Eoo—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 20, 1979
Farmers Union members told
HARRISBURG - Time is
running out for the
American family farm
system unless farmers
organize, a Michigan farm
leader told the Pennsylvania
Farmers Union convention
here on Monday.
Donna Cootware,
president of the Michigan
Farmers Union, said Penn
sylvania as well as other
states are rapidly losing
farmers and farm land.
“In 1940, Pennsylvania
had nearly 170,000 farms,
and the average farm had 86
acres. Today, you have less
than half that number -
62,000 and the average size
has grown to 154 acres.
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“Pennsylvania has lost
over half of its farms, and
you have lost the families
who worked so hard to build
those farms,” Cootware
said.
Cootware, the first woman
ever elected state president
in the Farmers Union,
pointed out that Penn
sylvania has lost 6 million
acres of farm land since
1940. She said the lost land
would support 40,000 farm
families.
“The loss of farm families
throughout the country has
been costly. It means people
moved to town to compete
with city people for not
enough jobs. It means small
towns have died. It means
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rural churches and schools
have closed. It means small
businesses have had to close
their doors. And it means
that fewer and fewer
families have the op
portunity for the wholesome,
productive life that is
possible on a family farm,”
Cootware said.
Cootware said the loss of
family farms is moving the
nation toward the time when
only the very rich can own
land. “We are rapidly
headed toward a new feudal
system where the big
businessman or sheik is the
prince and the legitimate
farmer is the pauper,” she
said.
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of family farm disappearance
According to Cootware,
the small farmer is
threatened by low farm
prices, rising production
Progress of Green Thumb told
HARRISBURG
Delegates to the annual
Pennsylvania Farmers
Union - Convention heard a
report on the progress of
Green Thumb, Inc. an
employment program for
senior citizens.
Making the report was
Lewis “Red” Johnson, Little
Rock, Ark., executive vice
president for Field
Operations for Green
Thumb, Inc.
costs, high interest rates and
competition for farm land by
non-farm and foreign in
vestors.
Green Thumb, sponsored
by the Farmers Union and
funded by the federal
government, employs 14,000
elderly rural citizens in 45
states, the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The program now employs
1,000 people in 55 counties of
Pennsylvania. It has
operated in the State since
1968.
The start of a good finish
Cootware said the far
mer’s best hope is to
organize and to lobby
Congress.
Johnson is the former
president of the Arkansas
Fanners Union. He attended
the University of Arkansas
and has held positions in the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Johnson addressed a noon
luncheon in the Penn Harris
Motor Inn, Camp Hill on
„ Monday.