and more meals “out-on-the
town "
Agriculture has given America
the lowest-cost food bill in the
history of mankind-16 percent of
disposable income in 1971,
compared with 23 percent in 1950.
America’s food bill in 1971 was
$llB billion-a whopping $5l 7
billion less than it would be if
Americans still paid 23 percent
of their income for food as they
did in 1950
That is $517 billion which
Americans spent for second cars,
trail bikes, boats, stereophonic
sound systems, fancy furniture,
summer cottages, dishwashers,
color television, and a host of
other consumer goods And how
much is $5l 7 billion 9 It is $15.1
billion more than the total value
of all automobiles manufactured
m the United States and of the
distribution costs of all foreign-
made automobiles sold in the
United States in 1969' That is the
size of the annual savings in
America’s food bill.
In other words, the un
paralleled efficiency of the
American farm is one of the basic
reasons for the high and still
rising American standard of
living, a principle difference
between our standard of living
and that of other countries.
Englishmen spend 29 percent of
their income for food, Italians 45
percent, and Indians 80 percent.
Were it not for the miracle of
American agriculture, where
would the nation have obtained
its rising standard of living 9
Where would her citizens have
gained the wherewithal! to put
dishwashers in 17.3 percent of
their homes in 1970, compared
with 4 9 percent of their homes in
1960 9 Only 12 8 percent of the
nation’s homes had air con
ditonmg in 1960, but 20.5 percent
enjoyed them in 1970 Only 17.4
percent of the nation’s
housewives had clothes dryers in
1960, but 40 8 percent enjoyed
their luxury ten years later. Only
16 4 percent of the nation’s
families enjoyed two or more
cars in 1960, but 29 3 percent had
gained that standard of living in
1970. Color television wasn’t
reported in the United States
Statistical Abstract in 1960, but a
decade later it reported 29.3
percent of the nation’s
households watch television in
color
Certainly, there are other
factors, such as more working
wives, but without the $51.7
billion a year Americans save on
groceries, only a fraction as
many Americans would be en
joying these and many more
conveniences.
And this isn’t all, at the same
time that agriculture has done all
of this for us, it has far more than
doubled its output (which keeps
prices low) and reduced the
acreage on which its abundance
is created When America had
but 107 million people, she far
med 350 million acres. Now, she
farms fewer than 300 million
acres. If the same number of
acres per capita were required
today to feed and clothe the
nation, farmers would need to
harvest more than 500 million
acres AND STOP EXPORTING
FOOD AND FIBER! A full fourth
of the nation’s farm acreage
today produces food and fiber for
export The acres which modern
agiruclture has spared from
production contribute greatly to
our environment and to urban
comfort. They provide wildlife
and recreation opportunities and
make possible the very existence
of suburbs and super highways.
As S W Martin, an agricultural
columnist, puts it, agriculture
has not only spared her laborers
tor the city factory, but her land
“for that nice golf club and
community center . that
convenient shopping mall, with
adjacent hospital that new
quiet industry in the country
between county seats . . . that
comfortable parkway drive to
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Store Hours 7 A.M. to 9 P.M.
Closed Tues. & Sat. at 5:30 P.M.
grandma’s in three hours instead
of the twisting, sapping six-hour
pilgrimage of the 1940’5.”
Yes, agriculture truly has more
to do with cities than with farms,
more to do with urbanites than
with farmers As Archie A. Stone,
writing in “Careers in
Agribusiness and Industry,” put
it - “What is agribusiness? It is
the world’s biggest business, and
the most essential. Everyone
everywhere depends on
agribusiness-all who eat, all who
wear clothes, and all who live in
houses.” And, as William Jen
nings Bryan said 75 years ago, “.
the great cities rest upon our
broad (plains) and prairies. Burn
down your cities and leave our
farm , and your cities will spring
up again as if by magic. But
destroy our farms and the grass
will grow in the streets of every
city in the country.”
And what is agriculture’s
reward for all of this 9 J. Henri
Fabre, the French entomologist
and author, summed it up this
way • “History .. . celebrates the
battle fields whereon we meet our
death, but scorns to speak of
plowed fields whereby we thrive;
it knows the name of the king’s
bastards, but cannot tell us the
origin Of wheat That is the way of
human fblly ”
Much the same thing could be
siad of today’s metropolitan
newspapers and of the television
industry. At one point or another
in relatively recent years, the
mass media have decided that
agriculture is no longer im
portant because there aren’t very
many farmers any more At least
that is what one must conclude
from the disappearance of farm
editors from metropolitan
newspaper staffs, and the token
space which so many
metropolitan newspapers give to
agriculture.
