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The percent of unionized laborers in the work force continues its decades
long plunge.
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America continues its tendency to lose industries; steel, automobile,
shoes, oil, mining, timber, tools, electronics and publishing.
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The economic well-being for workers stagnates despite increasing minimum
wage and a booming Wall Street.
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Illegal Mexican immigrants contribute mightily to the U.S. economy yet
still have enough to send money home to their families in Mexico.
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China, India, Philippines and east Asian and South American manufacturing
and natural resource economies prosper.
All
of these tectonic forces are related.
The
Farm Bill is all about subsidizing farmers to ensure an abundant cheap
food supply to consumers. Over the years, we producers in agriculture have
considered ‘unionizing,’ banding together, negotiating with a common
voice. Dairymen and grain growers, among others have made visible
protests, all to naught.
What
if 50 years ago farmers had been able to organize and barter for higher
prices for our lamb, corn, beef, soybeans, wheat, poultry, avocados,
oranges, pork and milk? It would have been the equivalent of ‘unionizing’
farmers. The resulting higher food prices would have required more
protectionist legislation from Australian lamb, Canadian wheat, Dominican
Republican sugar, Chinese cotton, Argentinean beef, Mexican vegetables and
dairy products, and Brazilian soybeans.
But,
in response to consumer demand for cheaper food, I think politicians would
have been forced to remove restrictions on imports, just as they have done
for industries like energy, steel, clothing, timber, fishing, mining and
automobiles. This would have resulted in an increasing dependence on
politically shaky third world countries for our daily bread. Today we
would be at their mercy. To put it in perspective, consider our present
perilous dependence on the Middle East for oil.
According
to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 25,000 people die
each day from hunger.
So,
to those senators and representatives from urban districts who think
subsidized farming is extravagant…it is. Think of it as famine
insurance.
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