06—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 8,1983
NEWARK, Del. - Agriculture
today faces complex problems
which call for creative new
solutions. For most farm people
these solutions are likely to be
unfamiliar and not very com
fortable, Missouri economist
Harold F. Breimyer told a
gathering of Delaware
agricultural industry represent
tatives September 28 at the
University of Delaware. The issues
to be dealt with during the present
decade, he said, cover everything
from domestic and foreign
economic policies to farmland
preservation and the framing of a
new farm law.
Breimyer, professor of
agricultural economics and ex
tension economist at the
University of Missouri, was
keynote speaker at a colloquium
sponsored by the College of
Agricultural Sciences on the
theme, “Delaware Agriculture in
the Eighties,” held in celebration
of the 150th anniversary of the
chartering of the University of
Delaware. Some 120 people at
tended the event, including state
agricultural industry leaders and
farmers, agribusiness executives,
government officials, represen
tatives of the press, members of
the ag college faculty and ex
tension professionals.
The purpose of the colloquium
was to discuss practical steps
which the Delaware agricultural
industry can take to adjust to the
uncertain economic conditions of
the 1980 s.
According to Breimyer, the key
issues facing American - and
Delaware - agriculture in the 1980 s
are; the fading farm image;
taxation; the organizational make
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Ag doesn’t control its
up of agriculture (that is, who will
own and control the land, and what
will be the status of the farmer who
works it); and the relationship
between national and international
issues and their effects on farm
prices and income policies.
“Our nation’s agriculture is
losing its identity, its singular,
exceptional quality,” the
economist said. He predicted that
in the future farming and the rural
community will be more affected
by nonagricultural than
agricultural policies. This is a
“hard reality” which farmers and
farm leaders who’d like to believe
that agriculture controls its own
destiny must acknowledge, he
said.
The inflation of the 1970 s is the
number one economic factor af
ecting agriculture today,
Breimyer said. He believes the
October 1979 turnaround in the
Federal Reserve Board’s
monetary policy has had at least as
much effect on farmers’ fortunes
in the 1980 s as export embargoes,
price support laws and PIK
programs. He said it was im
portant for planners,to be aware of
the sensitivity of today’s com
mercial agriculture to economic
policies that carry no “agriculture
only” tag.
Speaking of what he called
“farming’s fading image," he said
agriculture in Delaware and
elsewhere is blending more and
more into the scene, to the point
where “You can’t hardly tell a
fanner no more,”
Closer integration of farming
wiht the community has its pluses
and minuses,” Breimyer said.
“Perhaps the most vexatious
relationship now and in the future
fading image
Far min.
lies in what is broadly called en
vironmental concerns. I have in
mind land use, water
management, soil conservation
and similar matters. These are not
new in Delaware.
“In Missouri we have more open
space and are postponing for
perhaps another decade various of
the public issues that even now
cannot be dodged in your more
developed state,” he said. But even
Missourians are starting to hear
such new language as air pollution
surrounding hog bams. “Good
ness, when I was growing up, not
only a barn but a fanner himself
was expected to have a distinctive
aroma. But now some sensitive
people are purifying the air with
lawsuits.
“The economics of agriculture in
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own destiny
my state is now partly the
economics of selection of landfills
and even more the designating of
places for disposal of hazardous
wastes,” Breimyersaid.
Taxation as it relates to far
mland preservation is another
issue confronting the agricultural
community, he said. “There seems
almost to be a conspiracy of
silence about the relationship
between taxes paid and services
provided, and about how tax policy
affects land use.
“I wish I had a clear idea of how
the related issues of environmental
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rules, taxation policy and land use
will eventually be resolved. My
preference is that they be resolved
jointly. New York and Penn
sylvania are trying a district
approach that appeals to many of
us in the Midwest.
“The scheme of buying
development rights or easements
could be employed not only to stop
loss of farmland to nonfarm uses
but also to promote conserving use
of erodable land,” he added.
Breimyer predicted that more
attention would be given nationally
to conserving farmland than to
preventing its loss to other uses.
“Beyond doubt, during the export
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