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- Virginia
lacks planning to deal with “Big Boxes”
- High
tech's supper club
Virginia Business
story misrepresents farmers’ plight
I
must say I was a little disappointed with your recent
article concerning peanuts and tobacco. From the title
to various innuendos throughout the story, you made
it sound as if these privileged few peanut and tobacco
farmers have lived a life of luxury. After reading it,
I am sure many other readers wonder why the farmer would
care if the programs are gone, since they have made
so much money over the past years that they can’t
possibly spend it all.
You
say that peanut growers are being propped up by other
means. I am not sure what props you are referring to
as I do not believe they exist. You seemed to miss the
real situation that our farmers find themselves in —
the devastation that can be caused by weather to his
crops, the steadily increasing costs of equipment and
inputs needed to raise a crop, the prices the farmer
receives compared to what we as consumers pay for the
products made from his efforts, the fact that many farm
commodities today are selling for the same price that
they were at the farm level 25 years ago.
The
peanut program that has been in place for years provided
stability — stability to the farmer, to the lender,
to the manufacturer and to the consumer. It has been
replaced by a new program which will be huge in terms
of tax dollars (the old program cost taxpayers nothing),
will make lenders reconsider their agricultural commitments,
and will damage many rural economies in the southeastern
portion of our state. There will be no winners —
not the taxpayer, not the consumer, not the farmer.
Even though you say cheaper peanuts are coming from
Texas and Argentina, let me know when you find a grocery
store price reduced because of this.
Thomas
R. Cotton Jr.
Manager
Peanut Growers Cooperative Marketing Association
Franklin
Virginia
Business - January 2003
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