Tennessee Living

About the Author - Pettus L. Read

Pettus L. Read is editor of the Tennessee Farm Bureau News and director of communications for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. He may be contacted by e-mail at .

There is a story told around these parts about a son who went off and made it big in the entertainment business and soon forgot about where he came from. He never visited his family and basically took them for granted. One day he received a call that his father had died and feeling a little ashamed that he had not been much of a son, he called his brother and told him to do something really nice for his father at the funeral and send him the bill.

In a couple of weeks he received a bill from his brother for $300, which he thought was sort of small since he told him to do something really nice, and he mailed him a check. However, another bill came in the next month for the same amount, and thinking it was some incidental bill his brother had forgotten about with the first bill, he paid it as well. But, bills for $300 kept coming in every month and finally the man called his brother again to find out what was going on.

“You said to do something nice for Pa,” the man’s brother answered him over the phone upon his call about the monthly $300 bills. In somewhat of a surprised tone of voice the brother said, “So I rented him a tuxedo.”

Today’s economy and the recent bailout legislation are just like this old story. We have buried our country’s financial policies in a rented tuxedo and now the bills are coming due. So now we have to decide if we exhume the remains, pay the suit off or keep on paying until we run out of money. 

Just like the economy of this country, we are also taking for granted our food supply and where it comes from. Folks only get concerned when there is a food scare or the price goes up. Over the last quarter, the price of apples has increased by a quarter a pound and everyone is pointing their fingers at transportation cost, labor and each other. But the truth to the matter is that the number of apple trees in this country has deceased, making less fruit available for everything from processing to “pick-your-own”. Even America’s dish, good old apple pie, is feeling the effects of fewer apples to go around. Less apple trees mean fewer apples. Fewer apples mean higher prices. Higher prices mean upset consumers. Upset consumers mean someone will suggest we go outside this country to buy apples. Going outside this country for our food means the tuxedo is headed for the cemetery.

This country has been strong since its beginning because we have always been able to feed ourselves and once this is no longer the case, in my opinion, we are in big trouble. Do you really want your milk coming from China? Take a look at what is happening there today with their food standards and I think you can see the real importance of keeping a healthy agricultural industry alive in this country.

The egg and poultry industry is under constant attack by those who may have some good intentions, but very poor reasoning. In California efforts to regulate agriculture is being pushed by animal rights groups through the ballot box. A proposal to put limits on the housing and handling of poultry is up for vote in that state and if passed can change that industry forever, as well as cause well-meaning producers to go out of business. The ballot box is not the place to regulate agriculture.

Our farmers are heavily regulated and face challenges everyday from weather, the economy, the markets and even their own government.  Even as food prices have increased for the consumer, the share of the average food dollar that America’s farm families receive has dropped over time. It was recently reported by the American Farm Bureau that in the mid-1970s, farmers received about one-third of consumer retail food expenditures for food eaten at home and away from home, on average. That figure has decreased steadily over time and is now just 19 percent, according to agriculture department statistics. The sports figure on a box of Wheaties receives more return from each box sold than the farmer who plowed, planted and harvested the wheat that actually made the product. 

Let’s keep America’s agriculture economy strong by supporting our farmers and use science to answer our questions rather than non-understanding agendas and emotions. We don’t need to rent any tuxedos.

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Magazine:
Tennessee Home & Farm, Summer 2010 Edition Edition

Headline:
Fewer Apple Trees Mean Fewer Apples To Be Had

Summary:
Let's keep America's agriculture economy strong by supporting our farmers and use science to answer our questions rather than non-understanding agendas and emotions. We don't need to rent any tuxedos.

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