[env-trinity] Fresno Bee- Ag prospers, but Valley's crop of social ills persists

[Tom Stokely]

Ag prospers, but Valley's crop of social ills persists

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/09/2459224/ag-prospers-but-valleys-crop-of.html

Posted at 09:56 PM on Saturday, Jul. 09, 2011
The word is out: Farming is one of the most lucrative enterprises in the world.
Wall Street is advising clients to buy farmland. Financial blogs tell of hedge-fund managers cashing in their fortunes to become farmers. Commodity prices are soaring as tariffs fall and emerging markets snap up food and fiber. One example: India has lowered its tariff on pistachios from 30% to 10%, creating even more consumer demand.
Two years ago, famed investor Jim Rogers predicted an agricultural bonanza based on international food shortages lasting 20 to 30 years.
"Farmers are going to have the Lamborghinis, not the brokers on Wall Street," Rogers said.
Few people believed Rogers then, but they believe him now. Midwest corn growers feverishly are buying land and no longer need bank loans for fertilizer and fuel. They pay cash instead.
Here in the fertile San Joaquin Valley, prices for pistachios, almonds, walnuts, grapes and cotton are generating big profits.
Good for the farmers. It's nice to see someone doing well -- especially in the midst of a recession that has no end in sight.
But you have to wonder whether agriculture's meteoric comeback finally will prompt voters to think twice about hokum peddled by the Valley's congressional delegation.
For years, we've been told that the Valley would prosper if only the farmers finally got their water and the "radical environmentalists" let them grow their crops.
Now we're seeing that our representatives don't know squat about economics and charting a course out of chronic double-digit unemployment.
The farmers have their water and record profits. But the Central Valley remains one of the nation's most long-suffering areas.
How many times have we been told that jobs would return if farming could only be freed from shackles imposed by know-nothing environmentalists, judges and government bureaucracies?
I bet that Rep. Devin Nunes has uttered some version of this myth a thousand times during his nine years in office. Reps. Jim Costa, Dennis Cardoza and Jeff Denham don't deserve a pass, either. All have catered almost exclusively to agriculture throughout their political careers.
So I ask all of them: Where are the jobs?
Why isn't the entire Valley -- the most productive farm area in the world -- not sharing in the handsome bounty reaped by corporate and large family farms?
The answer is, farming has changed dramatically. It is more technological. There is less need for labor. Successful operators get bigger yields per acre. Here's something else: Much of the profit flows to corporate headquarters and investors outside of the Valley.
But the big farm operations and their political allies don't talk much about these facts. Instead, they continue to peddle the lie that the rise and fall of the Valley economy rests entirely on ag's shoulders. And when push comes to shove, they have no qualms about using the poor and unemployed as stage props in their political theater.
It's right for Nunes and others in Congress -- as well as the Valley's state representatives -- to fight for agriculture. But these officials have an obligation to represent the Valley's other citizens, too, and they're doing a miserable job.
Look at the unemployment numbers, poverty, blight and lack of access to decent medical care.
This is what farming wrought. Farming isn't going to cure our economy -- regardless of how high the profits soar.
THE COLUMNIST CAN BE REACHED AT BMCEWEN at FRESNOBEE.COM OR (559) 441-6632. LISTEN TO HIS TALK SHOW DAILY AT NOON ON KYNO (AM 940). FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER AT @FRESNOMAC.
 


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