| FARGO -- City residents seem more inclined than farmers to
agree that the government should help farmers stay in business, a North
Dakota State University report says.
"The farm population doesn't see government as the solution,"
said Cheryl Wachenheim, the NDSU agribusiness professor who surveyed
perceptions of agriculture among people in 12 Upper Midwest states.
"I think farmers are somewhat tired of getting their income from
the government," said Mark Watney, who farms near Velva, N.D., and
works as the North Dakota Farm Bureau's development director. "They'd
rather get it from the market."
Wachenheim said her report aimed to give policy makers and commodity
and grower groups information about what the public thinks of farm issues
so they can "can better strategize how to get their message out --
whatever that message may be -- to the public."
The report was released last month. One-fourth of the people surveyed
lived on a farm. One-third lived in rural areas but not on farms, and 42
percent lived in a city or a town.
Overall, the report says, respondents had a favorable opinion of
agriculture and "overwhelmingly agreed" farmers positively
affect their local economy.
Three-fourths of respondents agreed a loss of farmers in the region
would hurt the local economy. Farmers were considered good environmental
stewards, and most respondents said noise, odor and environmental problems
from farms in their area were minimal, according to the report.
People with connections to livestock operations were less likely to say
there are environmental problems with farming and less likely to say more
environmental laws are needed, the report says.
While city residents were more likely to say the government should do
more to keep farms in business, farm residents expressed greater concern
about the impact of farm consolidation.
Farm residents also saw fewer environmental problems associated with
farming and more strongly agreed existing farm regulations are good
enough, the report says.
Political arguments on farm issues resonate differently with city and
farm residents, said Terry Roe, director of the Center for Political
Economy at the University of Minnesota and co-author of "Policy
Reform in American Agriculture."
Arguments over sugar subsidies, for example, mean little to consumers
for whom food is about 10 percent of a household budget, but they are very
important to sugar beet farmers in the Red River Valley, Roe said.
Some of the report's findings, such as worries about farm
consolidation, were not a surprise.
He cited the elevators near his hometown of Anamoose, in McHenry
County, as examples. Years ago, the elevators were run by several
different companies, but now they are operated by one large corporation.
"I think farmers are somewhat concerned about what economists call
concentration -- that is, bigness," Roe said. |