Perspective: A Declaration of Interdependence

This week, I’m featuring a guest author, John Phipps, a farmer from Chrisman, Ill., TV host of "U.S. Farm Report" and Farm Journal columnist.

*Originally published July 27, 2011 in Top Producer


With our economy struggling to provide employment for all who want to work, references to "jobs" carry powerful overtones. Defenders of agriculture recognize this. They have manufactured a statistic that begs for verification: the number of jobs that "depend on" agriculture. This is usually asserted to be in the vicinity of 20 million.

Nailing down this factoid is tricky. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics is often cited as a source, it does not count "dependent jobs." According to econometricians at the Bureau of Economic Analysis who actually tabulate such numbers, employment in agriculture is about 740,000. So where do the rest come from?

Answer: Anywhere you want. Since farms link to food, for example, you can add any occupation that links to food in any way. It’s the ag equivalent of the "Six Degrees of Separation" game. But what exactly does "depend on" mean? Apparently, you can count occupations on both sides of the value chain.

Do you sell to farmers? You’re dependent. Do you buy from farmers? Ditto. I wonder why they stopped at 20 million.

Conveniently left unexplored is any comparison with other industries. Using the same methodology, how many jobs depend on the petroleum industry? On mining? Until both the definition and context of this number are made plain, it can fairly be seen as arbitrary.

But, setting aside the quality of this claim, there is, I believe, a larger and more hazardous aspect to flogging dependence on agriculture: It is exactly the wrong way to garner support.

Farmers have never been adept at empathizing with other ways of life. The many unique aspects of our work tend to make us think others don’t think and feel the way we do. But our feeling of dependence is a universal human sentiment.

Take our relationship to landowners. Most farmers share my unease with our dependence on the goodwill of someone else just to be able to farm land. Farmer "jobs" clearly depend on landowners. It is one reason we consistently pay "too much" for land—we are buying a chance to escape from that feeling of dependence.

So why do we imagine the rest of America enjoys being reminded that they are dependent on us? Gen. George Marshall said it best: "If you want a man to be for you, never let him feel he is dependent on you. Make him feel you are in some way dependent on him."

Wrong Approach. If I can spot this communication blunder, I am sure the media experts who include it in every "agvocacy" message are aware of it as well. This raises my suspicion that it is not meant as a message to others; it is meant to persuade farmers themselves.

We love to be the ones others are dependent on, and we love even more to hear it. So my rule of thumb is to assume the agvocates are looking to get into my mind/heart/pocket.

Like the misguided self-esteem-parenting scheme of a few years ago, this "bragvocacy" nugget is unhelpful to both our industry and those we serve. It hinders collaborative progress and better understanding of customer needs.

Economic transactions are basically exchanges of dependency. It is why they occur in the first place. My customers depend on me for corn; I depend on them for money. In a willing transaction, those accounts cancel each other out, not accrue in one direction.

Acknowledging our dependence on others does not diminish us. Those who refuse to recognize their reliance cannot prepare themselves for link failures and risk a rude economic shock.

Egocentric "job dependence" sloganeering taints our industry’s business connections with an insinuation of subservience. I prefer to see the interdependence of my farm within the global economy as a network of hard-won, high-value trust.









AgJOBS Bill

It cannot be denied that migrant workers, any person laboring outside of his or her country, have contributed to America’s agricultural landscape throughout the years. Undocumented agricultural workers have worked within all sectors of the industry, including grain, dairy, fishing, produce and meatpacking.

Increases of imported labor are evident throughout history during times of war and economic uncertainty. World War II introduced the concept of provisional legal residency with the Bracero Program, which allowed thousands of Mexican laborers to work in the U.S. to alleviate agricultural labor shortages.

The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, or “AgJOBS bill,” restructures and reforms the current H-2A temporary agricultural worker program – a type of visa issued to temporary guest workers in agriculture. The bill would grant applicants a “blue card,” signifying short-term legal residency.

“This amendment provides a consistent, stable workforce for an industry that depends almost exclusively on undocumented labor – agriculture,” said California Sen. Diane Feinstein, who introduced the bill to Congress mid-May.

About 1.35 million undocumented farm workers will be granted amnesty if Congress passes the AgJOBS bill.

According to the Geneseo Migrant Center, a nonprofit organization that coordinates programs to benefit migrant farm workers and their families, 81 percent of today’s farmhands are foreign-born, 77 percent are Mexican.

