To all newspaper commentators and op-ed columnists, you owe me an explanation.

I’ve been reading that you don’t like the farm bill. You say it causes farmers to over produce corn, which drives down prices. The result, you say, is cheap soda and sugary snacks and an ensuing obesity epidemic.

After all, at these prices, you’d be foolish not to gorge yourself on Coke and Twinkies, right?

But wait. I’ve also been hearing that you don’t like ethanol either. You tell me we can’t produce enough corn both for food and fuel. You complain you’re paying more for everything from movie popcorn to your Starbucks latte.

Well, which is it?

First things first. I think we can agree that rising corn prices have recently resulted in higher feed costs for livestock farmers. This is an issue the agriculture industry is working through, and farmers have certainly worked together to overcome bigger challenges in the past.

But that’s not why I’m confused. It’s the fact that there’s only about 3 cents of corn in a $4 box of corn flakes or a $5 bucket of movie popcorn. A can of soda contains about one penny’s worth of corn. As for Starbucks lattes, let’s consider that while dairy farmers may be paying more for feed, they can’t pass that cost on to consumers.

It’s interesting that concerns about food prices are surfacing in a year when the farm bill is being rewritten.

While we all want an abundant, safe, affordable food supply, you often refer to the programs that deliver it as merely government waste.

And while the opinion pages are full of advice from “think tank” researchers, its clear they have done little thinking outside of the beltway.

You say family farms should be profitable, but not too profitable lest they be labeled a “commercial” or “corporate” farm. And we mustn’t divert crops to value-added markets such as ethanol. Remember, we’re already paying nearly $4 for gourmet coffee, we can’t afford to pay a few cents more at the grocery store. You argue farms should rely more on market forces and not government payments. But you criticize family farmers who expand due to market pressure.

The truth is that the situation is extremely complex.

What the public is willing to pay for food and how it’s willing to support farmers are sometimes at odds. While we all want family farms to succeed, you fail to recognize the economic realities faced by farmers. Do you ever consider farm debt, rising input costs and reliance on off-farm income as you criticize farm payments?

After sorting through your hodgepodge list of demands for the agriculture industry, I hardly believe you know what’s best for farmers.

No doubt you only confuse the issue for consumers.
We’d all be better served by putting down the paper and pulling a chair up to the farm kitchen table. There we could find a common sense solution that just might allow us to have our corn and eat it too.

This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.