There should have been a lot more state and local leaders than there were to hear New Mexico farmer and activist Russell Grider speak on the critical state of agriculture and rural communities in the West, and the devastating effects this crisis will ultimately have on the food security of the nation and the economic welfare of every county. He was talking about family farms and local and regional producers, not multinational corporate farms, which he said are gearing up to relocate in other countries, where American companies will be growing food which comes into the U.S. as imports.
Already, he said, the U.S. is importing up to 60 percent of its food.
Grider said that in the next few years, following the implementation of the Central American Free Trade Act (CAFTA) and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), most of what is left of domestic production of fruits, vegetables, sugar and pork will be transferred out of the country. Not only agriculture will be affected. Grider said that the so-called free trade agreements will result in another $1.2 trillion of our $9.5 trillion economy moving offshore.
Here are the results of NAFTA, which was enthusiastically supported ten years ago as a tremendous U.S. job booster by most lawmakers in both parties:
In 1993, the U.S. had a $1.7 billion trade SURPLUS with Mexico. By 2002, the U.S. had a $37 billion trade DEFICIT with Mexico. But everyday Mexicans weren't getting rich, as evidenced by the numbers pouring over the border.
It was basically American corporations moving into Mexico and sending their products back as imports. The picture is as glum for little village farmers in Mexico who have been undercut by massive corporate production as it is for community farmers in the U.S.
In 1993 the U.S. already had a $10.8 billion trade DEFICIT with Canada.
However, by 2002 the DEFICIT with Canada had soared to $48 billion, a large part of it due to the shutdown of 500 lumber mills in the Western United States.
The U.S. trade deficit sets a new record every year. Last year it was almost $600 billion, over $100 billion with China alone. In 1996 the U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world was $191 billion. We imported $1.31 in goods and foods for every $1 we exported. By 2002 the U.S. was importing $2 worth of goods for every $1 exported. No one can miss the fact that the U.S. has become dependent on Chinese production. Charles Walters, of Acres USA notes that "China has become dependent on an American trade deficit much as urban America has become dependent on rural and farm deficit." The Chinese economy is booming, an expanding percentage at the top is growing richer and American dollars are rolling in to build up the Chinese military, but the tens of millions of little Chinese farmers are just as much victims of corporate 'free trade' that is not fair trade as Americans and Mexicans are.
China very cleverly keeps the value of the yuan artificially low against the dollar, so that it enjoys an even larger trade benefit, Grider said.
Who then, benefits? Wall Street does, Grider said. "Free trade is a tsunami wave that exploits the environments of every country in the world to support big corporations."
Before the onslaught of modern trade agreements, Grider said, U.S. leaders carefully protected the safety of the American food base. Before WTO, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) had inspectors in every slaughterhouse in the world that exported products to the U.S. There are NONE today. No one knows what we are getting and where it's coming from, he said. "Americans are eating food every day that has had no safety inspection and no environmental oversight." He said scientists have done tests on the prepared hamburger patties you get at supermarkets and fast food franchises. They have found the DNA of 1,000 animals in ONE HAMBURGER PATTIE!
Meanwhile, back home in America, Grider said U.S. farmers have the highest suicide rate seen since the Great Depression. Basically our food producers are earning half the cost of production. This includes the farm subsidies, 80 percent of which goes to corporate producers. "The little farmers are eating up the equity built up by their grandfathers," he said, "but within about three years we are going to see massive farm foreclosures."
Grider brought out a point that is key to America's past success, and that has been forgotten by people who should know better. What was the mechanism that created the wealth of the U.S.? he asked. It wasn't because the U.S. was settled by the best and the brightest. The majority of the people who carved out a civilization in the New World were not only poor and uneducated, they included much of "the trash of the world." The wealth-creating (mechanism) wasn't merely the existence of abundant natural resources. Mexico, Africa and many other countries have just as many natural resources as the U.S.
No, said Grider, America's key to success was a unique Constitution with an emphasis on property rights and the rights of the individual. There was a commitment to educate the common populace and a commitment to pay labor a living wage. Central to the (mechanism) was the recognition that a secure food base was the foundation of all other industries and therefore of extremely high value. The Agricultural Adjustment Act reinforced this recognition with many provisions to safeguard domestic production, including presidential powers to intervene and stabilize foreign exchange rates.
Currently, Grider said, both Canada and Australia have devalued 41 percent against the American dollar, giving them a tremendous trade advantage. The government has ignored its own laws under the Agricultural Adjustment Act for decades. "The Executive branch has been running wild and Congress turns its head," he said. "As a result, rural America is in desperate straits and the American people are enjoying cheap food on the backs of farm and ranch equity."
He spoke from experience of the futility of small producers gaining a sympathetic ear in Congress. They can't compete with giants like ConAgra, which have permanent company lobbyists in Washington wining and dining lawmakers and contributing huge sums to the Democratic and Republican parties. ConAgra alone spent $68 million on the 2000 election.
So Grider has another plan. Work with county officials, the government closest to the people. "County government is where the rubber meets the road," he said. In his own state of New Mexico, where twelve of the state's 33 counties are technically insolvent, the state government has passed a "Declaration of Local Agricultural Emergency." New Mexico is in the process of establishing a legislative commission to investigate existing federal laws on domestic agricultural production and depressed rural communities.
The goal is to pressure the federal government to abide by and enforce its own laws.
Grider's goal is to persuade other counties and states to join this movement to shed light on the federal government's dereliction of duty in respect to agricultural laws, and to restore the health of essential rural economies.
If you are interested in joining with many other individuals and groups who are fighting to restore a healthy and free America, join the Freedom for America League by contacting Sylvia Allen at (928) 535-3301 or syffal@wmonline.com, or Senda McLaughlin at (928) 535-6476 or purplesagesenda@yahoo.com
NOTICE:
Why Rural America is Decaying
Charles Walters, author of "The Unforgiven," recognized the national and international implications of applied raw material economics as revealed in the analyses of the U.S. economy by Carl H. Wilken, Charles B. Ray, John Lee Coulter and J.Carson Adkerson. They demonstrated how all new wealth enters an economy as raw materials provided by nature. By fairly monetizing these raw materials, an economy is diverse, balanced and free of debt. In "Unforgiven," Walters not only presents the causes and effects of our continuing rural and urban decay, but also a way to stop it of an economy operating in tune with the laws of physics. Long out of print, this classic work is once again available, revised and updated by the author.
To order call Acres USA at 1-800-355-5313 or order online at www.acresusa.com Softcover, 416 pages #6546<$25.