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Editorial

By VVAW

Do you know who this country's farmers of today are? You say they're those nice guys in coveralls who own small white farmhouses and forty acres of land? Not any more. They are rapidly being swallowed up by huge conglomerates or "agri-businesses," who form the nucleus of one of the richest and largest industries in the world: food. These robber barons are using every trick in the book to squeeze and force the small farmers off their farms. As these monopolistic monoliths become larger, the small farmers are finding it harder and harder to compete, and thus are forced to sell it to them.

The interlocking corporate structure of these agri-businesses covers the entire spectrum of food production: farm equipment companies, fertilizer manufacturers, the farms themselves, and processing and packing plants. The picture may be better illustrated by looking at the background of one of the chief proponents and profiteers of agri-business--Earl L. Butz.

Butz, now the Secretary of Agriculture, was also the former Asst. Sec. of Agric. under the infamous Ezra Taft Benson in the mid-1950's. Before his appointment to his present post, Butz was on the board of directors of such corporations as Ralston Purina, Case Tractors, a leading fertilizer company and Stokely Van Camp. He also has served on the board of directors of the Farm Foundation and the Foundation for American Agriculture, both of which were set up exclusively to push propaganda for agri-business. Apparently Butz has forgotten that he no longer serves on the boards of these two foundations as he is still extolling the virtues and benefits of agri-business.

However, Butz hasn?t forgotten all his friends and former (?) business partners. Remember the Russian wheat scandal? Agri-business kingpins, having advance notice on the sale from their old friend Butz, bought tons and tons of wheat at unbelievably low prices from the small farmers and then made a killing selling it to the government. One of the chief beneficiaries of this windfall was one of Butz' oldest cronies, a guy by the name of Palmby. Palmby just happened to be the Undersec. of Agric. under Benson at the same time Butz was the Asst. Sec. (If you think that?s a coincidence, when Butz left Ralston Purina to take his present post, the man he replaced as Secretary, Clifford Hardin, hired on at Ralston Purina as a vice-president). One thing is certain, the small farmers will never forget what happened on the wheat deal. They won't forget Butz either. As Reuben Johnson of the National Farmers Union put it, "Butz is the main enemy today of the small farmer."

Butz and his sidekicks in the food industry won't be forgotten by consumers either. Since food prices increased $109 in the last year per family nad $70 of that came in the months of January and February of this year, it's kind of hard not to forget. And we must never forget who controls America?s farm and food industry, or who is responsible for the incredible rise in food prices. It isn't the small farmer.