Grain exports
[Continued from Pace 1]
comment on the sales at all,
but I began -to sense that
(here may be a kind of
sympathy among fanners
when it comes to market
prices which makes it bard
for the farmer buying feed to
take a stand against the
sales which will obviously
benefit so many other far
mers. Finally, Richard
Hoppes of Windsor Castle
put it into words,. “As a
buyer I want to get grain as
cheap as I can, but I can see
the point of view of the guy
growing it. I believe the
grain business right now is
about at the break-even
point, and if the farmer
doesn’t do more than break
even, he isn’t going to be in
business very long.” This
same idea came from
Donald Duncan of Robesonia
who grows grain to feed his
dairy herd as well as to sell,
“What the fanner who has to
feed must realize is, if the
farmer who produces the
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grain doesn’t get paid, he
will stop producing it.”
Although Duncan’s
statement confirmed my
original idea, that some
fanners might not be in
favor of the exports, I was
not able to find even one who
would speak out as directly
against them. Listening to
County farmers, it appears
that the real conflict over the
matter exists, not between
fanners, but between the
fanner and the consumer
with his eye on that loaf of
bread. Most farmers felt as
Duncan did, that the con
sumer is often misinformed
asto the real issue at hand or
simply unwilling to see the
fanner get his due. As he
explains it, “The United
States is the largest and best
producer of grain in the
world—it is what we have to
bargain with, and if we don’t
get a good return to the grain
fanner, he will not produce.
He has got to get a return
above what it costs him.”
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Pointing out the high
operating costs and the
gamble the fanner takes on
the weather, he believes that
the shortage the consumer
worries about “will be
created by not exporting,”
because the farmer will just
stop growing it. He is
definitely in favor of the
exports “if kept in hand” so
that they do not create a
hardship in this country but
so that growing grain “is a
profitable business for the
producer.” As to the con
sumer’s concern with the
price of bread, he noted that
although the amount of
wheat in a loaf of bread
represents a very small
percentage of its costs, with
the announcement of a new
sales agreement with
Russia, “the manufacturers
of bread get on the band
wagon and the farmer gets
blamed.”
A similar concern with the
image of the farmer that is
created by the soaring bread
prices which accompany the
Russian sales was expressed
by Roy Christman, Hamburg
Rl. The problem as he sees it
is that “there is no un
derstanding between the
consumer and the fanner.”
He feels that the consumer
doesn’t consider why the
price of bread goes up so
high when grain is raised a
trifle, particularly when the
experts tell us that “the cost
of wheat is represented by
only about two-and-a-half
slices of a loaf.” He also
mentions that consumers do
not realize that “the price of
bread goes up when grain
prices do but it does not
come down with grain
prices.” On the danger of a
shortage in this country, he
points out that recent reports
he has read indicate that the
percentage of loss due to the
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•droughts in the Midwest is
expected to be small. „He
favors keeping the grain bins'
“low but not empty.” Ac
cording to Christman, it is’
the wildly fluctuating
market that hurts tiie farmer
so “if we have the grain and
have a market for it',' let’s
sell it, but keep an even
keeL”
Wilbur Lutz, one member
of a family corporation
which deals in grain and
hogs,-says he approved of the
original Nixon wheat deal
with Russia because “it got
the government out of the
business of buying grain and
that is the best thing that
ever happened.” But be
suggests taking it a step
further and favors “letting
private interprise store it
and sell it.” He feels that the
agreement that the United
States made with Russia for
advance notice of how much
wheat they want to buy is not
only no agreement at all
since it allows either side to
back out, but that it could
actually hurt the farmer’s
price by creating another
surplus if Russia did back
out. He feels that the
proposed 3.5 million metric
ton figure for the upcoming
sale would probably be
Labor
(Continued from Page 1]
decision which found that
union pickets may not invoke
free speech provisions under
the Constitution as a right to
picket a privately-owned
shopping center. 'The high
court ruled that unions must
seek other federal statutes
for support.
Even though the ruling
came in a case not farm
related Grant said be saw its
effect as directly applicable
to tactics long used by
United Farm Worker (UFW)
food boycotters who have
often claimed free speech
provisions for acts of
picketing and handbilling on
private properties.
sold and serviced by j
PENN BANGORINCORPORATED
•R.D.2 -~BfINGOR, Pfl. 18013
Lancaster Farming, Saturday. March 20,1976
higher if it were not for
public reaction to the sales in
the past, hi his opinion,
“when he’s campaigning,
the politician tells the far
mer this and that, but when
it comes right down ot it,
both political parties operate
on a cheap food policy.”
Also, it is obvious to him that
“the consumer- wants
everything ready to eat and
there are a lot of hands
touching it before it gets to
the consumer. E\en when
the farmer’s prices are
dropped, it takes a long time
for tiie consumer to realize
it” As an example, be cited
the drop in the price of hogs
last spring which took four
months to begin to show up in
the supermarkets’ price of
pork. As to the question of
shortage, Lutz believes that
the loss due to recent
droughts “will probably be
less than predicted.” He
questions the government’s
method of crop prediction
anyway and wonders why no
one ever comes around
asking farmers how the
crops will be and what he
plans to do. It appears to him
that it’s “more a matter of
politics than accuracy.
Predictions are already
started and farmers haven’t
even planted yet.” On the
matter of the embargo last
Fall, Lutz explained that
“expenses (for the farmer)
were at their peak last
spring and when they put the
embargo on it really hurt the
fanner. Exporting is the best
thing we can do right now.”
As for the Russian grain
sales specifically, he points
out that they are “just a drop
in the bucket” compared to
the amount of grain the U.S.
exports to other nations, but
grain exports are important,
“they are really the only
thing we have to help
maintain our balance of
trade.”
A slightly different point of
view concerning grain ex
ports specifically to Russia
was expressed by Joe Ruth,
F 9
T 3
31
Fleetwood R 2, who grows
most of the feed he needs for
his dairy operation.
Although he favors exporting
grain, he feels that “there
are other places in the world
where it could be sold.” In
his opinion, “the government
is using the sales for return
favors and not for the benefit
of the fanner.” He would
support continued exports
“if they’re not used for
political purposes” at the
expense of the farmer.
There may be some -dif
ference of opinion among
Berks County farmers
regarding the U.S. grain
deals with Russia, but in
measuring the reactions of
those I spoke to, I would have
to say that the overwhelming
majority are in favor of the
sales. Many pointed out that
grain is important to our
country’s economy. As one
man put it, “grain, soybeans
and scrap metal are' all we
have left to export. We’ve
priced ourselves- out of all
the other markets.” One
point nearly everyone
commented on was the
consumer’s reaction to the
sales, and there seems to be
general agreement among
County fanners that the
consumer just does not
understand the farmer’s
problem. A reply I got to a
question about last Fall’s
embargo which was in effect
“just another case of
union and consumer groups
getting together to rip off the
farmer again” may be a
little too strong for most
farmers to agree with. But I
do not think any of them
would disagree with Donald
Duncan’s statement: “I’m
sick and tired of the farmer
subsidizing the American
consumer and the rest of the
world.”
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