Earl Butz stayed on as Secretary of Agriculture after Nixon was impeached and engineered legislation sharply reducing federal subsidies for farmers. 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. Our productive capacity so far exceeds our capacity to consume, he says, that we couldn't even eat all the wheat we grow if it were free. But increasing U. S. exports has taken a certain wheeling and dealing. [citation needed], For example, he abolished a program that paid corn farmers to not plant all their land. Butz started by telling a dirty joke involving intercourse between a dog and a skunk. Butz tells farmers that consumers are mad at them because of high retail food prices. By killing the supply management program, Butz would open a floodgate of cheap inputs from farms to food factories. Earl Butz: Father of the Modern Food Subsidy System. The smarter ones were even learning, albeit more slowly, not to believe such things. To read Franklin D. Roosevelts Statement on Signing the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, click here. 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. 0000062543 00000 n They werent a secret at the time of Butzs firing; Time magazine reported them, albeit with some dashes substituting for letters in the dirtiest words, in full. 0000064563 00000 n It was during this time that she first came into contact with drugs. The McGovern US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs releases its Dietary Goals for the United States. At one time, he headed the Purdue Department of Agriculture. Yet his legacy still thrives, and will not likely die as gently as the man. 0000067244 00000 n 0000008903 00000 n Pros Of Corn Subsidy. Throughout the Grain Belt, abandoned farmhouses were burned to the ground, cleared, and incorporated into ever-larger corn and soy fields. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. And during his tenure he has played a leading policy role in the decisions which sent a disproportionate share of FoodforPeace aid to rightwing governments, including those of South Korea, South VietCambodia and Chile. 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. In order to profitably mass-produce convenience fare for a growing middle class, the food industry needed unchecked access to cheap inputs. 0000063920 00000 n Ulrike Butz, daughter of television presenter Hermann Butz, grew up in the Bavarian district of Miesbach. It took a while to convert President Ford and Butz's remarks about that are revealing of the manner of this man who has become the nation's top agriculture policy maker: I told the President that a year ago we had the whole Midwest in the palm of our hand and we piddled it away with interference with grain exports. I was speaking the language of food and they understood.. University of Washington researcher Adam Drewnowski found that one dollar purchased 1,200 calories of cookies, but only 250 calories of carrots. 0000009419 00000 n On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Nixon plucked Butz out of Purdues agriculture department and planted him in the USDA in 1971. Butz says he was notand is notan enemy of the family farm; he is against the inefficient family farm. He plunged a pitchfork into New Deal agricultural policies that sought to protect farmers from the big agribusiness companies whose interests he openly pushed. 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 . Earl L. Butz was born on July 3, 1909 in Albion, Indiana, USA. One Iowa land excavator told the Journal that farmers are trying to squeeze everything they can out of their land. 0000058194 00000 n We believe in our ability to come together to shape the future through policy change. 0000018253 00000 n Left unregulated, agricultural policy has proved to be as catastrophic as well as instrumental culturally, economically, and environmentally. Has there ever been a female US Secretary of Agriculture? He was 98. How did Earl Buts (secretary of Ag) change the farm policy in 1973? Harvest failures came repeatedly and were usually severe. 19Dubbed the Great Grain Robbery, food prices in America soared. "Get big or get out," Butz told farmers in 1973, and boy, did they. But the man likes confrontation, and uses it to disarm his critics. 0000009251 00000 n 0000042932 00000 n Here's How. Earl L. ButzEarl L. Butz, who orchestrated a major change in federal farm policy as secretary of agriculture during the 1970s but came to be remembered more for a vulgar racial comment that brought about his resignation during the 1976 presidential election race, died Saturday in Washington. 0000048080 00000 n Land Ordinance of 1785. Stanford University. 8 Due to government assistance, American farmers experienced continued success during and immediately following World War I. 0000045147 00000 n Current agricultural policy has proved this as well, as America can no longer sustain the health and environmental implications of subsidy fueled factory farms. He wouldn't embarrass a Cabinet member. 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. 10.How . His policies favored large-scale corporate farming and an end to New Deal programs. 0000056620 00000 n Five years later, he received Purdue's first doctorate in . . So he dangled the promise of foreign trade as a panacea. 0000029636 00000 n 0000068371 00000 n But Butz's good luck, if it is that, may be running out, because of the lush, recordshattering crop growing in the Midwest. "[11] A spokesman for Cardinal Cooke of the New York archdiocese demanded an apology, and the White House[11] requested that he apologize. An increasingly consolidated meat industry learned to transform cheap grain into cheap but highly profitable burgers, chops, and chicken nuggets. 