Agriculture vs. Agribusiness

Mary Berry Smith chronicles her farm tour of Western Kentucky in an essay at Front Porch Republic. Here is a sample:

I would like to say a few things about the abuse of the farmer in the system. In contrast to the first farms we visited, the CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feed Operation) was markedly different. Three generations of a farm family were there—grandfather, father and grandson—but they never spoke. Their banker spoke, an extension agent and a representative from the companies that process the farmers’ chickens and hogs spoke.

...The representative from the pork company was truly astonishing. He told us that the farmer was a million dollars in debt to his company, and that the farmer’s profit was in the manure he could spread on his cornfields to sell to other farmers. (The problem of that manure is for another time.) He also exhorted us to tell others that these are great places and not to worry about pollution or disease because science would take care of it.

He actually suggested to us all the things there are to worry about in this system and then told us that science—the word “magic” could be substituted here—would solve all problems. He, of course, made the cheap food argument and the feeding-the-world argument, which I have come to regard as pure fantasy. You cannot make a case for feeding people by destroying the source of food. And anyone with any imagination could see that the same amount of meat could be produced in that area by having more farms and farmers raising animals in a sustainable way.

One way to revitalize small town and rural America would be to end federal subsidy and regulation that favor agribusiness over sustainable agriculture.