And in 1971 as now, what agribusiness wanted was for farmers to plant lots and lots of corn and soy. He also came up with a weakly worded proposal to Congress to strengthen criminal penalties and minimize conflict of interest in inspection agencies, some of which had been owned by the same grain firms whose products they inspected. citation-type="booksimple" 0000011491 00000 n 0000060185 00000 n 0000009453 00000 n The act granted settlers one hundred and sixty acres of land, which they would own outright on the condition of improvement after five years of homesteading, or could purchase at a low cost after six months. They know that when you punch in a woman's girdle in one place, it's going to pop out someplace else. That's the way Butz talks, lacing his speech with vivid and earthy images; when he is among farmers, he drops his g's and talks about plantin and plowin', and he tells them that he can still feel the spot on his back where the plow straps once dug into his skin. He died still holding an emeritus position at Purdue. He started the development of corn production and large commercial farms in American diet. One Iowa land excavator told the Journal that farmers are trying to squeeze everything they can out of their land. Ulrike Butz, daughter of television presenter Hermann Butz, grew up in the Bavarian district of Miesbach. Rather than use federal policy as a check on farm output, Butz saw it as a lever to maximize output. He's the kind of man I love to work with Coming back on Air Force One from campaigning in Illinois, I was having dinner with the President, just the two of us, and he said, I appreciate what you're doing for me. I said, Look, I'm not doing this for you I'm doing this for America. 0000043465 00000 n Farm income stayed high for most of the decade. Earl Butz I made lots of talks and challenged lots of people. It was obvious, however, that policy decisions in this area were being made at the State Department. Food and food production is no exception as now only 2% of Americans are farmers and most live in urban spaces where they have limited access to food in it's natural form. x|kQO$c*M3Sj 0000068205 00000 n Butz famously urged farmers to plant fence row to fence row, and told them to adapt or die. 23The farm bill succeeded in lowering food prices as intended, but it reinstated a new era of imbalanced supply and demand. I think many educated consumers understand that most farmers often do very poorly financially and have only a small return on their investment. She points to the Secretary's recent creation of an eightmember Agriculture Department advisory committee to evaluate regulaLions affecting the food industry. He said, I make no apology for my desire to raise farm prices.. Membership was supposed to have included consumer interests, but the consumer representative turned out to be Jane Armstrong a vice president for consumer affairs of Jewell Food Stores, a major supermarket chain. 0000029849 00000 n The Land Ordinance of 1785 required states and Native Americans to cede land west of the Appalachian Mountains to Congress, who parceled it into townships of six miles square, and proceed to sell the townships, or fractional parts of townships at public venue. 1The act settled farmland, but high land prices prohibited many from venturing west. Wallace would have seen these as the glory of his department.. 0000065934 00000 n 0000029423 00000 n It also undermines my claim that Butzs remark was not anti-Catholic. Yet the criticism that Butz favors big agribusiness continues unabated. 0000069351 00000 n Despite the success of the 1973 farm bill in supplying food, America has faced resulting health crises attributed to an abundance of cheap calories, a loss of small farms, and environmental impacts of factory farming. Many were dismayed the government paid farmers not to plant and even destroy crops while much of the country struggled to purchase food and waited in line at soup kitchens. Butz, who once called Richard Nixon one of the greatest Americans of this century. now says he has very good rapport with Gerald Ford. why was it used? 0000022228 00000 n (For a blunt account of the farm-crisis period, see Osha Gray Davidsons 1996 classic Broken Heartland: The Rise of Americas Rural Ghetto.). While somewhat dated, this work is unique in that it comes from the source. He died on February 2, 2008 in West Lafayette, Indiana. You Are What You Grow.. After some indecision, Dean used the line in Rolling Stone, attributing it to an unnamed Cabinet officer. America's total grain production of 242 million tons in 1975 represented an increase of 81 million tons from what it was in 1961. Butz decided that America could sell them 10 million tons right away, then embargo further shipments but possibly resume them in September after the effects of this country's drought could he more accurately gauged. It was a crude joke that turned Butz into a household word and punch line on Johnny Carson's ``Tonight'' show. (See Henry Wallace's "Ever-Normal Granary".) 0000046462 00000 n 0000056225 00000 n Popular among farmers, he was known for creating new free-market policies in American agriculture. The deal came at the same time as the Nixon administration was trying to ease tensions between the worlds two super powers (at that time) and to bolster U.S. farm income to help win that years presidential election. In 1972, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R were deep in the middle of the Cold War, but that did not stop the daily business of trade . He was 98. "[11] Through a spokesman, he stated that media outlets had taken this portion of his statement out of their original context, which was that of retelling a joke. 0000071240 00000 n 0000049770 00000 n Dr. Earl L. Butz, educator, administrator, and government official was born on July 3, 1909 to Harmon Lee Butz and Ada Tillie Lower in Albion, Indiana. This program had unsuccessfully attempted to prevent a national oversupply of corn and low corn prices. (The habit of stuffing the USDA with industry cronies has proven hard to break. 0000066617 00000 n . Earl Butz His policies favored large-scale corporate farming and an end to New Deal programs. 0000046978 00000 n 0000058905 00000 n 4, Land policy that targeted territorial expansion built an American agriculture empire, but at the expense of Native American populations. [26][27], On May 22, 1981, Butz pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges for having under-reported income he earned in 1978. 