FSA statement

In my previous post, I noted that a hearing would be held on February 6 at the Big Creek Grange in Franklin Township on the closure of the local Farm Security Office.  I prepared a statement, and I thought you might like a preview.  Here it is:

“Get big or get out.”  Farmers often said that was the motto of the U.S. Department of Agriculture after World War II.  Farms did get big.  Farmers did get out.  The number of family farms dropped across the country, and many farms that were not consolidated were turned into strip malls and subdivisions.

In the last twenty years, however, a new philosophy is growing in American agriculture.  Farmers’ markets are springing up, farm-to-consumer movements are taking hold, and many Americans want to know where their food is coming from.  Books like Michael Pollen’s In Defense of Food and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Mineral have publicized the trend toward locally-grown and locally-consumed farm products.  People are keeping backyard chickens, planting gardens, buying locally-grown beef.

This is not the time to be closing down Farm Service Agency offices.  Small farmers, new farmers, and boutique farmers need assistance at the local level.  While the trend toward farm-to-consumer agriculture is growing, it must also be remembered that the average age of farmers in Pennsylvania is over 50.  Why are we making those farmers, already busy and strapped for income, drive long distances to get to their FSA offices?

I know that there is a great hue and cry to balance the budget.  I would remind the Congress that there are two ways to balance the budget.  One is to cut programs; the other is to have a fair tax system in which everyone, including corporate entities and CEOs, pay their fair share.  I don’t see the necessity of balancing the federal budget on the backs of already over-burdened farmers.