0000069741 00000 n 0000009167 00000 n The October 18, 1976, issue of Time reported the comment while obscuring its vulgarity:[13]. Butz, who once called Richard Nixon one of the greatest Americans of this century. now says he has very good rapport with Gerald Ford. 0000050347 00000 n 0000049595 00000 n 0000057693 00000 n 0000052562 00000 n The analysis presented in that case cannot be limited to . This became evident during the Great Depression through the need to move away from expansion policy, and later in the 1970s when Nixon and Butz sought to reduce food prices. Describe that change. 2027, 36 L.Ed.2d 912 (1973). naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87210025/PDF, Bittman, Mark, Dont End Agricultural Subsidies, Fix Them., United States v. Butler. Legal Information Institute. 0000045878 00000 n 12The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, like the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923, sought to resolve low prices through the distribution of loans, but similarly failed to regulate supply and demand. But the Times description of Butzs two fatal wisecracks, like the APs, eschewed direct quotation. 0000068943 00000 n 0000004416 00000 n The Butz farm policy is one that involves risk. a. the average reproductive rates equal the average death rates. Some world food organizations are concerned, not only because of American fuzziness at Rome but also because of the tendency of the United States to sign longterm supply agreements with people who pay cash for grain. He took his first federal post, as assistant agriculture secretary under President Dwight Eisenhower, serving 1954 to 1957. First, Butz was called a disciple of Ezra Benson, who, under Eisenhower, had presided over huge grain surpluses, low farm prices and the start of the great exodus from American farms. That same year, he was also named chairman of the United States delegation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [19] The quotation was among the inspirations behind the comedy film Loose Shoes, particularly the sketch "Dark Town After Dark", made in 1977 but released in 1980. A partial bibliography of sources is here. Earl Butz (1909-2008) American government official (1909-2008) - Earl Butz was born in Albion (town in Noble County, Indiana, USA) on July 3rd, 1909 and died in Washington, D.C. (capital city of the United States) on February 2nd, 2008 at the age of 98. Dr. Butz graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. Butz drastically changed federal agricultural policy and re-engineered many New Deal-era farm support . The outrage over Butzs joke was, of course, entirely appropriate. D. in agricultural economics (1937) from Purdue University. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. 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. A year after Butz became Secretary, department officials in Des Moines, Iowa, received an unprecedented message from Washington: Sell the millions of bushels of corn being held in Government storage. With his closely cropped gray hair and self-assured drawl, Earl Butz was the spitting image of a Southern patrician. [16], The reference in Time was to John Dean's article published in Rolling Stone issue #223. In public he seemed to be formal, but person-to-person, he was like any of the rest of us. 1973 Farm Bill - Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act [As Amended Through P.L. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. His technique, Foreman says, is to pose as friend of the farmer and try to pit him against consumers. The obituaries for Earl Butz who went to his reward Feb. 2 at the enviable age of 98all note that he will be remembered less for his accomplishments as Agriculture secretary under Presidents. Facebook, Follow us on [citation needed] His mantra to farmers was "get big or get out",[7][8] and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops such as corn "from fencerow to fencerow". For a few years, those actions seemed like a good business decision. [Update, Feb. 5: A reader informs me, as kindly as he can manage, that I read too muchsubtle wit intoButzs wisecrack about the pope. Days after Butz died, the Wall Street Journal reported, In the U.S., farmers are razing old barns, ripping up sod and grassland, and uprooting fences some in a routine attempt to improve land, others in an effort to make room for the grain boom.. 0000009293 00000 n He's not on the side of farmers or consumers. Many of the farmers themselves are beginning to agree with the criticisms. Butz resigned his cabinet post on October 4, 1976. A number of those present had represented their countries during the famous 1974 World Food Security Summit (Rome) where Butz had led the US delegation. 0000053132 00000 n 0000060947 00000 n The program went from limited and controlled by the government to expansion, so more food could be produced. 0000014845 00000 n At his death, Butz was the oldest living former Cabinet member from any administration.[30][31]. There was some question whether or not Butz realized that the Soviets were buying up one quarter of the entire U.S. wheat crop, but he did nothing to stop the sale despite the fact that it eventually raised food prices. If you look back at what got us into the foodprice mess, the biggest single factor was the 1972 grain sales, and that was Earl Butz's baby, says Carol Foreman, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. 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. 0000058679 00000 n . 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's a spokesman for the big corporate farmers, for the food processors and for the grocery people. Butz said to be furious, but took no steps to stop such shifting. 