In many respects, agriculture
is Seattle’s Cinderella, a little
seen, seldom-praised stepchild
who toils unseen and unrewarded
in the background while her more
glamorous sisters (such as
Boeing) claim the limelight. Here
the analogy suffers a bit in that
her more glamorous sisters are
worthy workers, whereas Cin
derella’s step-sisters were
drones. But the point is,
agriculture works hard for King
County’s economy and receives
little recognition or reward.
Economists recognize
agriculture as Washington’s
largest industry. As the state’s
principal city, and financial
center, Seattle plays a major role
in the statewide industry. Her
banks and insurance companies
are the center for financing much
of the state’s agriculture; and as
home or regional office for so
many companies, Seattle is a
major benefactor in the jobs
which agriculture creates within
the state.
Knowing just how many jobs
are created would be, not only
interesting, but extremely
valuable to the state, the county,
and the city. Yet, incredibly,
state departments have no idea of
how many urban jobs are
generated by agriculture in this
state or its political subdivisions,
nor can they estimate the dollar
impact of agriculture on the
state’s economy.
The state’s largest industry
apparently is without
measurement, and without
knowledge of her dimensions,
how can she be best utilized to the
state’s advantage’ What enor
mous potential may he untapped
and unsuspected by those who
would create jobs and improve
Washington’s (and Seattle’s)
economy’
Washington’s farm products in
1971 were worth about $940
million, and when food and feed
processing are added, the
agricultural industry produced
about $3 billion a year. A joint
Washington State University,
University of Washington study
indicated about 25 percent of all
jobs in Washington are directly
or indirectly related to
agriculture. Some are jobs on the
farm; most are in cities or in
towns
Dr. James Nielson, director of
WSU’s Agricultural Research
Center, says: “Agriculture is the
biggest industry in the state.
Contrary to what some people
imagined, it continued to be the
biggest business in Washington
even during the height of the
Boeing boom ”
Some idea of the impact of
agriculture is gained from the
Columbia Basin Project where
irrigation has increased the
population of that region twenty
times. It would take a
sophisticated scientific study to
determine how many jobs that
creates in King County, but
surely no one would deny that
there is an impact. Metropolitan
areas grow with the entire region
P. L. ROHRER & BRO., INC.
Smoketown, Pa.
they service, and feed on. The
jobs farm development in
Washington creates in Seattle are
at the ports, in the transportation
industries, in banks, insurance
companies, petroleum, services
and many other areas.
But now, how about your
primary interest, King County?
The Port of Seattle calculates
more than 6,190 port-related jobs
tied to agricultural exports. That
isn’t as dramatic as Boeing, but it
is worthy of considerable at
tention in and around Seattle. The
500 jobs which Peter Fisher, vice
president, Fisher Mills, Inc.,
Seattle, reports directly em
ployed by his firm may be in
cluded in that figure. Another
major source of farm -related
jobs in Seattle is the Western
Farmers Association.
In addition to these, a hasty
search of the Seattle telephone
directory’s yellow pages reveals
at least 256 agriculturally
oriented firms. They range from
agricultural consultants to food
brokers, from farms to food
processors, from farm equip
ment dealers to agri-chemical
companies.
How many jobs do they provide
in King County? It must be a
tremendous number.
According to the Seattle-
Everett Labor Market report of
the Washingtion State Em
ployment Security Department,
agricultural employment in the
Seattle-Everett area averages
5,700 jobs a year, fluctuating
between 3,800 and 11,700 jobs. For
our purposes, the report is fatally
weak because it makes no at
tempt to ascertain what other
jobs depend upon agriculture.
For instance, the report also
lists an average of 10,000 jobs in
“manufacturing, food, and kin
dred products.” All of those jobs
obviously are tied to agriculture.
(For example, if the product to be
processed is grown in the Yakima
Valley, then the people who hold
those jobs have a vested interest
in the health of the agricultural
economy of the Yakima Valley.)
The report also lists an average
of 4,600 jobs in paper and allied
products. Since we literally farm
{Continued on Page 13
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