0000060447 00000 n Congressional investigators established that, in the massive 1972 grain sales to Russia, the Agriculture Department did not inform farmers about the pending sales and permitted the few large grain exporters handling the sales secretly to buy up huge supplies in the commodity markets at favorable prices. Eating for Strength . In, Pollan, Michael. [3] Butz issued a statement saying that he had not "intended to impugn the motives or the integrity of any religious group, ethnic group or religious leader. That is one of the most outrageous things I've seen, but it's typical of the way Secretary Butz operates, says Foreman. Indeed, the Agriculture Department has provided little support to those in other branches of the Government who have attempted to investigate the middlemen in the farmtomarket price spread and to probe the monopolies in the food industries, which include proces sors packagers, wholesalers, shippers, supermarkets. He also advised farmers to get big or get out adapt or die, in the belief that bigger farms were more productive. [citation needed]. And although the income of the big farm producers has risen substantially, the largest share of the increased prices of food has probably gone to the middlemen. Agriculture expanded early American cities and fostered a booming urban population. " Earl Butz 4. ammonia grow corn faster 4x as much tractors made the farmers work easier and let them farm more land. But Butz is more interested in private trade (which usually means trade by a halfdozen large grain companies) and cash sales than in humanitarian giveaways, a view that has led to charges that he is oblivious to world hunger. He tells the farmers that they are the last bastion of patriotism and hard work, and that the food they grow will be the key to world peace during the next quarter century. He graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette in 1932. But the Times description of Butzs two fatal wisecracks, like the APs, eschewed direct quotation. [14][15] Coincidentally, Butz' resignation was announced on Barbara Walters' first day as the first female co-anchor of the ABC Evening News. You are the peacemakers! 0000068736 00000 n Butz drastically changed federal agricultural policy and re-engineered many New Deal-era farm support . endstream endobj 36 0 obj<> endobj 37 0 obj<> endobj 38 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 6 71 0 R] endobj 39 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 6 70 0 R] endobj 40 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 6 69 0 R] endobj 41 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 6 68 0 R] endobj 42 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 6 67 0 R] endobj 43 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 6 66 0 R] endobj 44 0 obj[/Indexed 45 0 R 5 65 0 R] endobj 45 0 obj[/ICCBased 61 0 R] endobj 46 0 obj<> endobj 47 0 obj<> endobj 48 0 obj<> endobj 49 0 obj<> endobj 50 0 obj<> endobj 51 0 obj<> endobj 52 0 obj<> endobj 53 0 obj<>stream https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/13/archives/why-they-love-earl-butz-prosperous-farmers-see-him-as-the-greatest.html. Meet the Press with Secretary Earl L. Butz, Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary James T. Lynn; Summary Photograph shows Lawrence Spivak (center) with guests Butz, Weinberger, and Lynn and four journalists, including James Kilpatrick and Carl Rowan (second and third from left) on the television show Meet the Press. BY TAKA YAMAGUCHI In 1976, then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz coined the now infamous phrase, "food is a weapon.". We believe in our ability to come together to shape the future through policy change. I fear he may be right. 0000040918 00000 n Earl Butz has restored grain farmers pride in proving their enormous productive potential, and they love him. He's on the side of people who buy from farmers and sell to consumers.. 28 0 obj<>stream The New Deal policymakers had seen how high-production agriculture could devastate lands productivity. I was a stubborn cuss, and I made some mistakes. 14. 0000064816 00000 n In 1954, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Agriculture by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Earl Butz, who served as Secretary of Agriculture under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, is widely regarded as a pioneer in modern American corn policy because he emphasized selling . 0000048818 00000 n Ronald Reagan notes his continued popularity arming many farmers and frequently praises him in his Midwest campaign speeches. It gives farmers access to consistent income. Patron saint of the Fast Food Nation, Butz lived to see his dream realized. If the Secretary is wrong, of course, and this summer's expected surplus cannot be disposed of, then the farmers income could fall drastically. 0000048447 00000 n Farm income stayed high for most of the decade. These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corporations, and the declining financial stability of the small family farm. Earl Butz Oral History Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum 3 Butz: Oh, Nixon was warm and personal when you got to know him. naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87210025/PDF, Bittman, Mark, Dont End Agricultural Subsidies, Fix Them., United States v. Butler. Legal Information Institute. According to this reader, Butz was not commenting onPope Paulsmoresweeping opposition to artificial contraception, which rendered his narrower opposition with regard to food shortages a foregone conclusion. 0000055617 00000 n 0000029707 00000 n For Butz and his agribusiness cronies, the program amounted to socialism an intolerable check on farmers ability to plant and harvest as much as possible. Butz had helped to arrange that sale in the hope of giving a boost to crop prices to bring restive farmers tempted to vote for George McGovern into the Republican fold.[10]. Ford discusses many of the painful decisions he had to make during his presidencyincluding the firing of Earl Butz. 0000071060 00000 n 3 0000014845 00000 n So do other prosperous farmers and the agribusiness complex of corporate fruit and vegetable raisers, food processors and distributors. That was true in the Soviet Union, as well. allowing/demanding more to be grown what is the fertilizer they used? He emphasizes that the flight from the farms to the cities has slowed down during his reign; that the decrease of 11,000 farm units in 1975 is well below the annual decrease of more than 95,000 before 1969. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Butz as Secretary of Agriculture, a position in which he continued to serve after Nixon resigned in 1974 as the result of the Watergate scandal. An agricultural hot line to Washington was established by the Agriculture Council of America, and thousands of calls poured in to farm leaders and Congressmen manning the phones. 0000008903 00000 n All rights reserved. From the Associated Press. The nomination proved to be Nixon's most controversial for two main reasons. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. If lie doesn't get it, he'll have a firstclass farm issue on his hands because we'll have enough of a surplus to remind farmers that he's been against higher Government price supports. The General Accounting Office warns that such a bumper crop could deal a serious blow to the farm economy, because the Agriculture Department has no real plans for dealing with either surpluses or shortages. Dream realized Butz I made lots of talks and challenged lots of people the APs, eschewed direct.... To get big or get out adapt or die, in the belief that bigger farms were more.... 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