0000068003 00000 n He died in his sleep, a quiet end for a man whose career shook the earth, causing untold acres to succumb to the plow. x|kQO$c*M3Sj Donate today to keep our climate news free. 0000071933 00000 n 0000059437 00000 n YouTube. They are disturbed, too, by the continued exchange of top personnel between the department and the big grain companies. We hit your inbox once a month and never abuse your personal information. 0000059164 00000 n 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]. As usual, the country dealers and farmers of Iowa got the short end of the stick, says former Iowa Senator Harold Hughes. Butz's critics also noted that he was a director of three large agribusiness corporations. Providing a grand example of how his vision might work, Butz engineered a massive grain sale to the Soviets in 1972. 0000047333 00000 n Following World War I, the government revoked wartime price supports and the European market simultaneously recovered, causing agricultural exports to decline by 20% and grain prices to plummet. 0000018904 00000 n 0000066173 00000 n He was the eldest of five children and worked on his parents' 160-acre (65ha) farm while growing up. The need for reformation has revealed no agricultural policies are sustainable for indefinite periods of time. 0000055445 00000 n 0000054094 00000 n He died on February 2, 2008 in West Lafayette, Indiana. 0000017516 00000 n Butz and the department hierarchy appear equally unconcerned over the plight of Southern poultry farmers, who have in effect become employees of the large feed processing companies. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. [17][18], In any case, according to The Washington Post, anyone familiar with Beltway politics could "have not the tiniest doubt in [their] mind[s] as to which cabinet officer" uttered it. Farm costs, per unit of production, then would rise. You are the peacemakers! Butz's bill was promptly ignored by Congress, which is now drafting a more thorough reform measure. 0000022228 00000 n Twitter, Follow us on Follow us on document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Industrial agriculture lost one of its greatest champions last week: Earl Rusty Butz, secretary of the USDA under Nixon. It reduces the need to rely on other countries for corn production. 0000053560 00000 n 0000047725 00000 n Documents From the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 . American Memory from the Library of Congress . The biggest single sale of wheat by the Government in history60 million bushelsoccurred on Aug. 31, 1972, to Continental Grain Company, one of the firms deal. 0000013599 00000 n Policy makes politics. 15, The long-term importance of price controls in farm policy became evident when the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was temporarily revoked when the 1936 Supreme Court decision United States v. Butler ruled the act unconstitutional. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture in 1932, and then a doctorate in Agricultural Economics in 1937. A Short History of Agricultural Adjustment, 1933-1975. National Agricultural Library Digital Collections. Butz had a similar view, "Get big or get out." Butz believed farm consolidation was inevitable. Those farmers were early believers. Jenny Georgieva. 0000061409 00000 n . 0000058905 00000 n A side goal was to go easy on the land. Wallace would have seen these as the glory of his department.. Butz and . 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. Earl L. Butz, the outspoken U.S. Agriculture secretary forced from office in 1976 for making a racist joke, died Saturday morning. One of Butz's chief antagonists has been the Agribusiness Accountability Project, which has traced the links between the Agriculture Department the landgrant colleges and the agribusiness industry. In the 1970s, changing diets worldwide, bad weather in Russia, and U.S. government policies combined to create a boom in rural America. In terms of 2009 dollars, corn reached the equivalent of over $15 in 1973.Overall farm income jumped along with grain prices, from $2.3 billion in 1972 to $19.6 billion in 73. 10Despite a surplus of agricultural commodities, farmers increased production to compensate for low prices, worsening the imbalance of supply and demand and further devaluing their crops. 0000047891 00000 n 76-709. 28 0 obj<>stream Earl Butz has, in other words, clearly become the country's most controversial Agriculture Secretary since Ezra Taft Benson, and, after his recent behindthescenes struggle with Henry Kissinger, he has probably also emerged as the most powerful in history as well. 0000061644 00000 n In 1932, at the Federal Farm Boards urging, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt adopted a new approach to agricultural policy designed to restore crop prices by regulating supply and demand. But over the years not unlike his political patron, Nixon he returned to respectability. 0000058450 00000 n Philpott describes farm policy from the 1930s until Butz as a sort of Nirvana for both farmers and consumers, as it paid farmers not to farm and kept corn prices high. 0000029707 00000 n During the 60s, livestock, rather than people, became the main consumers of American grain. He then returned to Purdue and was dean of the School of Agriculture for the next 10 years.. 0000043291 00000 n Butz took over the Department of Agriculture during the most recent period in American history that food prices climbed high enough to generate political heat. Notand is notan enemy of the Modern food Subsidy System 2, 2008 in west Lafayette,,. Of top personnel between the department and planted him in the Bavarian district of Miesbach title. Themselves are beginning to agree with the criticisms easy on the land dangled... 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