Why farm programs matter to Cleveland

[OhioChick]

Saturday, August 27, 2011, 2:37 PM

As lawmakers in Washington look for ways to cut $917 billion from the federal bud get, there's speculation that agriculture programs will be cut deeper than others. This is definitely a concern for Ohio's 75,000 farmers, but city and suburban dwell ers who have never set foot on a farm should also worry.

According to Cleveland analyst George Zellers, 1999 was the last year Ohio showed job growth. This is primarily due to manufacturing jobs drying up, but the consolidation of agriculture hasn't helped. The midsize family farms that used to dominate U.S. agriculture are disappearing and, with them, the jobs they once brought, on and off the farm. That's largely a consequence of the fact that over the last few decades, the number of companies that buy food from farmers, process it and distribute it to consumers has shrunk while their size has grown.

The few massive companies that remain -- think Tyson, Kraft, Cargill -- have gone "Walmart" on family farmers, pushing down the prices that farmers get for their products and signing preferential contracts with the biggest producers. The average midsize family farmer in the United States makes a mere $19,000 a year from farming full time, and nearly half of that are government payments granted through the Farm Bill. While these payments often get a bad rap, without them those family farmers are looking at $10,000 a year from a full-time farm job.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/08/why_farm_programs_matter_to_cl.html

[locahungaria]

1. K & R....

These mid-size farms are a very important part of NE Ohio, especially the urban areas, where we are lucky enough to still have some year-round farmers markets.