A Congressman's View

Better Understanding Needed Between Rural and Urban America

Abstract

Never has agriculture received such sustained front page coverage and attention as it has for the past two years. Taxicab drivers in New York City are worried about the new corn crop estimates and consumers ex-press concern over feedlot replacements. Many who before didn't care what went on beyond their front yard now express interest in the weather conditions in Iowa and levels of grain exports abroad.

With hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain in storage and millions of acres of land kept out of production, there was little need for the average consumer to be too concerned about future food needs. As long as the farmers' costs of production went up and it wasn't passed on to the consumer, no one was too interested in the farmer.