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IMI Ml II II II
ToMglk tomato
to swallow
Agribusiness
vs. farmers
vs. consumers
in Land Grant
Colleges
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Land Grant colleges have made great advances in technical
agriculture, most will agree. But in recent years some critics
have speculated that agribusinesses large farming and food
preparation corporationshave benefitted more than the
average, small-acreage farmer.
And in Nebraska, whose economy depends primarily on the
small farmer, that can be important.
A Land Grant college is an institution of higher learning set
up by a state charter.
In the preliminary report of the federal Task Force on the
Land Grant College Complex, Jim Hightower maintains that
the complex has allowed its manpower, facilities and tax
dollars to work almost solely to the benefit and profit of large
agribusiness corporations.
Hightower, who wrote the report also hnads the
Agribusiness Accountability Project, which commissioned the
report.
With extensive agricultural research in mechanical, genetic
and chemical areas, each year land qrant colleges spend an
estimated three quarters of a billion tax dollars. These funds
are appropriated by national, state and county governments,
the report said.
Although the cost of the complex is staggering, it is easy to
pass this by when talking to anyone in the college complex. It
has made advances in almost every area of agriculture.
The report said that agribusiness has worked on pioduction
line efficiency.
Machines have taken a prominent place in ail phases of
farming, from planting to harvesting, as a means of improving
efficiency. A tomato picking machine was recently developed.
But scientists found that they had to breed a tomato which
can survive the grip of the mechanical fingers, the report said.
Michigan State University reported that MSU scientists
weie working on changing the physical aspects r.f broccoli,
tomatoes, cauliflower, lima beans, cucumbers, rarrots dnc'
aspaurjus, the task force said.
In addition to genetic research, drugs and chemicals can
help protect animals from disease and crops from in lets and
blights.
A coups of months ago, UNI. developed a new vaccine for
which has
;n a major
calf ',(:ours, an intestinal disease
problem to breeders.
To aid research, land grant institutions often a
machinery and processing companies to help P'
arid develop improvements, the task foice rcnu't sjk:
It said that companies like John Drere. tnt
Haivester, Heinz and Del Monte often engage in cooperative
research efforts at. land grant colleges. Although rh,.y may
contubute funds and personnel, the cot porations benefit most
from tax paid research.
on f inn
research
national
K " ?l -
Accordina to Bert Evans, former cooperative extension
specialist at UIML, this picture of agribusiness doesn't fit
Nebraska entirely. States like California and Florida, have a
much closer link with commercial interests, he said.
Owners of large farms also benefit from land grant research.
Since the farms hire most of the nation's farm labor, the
farmers have built-in incentive to take advantage of the
technological advances.
Secondly, large tracts of land that farms operate on warrant
an investment in the large machinery.
On the other side of the fence are farm workers,
independent and family farmers and consumers, the report
said.
The farm laborer was probably affected first by
w-wMiiMHiiiiiniitii iini' ' -"iiiiMriTini-'T"' 1 miiMlAiniii liniinififi1 " ""TT"
mechanization. According to the report, the number of farm
workers in America dropped from 4.3 million in 1950 to 3.5
million in 1970. In 1970 the averaqe yearly wage earned by
farm laborers was $1,083, which made the farm worker one of
the poorest working groups of Americans.
The needs of the independent or family farmer have ben
ignored by the land grant research. This group represents 87
per cent of all U.S. farms, the report explained.
"Mechanization research by land grant colleges either is
irrelevant or only incidentally adaptable to the needs of some
87 to 99 per cent of America's farmers," it said.
If the farmer were given a chance to help set priorities tor
research at the land grant colleges, he would be likelv to add
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