A2t-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 28, 1985
ITHACA, NY - Farm families
facing difficult economic times
experience some of the same
problems as other economically
stressed families, yet their plight
is unique in many ways.
“The career of a farmer is in
timately interwined with his or her
family life, self-esteem, and
identity,” said Harold Capener,
professor of rural sociology at the
Cornell Cooperative Extension
Economic Training School at
Cornell University, recently.
Unlike farmers, employed
workers who are laid off usually
are protected by severance pay
and unemployment insurance, and
their homes are rarely involved in
bankruptcy proceedings.
“All the assets of a farmer,
however, are at risk when the farm
is threatened, including the home.
A farmer’s ego and feelings of self
worth are also threatened,”
pointed out Capener, who par
ticipated in 28 interviews with
farm families in economic trouble
over the past year.
“When a factory worker is laid
off, for example, he or she usually
does not feel the blame personally
or feel guilty about the children’s
thwarted aspirations. In farm
families the plans and aspirations
of the children who had planned to
go into the family farm are
crushed when the farm goes un
der,” Capener said.
The result: feelings of guilt and
failure that often lead to
depression, high levels of sub
stance abuse, suicide, and child
abuse and neglect among fanners
who are confronting liquidation
and/or bankruptcy.
Farmers have been leaving the
field by the thousands in New York
State since 1960, so why is the exit
from farming in the 1980’s any
different?
“Many of those who left farming
in the past had small operations
with low proportions of income
derived from the farm; they often
were older, and did not have
immuautw
Old
1985
LANCASTER FORD TRACTOR IS FINISHING THE BEST YEAR EVER
Plight of farm family is unique , Cornell prof says
secondary educations,” pointed
out Capener, who teaches in the
New York State College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences at
Cornell.
Also, many families that left
fanning in past years sold off the
farm but kept their homes,
Capener said.
“Unfortunately, many at risk in
the 1980’s are young, aggressive
full-time farm managers who use
i their family members to work the
farm and have 50 to 90 cows,”
Capener said.
Who exactly is “at risk”?
“Any family that is facing
survival decisions,” said John
Brake, profesor of agricultural
finance in Cornell’s Department of
Agricultural Economics. Brak*
DENVER - Saying the 1985
Farm Bill is totally inadequate and
is designed to reduce farm income,
members of the National Farmers
Union Executive Committee said a
new chapter in farm legislation
must be written immediately after
Congress returns for 1986.
At their regular meeting here,
the family farm spokesmen said
the new legislation must tackle the
twin and inseparable problems of
farm income and farm credit.
The NFU leaders said they
would mount an immediate effort
with rural businesses, farm
organizations, consumer groups,
churches and members of
organized labor to return equity to
rural America, complete with jobs
supported by farm dollars, fair
food prices at the farm gate and
the supermarket, and a con
tinuing supply of abundant, quality
food.
Another goal is to keep farmland
in the hands of private owners who
will farm it themselves.
The new legislation must provide
for adequate income, something
completely left out of the 1985
Thank You For Making This Possible
V/b Wish You And Yours A Happy & Prosperous Year:
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LANCASTER FORD TRACTOR INC.
also spoke to the Cornell
Cooperative Extension agents at
the school. Co-chairman of the
Cornell Task Force on Farm
Families Facing Economic Stress,
Brake said, “Although many
farmers don’t realize it, their
options are at all levels, from
changing their values, attitudes,
objectives, and goals to whether or
not to leave farmng, and how and
when.”
One of the most important op
tions to act on when a farmer feels
that his farm is in jeopardy is to
examine his values. Is the family
or the farm the most important
factor? How important is being
self-employed versus being em
ployed by another? Is rural living
all important? If farming is
NFU calls for new farm bill
Farm Bill on its way to President
Reagan’s desk.
Farm income is the answer to
many of the toughest questions
facing Congress and American
citizens, they said, including the
need for assistance to the
cooperative Farm Credit System,
and the repayment of delinquent
loans to USDA!s Farmers Home
Administration. Without adequate
income, these loans cannot be
repaid and investors will be forced
to take an even bigger loss, they
said.
The 1985 Farm Bill has been
signed by President Reagan at a
time when nearly 80,000 farmers
nationwide are expecting notices
from FmHA informing them they
are at least $lOO delinquent on their
farm operating and ownership
loans, and asking the farmer to
designate a loan servicing alter
native. Additionally, hundreds of
thousands of other farmers face
similar credit crises from other
lenders.
“Farm income is the only
alternative that will solve these
problems for the long haul,” the
/ <^)yktdcLy
1655 Rohrerstown Road
Lancaster, PA
NEWARK, DE - The Delaware
Cooperative Extension Service will
offer a grain marketing futures
short course, Tuesday evenings,
January 7, 14, 21 and 28, from 7
p.m. to 9 p.m. Sessions will be held
at the ASCS office on the south
bound side of Route 13 just south of
Camden.
The course is designed to teach
farmers how to use futures prices
in making grain sales decisions
and how to use hedging and options
as marketing alternatives.
The instructor will be University
THE FRIENDLY RELIABLES
critical to the farmer, then it may
be possible to leave farming for a
while'to build more equity and then
get back in later.
“Fear, grieving, and stress are
very real emotions that fanners
will undoubtedly experience,”
Brake said. “These can be
reduced, however, by un
derstanding and working through
the grieving process, learning
about alternatives, and making
choices.”
Brake, among others, spoke to
the group of Cooperative Ex
tension agents concerning the
multitude of services and agencies
available to aid the farm family.
He pointed out that at-risk farmers
should select carefully when they
obtain legal help. They may need
NFU officials said.
“There is desperate need across
rural America and now seeping
into the cities for more em
ployment supported by farm
dollars, repayment to credit in
vestors, and for retaining private
farmer-ownership of America’s
land,” they said. “The option for
farmers to own their own land will
be closed unless Congress acts
swiftly.”
Grain marketing course slated
Flory Mill Exit Off
Route 283
to pursue help from out-of-tow
lawyers, since in-town lawyei
often have conflicts of interest wil
local banks and creditors.
Facing an economic crisis in
farming, as in any small business,
can be an extremely trying time in
one’s life, Brake stressed. Yet,
there are resources available such
as stress counseling, job
retraining, help with medical and
living expenses, and advice on
working with lenders.
“Farmers at risk should make
active plans and decisions with all
the help available to them,” Brake
said. “There are choices, and
families that have made then
have reported much higher levels
of optimism and quality of life once
the changes have been made.”
Members of NFU’s Executive
Committee are Harold Dodd,
chairman, Illinois; Leland Mulder,
vice chairman, Wisconsin; Willis
Eken, Minnesota; Jack Kelsey,
Oklahoma; Leland Swenson, South
Dakota; Milton Thomas, Arkan
sas; Harold Wright, Indiana; NFU
President Cy Carpenter; and NFC
Vice President Stanley M. Moore,
North Dakota.
of Delaware extension crops
marketing specialist Carl German.
Assisting him will be
Dr. Ulrich C. Toensmeyer,
professor of agricultural
marketing at the university, and
Jim Rohrbaugh, an account
executive and registered com
modities specialist with Merrill
Lynch.
Registration will be limited to 20
people. Fee for the course will be
$lO per person. Deadline for
registration is December 31. For
further information call German
at 451-2511.
New
1986