Letter - American farmers work around the clock

Talk about it

To the editor:

In response to the letter February 10 by Alan Roebke, he stated that our district’s farmers are the “financial elite” and that “even with record income over the last four years, still receive annual government subsidy checks, plus an even bigger perk of subsidized crop insurance.” As a small farmer in Douglas County, I am incredibly frustrated by his remarks.

This nation’s farm economy is huge and complex. One cannot make blanket statements with any accuracy. The 2009 crop year was a near disaster from the Dakotas to Kentucky and east to Ohio. The yields were good, but the expense of harvesting wet crops and drying for storage or for sale were exorbitant. And we have no assurance those stored grains will remain in salable condition, due to mold.

How Mr. Roebke can say that farmers have had record income the last four years is beyond me. Inputs continue to skyrocket and our now global economy has prices on a roller coaster that no one can predict with any consistent accuracy.

As for subsidized crop insurance premiums, that insurance adds $22 per acre to our expense column. Even if weather conditions led to harvest yields that failed to cover input costs, the insurance still may not pay out. Three of the last four years we have had poor crops due to weather conditions and we have never collected an insurance payment.

American farmers feed the world, Mr. Roebke. Next time you load up your shopping cart, perhaps you could think about where the delicious, abundant food supply comes from. Most people don’t hear much about the food supply in this country. That’s because America’s farmers are working around the clock and behind the scenes to get that food to your plate.

Karen Schultz

Garfield, MN

Tags: opinion, letters, schultz