Provisions of the AgJOBS bill include:
• A two-year history of U.S. farm work for applicant
• A cap of 1.5 million blue cards in five years (without a per-year cap)
• Ability for family members to receive temporary residency
• An additional three-to-five-year work requirement, upon completion of initial labor period, to become eligible to apply for a green card for permanent legal residency

According to Feinstein’s Web site, California has experienced a 20-percent reduction of workers in its harvesting crews. Proponents of the bill argue that guest workers contribute to the timely return of seasonal and specialty crops. Because of the worker shortage, as many as 13,280 farms nationwide were forced to terminate operations within the past year. Feinstein claims passage of this legislation would alleviate worker shortages and secure America’s agricultural revenue.

“Today across the United States, there are not enough agricultural workers to pick, prune, pack or harvest our country’s crops. With an inadequate supply of workers, farmers from Maine to California and from Washington State to Georgia, have watched their produce rot and their farms lay fallow throughout the years,” said Sen. Feinstein.

Opponents argue that the bill is a temporary solution to a long-term immigration problem.

“While the H-2A program is reformed, it’s still a very cumbersome program and it especially is not going to help those smaller employers who need a few employees for a short period of time, four to six weeks, throughout the year,” said American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Labor Specialist Ron Gaskill. “So it still doesn’t help them.”

Others dislike the idea of rewarding people that initially entered the U.S. illegally and are weary that applicants will skirt legal processes and use the bill as a loophole to either remain in or enter the country undocumented.

Gaskill offers opinions about the pros and cons of the proposed legislation in an AFBF-produced R.S.S. video.

Are there disadvantages/causes of concern associated with this bill? Should other provisions be included? Is the bill in the best interest of American agriculture?

Agriculture: Assisting the Economy

America is a nation of opportunity for businesses big and small, despite our economy’s current challenges. The country’s economic state dictates a business’ vitality and lifespan, but even in financial difficulty, one industry has always persevered – agriculture.

Historically, agriculture has been a consistent job provider in society because of food necessity. This fundamental principle has made the industry indispensable to our economy, as discussed in one of my earlier blogs. In the 1800s, nearly 80 percent of the population was involved in farming. Wartime food production added to workforce numbers and the industry’s significance in the 1930s. National and global market demands keep the industry afloat today.

"It's a bright spot in the economy," said Standard & Poor's equity analyst Adrian Compton.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Chief Economist, Joseph Glauber, forecasts 2009 returns to be the second highest on record, farm income to be above its 10-year average and farm debt at an all-time low.

“We attribute the high level of expected farm income to strong crop receipts; reflecting higher crop prices, increased international demand and support from government payments," said Compton.

These factors have notably affected America’s financial system by funneling jobs and money into the market.

Farm Economy Statistics
• Figures released in 2005 from the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) indicate that farm and farm-related employment are responsible for providing income to 167,001,363 individuals in the U.S.
• One of every five U.S. jobs is associated with the ag industry (Macoupin County Agricultural Literacy Program - MCALP).
• Forty-eight thousand industry jobs are created each year (MCALP).
• The industry channeled $140 billion to the economy in 2008 in the form of net income to producers from crop and livestock production, farm services performed and payouts of wages to workers, rents to landlords and interest to lenders, with similar projections for 2009 (Kiplinger Agriculture Letter).
• Farm producers rank first on Sageworks’ “Top Performing Industries by Sales Growth” within the past 12 months.

The industry boasted impressive gains in 2008 with similar projections for 2009.

"It is expected that 2009 will be another good year for the farm economy," ERS stated in its 2009 Farm Sector Income Forecast, "bolstered by strong demand for feed crops, oilseeds and food grains."

Because the agriculture industry relies on multiple participants for it to function, a variety of employment opportunities exist (more than 200 job types according to MCALP), contributing to its growth and dependability as both a part-time job and career source. Those working within the industry can be either salaried or self-employed. Industry-related jobs run the gamut from machinery suppliers, to plant operators to farmhands and involve farm production and processing, whole and retail trade and farm management and education.

Farming is not a cure-all, however, for those experiencing financial straits. Overproduction, fluctuating prices, variable weather and costly applications, among other factors, complicate the industry, which jeopardize sales and profit. The industry is kept in check by federal subsidies.

Agriculture’s presence will perpetually remain in the economic forefront as a commodity industry. Working in unison, American farmers, farm-related businesses and the government will determine the health and longevity of the industry as an employer.

How can other sectors of the U.S. economy learn from agriculture? What other industries are as far reaching as farming?