[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 103 (Thursday, June 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6258-H6259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Smith] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, we will soon consider a farm bill 
that warrants an examination of the history of agriculture and a study 
of the lessons learned. There is linkage [[Page H 6259]] between the 
modern American farmer and ancient Sumerian who worked the land between 
the Tigris and the Euphrates. Both were responsible, indeed farmers 
throughout history have been responsible, for their countries and the 
progress of civilization.
  It has been said that in the last reckoning, all things are purchased 
with food. This was true in the cradle of civilization, and it holds 
true now.
  Today American agriculture is this country's largest industry. 
Agriculture accounts for a full 16 percent of our current gross 
domestic product; 355 billion dollars' worth of food and fiber were 
produced this past year. That is more than any other industry.
  And so it is especially important that we learn the lessons taught by 
the successes and failures of the past. History is awash with the 
remains of societies that failed to maintain their soil, who let it 
succumb to erosion, who let the channels that fed it get chocked with 
silt. The ancient city of Babylon, 2,600 years ago developed a 
productive agriculture. It allowed their civilization to grow to 17 
million people and a remarkably diversified society. King 
Nebuchadnezzar even boasted that because he developed a great 
productive agriculture the rest of his society excelled. But eventually 
agriculture and farmers became a lesser priority in that country, and 
it ultimately failed. Farmers abandoned the farms and eventually the 
city collapsed.
  Another example is the Promised Land of the Sinai Peninsula. Moses 
called it ``the land of milk and honey.'' Farm production and 
conservation were neglected and eventually only dregs of fertile soil 
remain at the bottom of narrow valleys.
  But there are also successes. Societies with plans promoting farmers 
and farming survived and flourished. For the last 1,000 years, farmers 
in the French Alps with an eye toward conservation have terraced 
hillsides in a dramatic effort to prevent soil loss, resulting in 
continuously fertile soil, fertile agriculture, and abundant 
production.

                              {time}  1830

  In this country the Dust Bowl of the 1930's
   affected over 150,000 square miles of fields in areas of New Mexico, 
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. For 6 years, drought and 
blinding dust storms were constant. The fertile ground of much of the 
Great Plains was stripped and deposited in drifts over millions of 
acres. Farms were buried and families fled. The counties of the Dust 
Bowl lost nearly 60 percent of their population through migration.

  The cause of this ecological disaster was largely the result of an 
overuse of the land. Following World War I, high grain prices enticed 
farmers to head for the Plains. But those high prices didn't last. As 
the wheat prices fell, the farmers became financially stressed and 
looked for short-term gain by planting more wheat. The long-term 
advantages of strip cropping, summer fallow and other conservation 
measures were abandoned. In fact, by 1930 farmers had planted three 
times as much wheat as they had in 1920. To a large degree, the extra 
planting was an act of desperation to survive. Soil conservation 
suffered.
  The drought began in 1933; the overuse made the land vulnerable to 
the winds that followed in 1934. Farmers continued to harvest what 
little of their crops they could, often driving their tractors in 
conditions so blinding that they couldn't see their radiator caps, much 
less the fields they worked as the fertile topsoil blew away. When 
wheat prices hit bottom during the Great Depression, more and more 
farmers abandoned their farms.
  In 1933 President Roosevelt started a Federal program to limit 
production in order to help keep farm prices stable and encourage 
special farming techniques like contour plowing, crop rotation, and 
terracing that kept soil on the farm and kept it fertile. However, 
prices stayed low and poor farmers continued to leave the land. In 1936 
the Agriculture Adjustment Administration was created to promote soil 
conservation by issuing checks to farmers who adopted acreage 
reductions and wind controls on their farms.
  In the United States Congress we're now engaged in a great 
agricultural debate. We're deciding what proper Federal agricultural 
policy should be. It is important that the American people understand 
that agricultural programs had been designed to encourage a continuous 
but slight over-production. A hidden goal has been to keep enough 
farmers and ranchers producing so that an abundant supply would result 
in not only lower food and fiber prices in this country, but exports of 
low-priced commodities to assist in our balance of trade. Huge stores 
of grain were held by Government to be sold when farm prices went ``too 
high.''
  Since the time of the first Dust Bowl we have enticed farmers to 
become more and more dependent on Government subsidy programs. As we 
move to a more market-oriented farm policy, it is important that we 
phase out subsidies smartly. Research and technology is needed to 
conserve water and topsoil, increase the efficiency of pesticides and 
fertilizers, and maximize yields. Farmers must ultimately make a profit 
if they are to continue to produce for today's needs and preserve 
productive land for tomorrow.
  American consumers now spend 9.5 percent of their take-home dollars 
for food. With that 9.5 percent, they are able to buy the best quality, 
lowest-priced food in the world. In our haste, we cannot undermine the 
agricultural base that made our country strong. We must not forget our 
own history. New Federal farm policy needs to help assure a strong 
agricultural industry.


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