Earl Butz, The Man Who Killed the Family Farm, Has Died

Plenty brings news that the Man Blamed for the Downfall of the Family Farm has Died. Former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz was the man who told small farmers “Get big or get out”, who pushed policy changes that encouraged major consolidation in agriculture and who more or less killed the family farm during the Nixon Administration.

Here’s a quick snip, head over to Plenty and read the whole piece.

He encouraged large farms to buy chemicals in bulk and skim down labor costs. Tying subsidies to yields rather than acreage, loosening regulations, and beating back trade rules increased output by American farms and lowered food prices. Butz certainly accomplished his goal. But at what cost?

The president of the National Farmers Organization at the time of the Eisenhower administration told the Senate agricultural committee that Butz “is widely known among farmers for his callous lack of concern about their welfare.” More to the point, he was also a paid board member and stockholder of three agribusiness giants (International Minerals and Chemicals, Stokely-Van Camp, and Ralston Purina). A 2003 article in Believer magazine called “Children of the Corn Syrup” points out that Butz might have been fond of saying “Get the government out of the ag business,” but what he actually did was just the opposite: putting agribusiness in the government. Today, critics of big ag, from Michael Pollan to the filmmakers of King Corn, blame Butz for the demise of the American family farm.

Not to kick a man when he’s down (in the ground), but Mr. Butz sounds like he was a real Class-A Corporate Jerkass.

Link [Plenty]

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