BY MAURICE WILLIAMS AND MIKE GALATI
NORWICH, New York - Farmers in the northeastern United
States are faced with drought conditions and a crisis
described by many farmers as the worst since the 1930s
depression. The current drought is officially in its 14th
month, but drought conditions have existed in many parts of
the east since 1997.
In the rolling hills and valleys of New York's dairy country, the effects of the drought are plain to see. Crops planted on the flatlands by the rivers are lush and green, but those planted on the hillsides - away from the rivers -are stunted and parched. Farmers in the area explain that the fields are so dry hay yields have been dramatically reduced.
Farmers here store most of this summer hay to use as part of the winter feed for their animals. One small cattle farmer from this area told the Militant, "I'm into my winter hay already. Usually I don't touch it until around mid-November." This means farmers here and throughout the East will be faced with having to buy large amounts of feed this winter.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared all of New Jersey, West Virginia, and Connecticut as agriculture disaster areas, as well as parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. The USDA responded the crisis by offering emergency loans, which cover part of farmers' losses. To be eligible farmers must prove they have lost at least 30 percent of normal production, prove they can repay the loan, have collateral deemed "adequate" by USDA officials, and prove they cannot obtain credit elsewhere.
"Everybody is up to their ears in loans already," said Linden Smith, a 71-year-old dairy farmer in Sussex County, New Jersey. "One more loan isn't going to help. Agriculture is being affected by low prices, meanwhile everything we buy keeps going up. We need better prices."
Smith, the last dairy farmer in Franklin Township, is one of 39 dairy farmers in Sussex County. He said during the 1950s there were 1,200 dairy farmers in the county.
"I sure don't need any more loans," Vaughn Harshman, a corn farmer in Frederick, Maryland, told reporters in response to the remedy offered by the USDA. Harshman hosted a news conference August 2 for USDA secretary Daniel Glickman at his farm, which was attended by 40 other farmers.
Farmers' resistance to plunging deeper into debt has pressed some capitalist politicians, including U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, to promise to call for government grants instead of loans. Speaking to a gathering of more than 80 farmers and others at the Warren County Farmers Fair in Harmony, New Jersey, Torricelli also sought to pit farmers there against those in other regions, claiming federal agricultural policy favors Midwestern farmers.
Drought exacerbates social crisis
The drought adds to the social crisis farmers are already
facing because of the collapse of farm commodity prices. Farm
income in the United States has dropped by almost 17 percent
in the past three years and thousands of farmers have been
driven into bankruptcy.
Between 1996 and 1999 prices have declined 42 percent for wheat, 39 percent for corn, and 20 percent for soybeans.
The milk price farmers in New York received in June averaged $12.70 per hundred-weight of milk sold, a drop of $1.30 from last year.
In Pennsylvania, the fourth-largest dairy state, milk production has dropped by 20 percent, and estimated losses from crops like corn, soybeans, feed hay, and garden vegetables are between 30 and 100 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department.
Many farmers with crop insurance will still get wiped out. They are forced to buy insurance in order to qualify for loans or other USDA programs. The premiums are very high, while payments cover only a small fraction of farmers' losses.
"Insurance doesn't pay. Really it's next to nothing," Bob Puskas, a farmer in Somerset County, New Jersey, told the Star Ledger. Facing a total loss, Puskas said his insurance company told him he would be lucky to get back $10,000 of the $75,000 he spent to raise his corn crop.
Meteorologists forecast dry conditions lasting into October. Even if their calculations are wrong, however, no amount of rain can save this year's crops.
Officials in West Virginia estimate that a third of the state's water wells have failed. They predict as many as 10 percent of the state's 21,000 farms will fail this year.
Mike Galati is member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 174 in New York City.