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Show . 1 ROLLO-glyphics & I H KL1EN ROU.O Somehow this piece strikes a responsive chord in me and so j I pass it along to you this week in hopes that it will ,b; equally interesting to you. The remarks were made in a recent speech made by Claude W. Gifford, director of communications at the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Agri-culture. It was submitted by Lynn Esplin, USU Extension Agent for Iron County. Somehow, we have to make it important to the urban dweller dwel-ler that he has only six acres States to sustain him. That's of farm land in the United all. That's the average number of acres per person. He needs to see that It is mighty important to him that his six acres get the 31 gallons of fuel and the 192 kilowatts of electricity that is needed per year to produce his food and fiber. He needs to know that if someone is going to spend about 31 hours per year working work-ing on that six acres to produce pro-duce his food and fiber that "someone" had bstter have ar incentive to do it. The typical urban dweller has one-fifth interest in a beef cow, and a one-eighteenth interest in-terest in a dairy cow. Somebody out there is tending those animals. ani-mals. The urban consumer has a real stake in seeing that conditions con-ditions are right so that the person per-son who is tending those animals ani-mals has an incentive to do it well; else the urban consumer will be the one who suffers through restricted food supplies. A farm:r has an investment of $1,716 in that six acres. Not for, an idb reason. Thc farmer has d;)f.e that became ho wants t3 'rriake a profit taking care of that' investment and the six acres. For this, the urban ben-ficiary ben-ficiary paid the fa:m:r $301 last year $282 in direct cash, and $19 in government payments. pay-ments. The farmer took the $301 and paid out $227 in production expenses. ex-penses. That left $Si cash for the farmer who took care cf the six acres, and who took care of the one-fifth interest in the beef cow, a.'id the one-eighteenth interest in the dairy cow. How much is $84 cash? Well, a 5 percent return on the $1,716 investment made on the urban client's behalf is $86. So the farmer out there looking after the urban client's interest in the six acres didn't even get back 5 percent cash on his investmentand in-vestmentand he threw in his labor. Isn't it high time that the urban beneficiary learns more about this situation? With the urban dweller's livelihood live-lihood depending on that farmer farm-er tending his six acres, hadn't he better see that the farmer has the freedom to do business within a reasonable set of rules within a reasonable set of rules? Hadn't he better see that the fellow taking care of his six acres be rewarded for his initiative, initi-ative, hard work and dedication. Doesn't the consumer have an interest In seeing that the caretaker of those acres has protection from sudden and drastic economic changes that effect how well the farmer can take care of the top six inches of topsoil where the food is grown? Doesn't the urban consumer have a vital interest in the farmer having enough return to keep his equipment in good shape to tend the land? Wouldn't it be a good idea if that caretaker of the six acres has the freedom to manage the business with a minimum of government interference so that he can manage the six acres to make them productive? Wouldn't it be a good idea if that farmer has a generous flow of usefu; information to help him remain efficient and effective? And isn't' It important that there be transportation there at , the six acres, unimpeded by . costly strikes, especially at harvest time, to keep those farm food products moving in from those six acres? And wouldn't it be simple justice that when the caretaker caretak-er of the six acres has products to sell that he have reasonable equality at contract time to determine de-termine the price and terms of sale as an inducement to stay in the business and be efficient? |
