“Export-oriented” farm policy may have spelled demise of the family farm

Pricing food at its fair value supports the family farm and may begin the economic healing process from the ground up, argues Jay Greathouse of Commondreams.org. The last president to care about and support the family farm was Franklin Roosevelt, who enacted farm parity laws. Such laws set farm price floors so that prices for agricultural products kept pace with prices elsewhere in the economy and with farm costs. Price supports ultimately “allowed farmers to afford to stay on the farm and rebuild the United States economy literally from the ground up,” says Greathouse.
 
When “export-oriented pricing” replaced these policies in 1952 and geared agriculture for the world market, farm prices lost their balance with the rest of the economy. Thus began the decline of farmers world-wide – in both numbers and quality of life – and with them the health of rural communities.  Full story: Commondreams.org