wfn.org | Ripple effect of farm crisis spreads wide

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 22, 1999	News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.    10-24-71B{484}

By Cathy Farmer*

The emerging farm crisis is not limited to America's heartland.

Drive along any road in West Tennessee and Western Kentucky and you'll see
the results of the Class Three drought afflicting the region's farms. 

Dust boils in the wake of tractors crossing rock-hard fields. Cotton bolls,
small white puffs, are bursting open prematurely. The stunted soybeans have
no pods. Tobacco is burning up in the fields. There wasn't a corn crop at
all.

"We're hitting a point of despair," said Richard Jameson, a Haywood County
farmer speaking to United Methodist leaders, Sept. 15. "We'll probably lose
a lot of family farms this year. They'll have to sell the land to pay their
debts."

Jameson, fellow Haywood farmers French Richards and John Willis, and cotton
broker Jim Nunn were invited to the meet with Bishop Kenneth Carder, members
of the Memphis Conference cabinet and other leaders.

 "I hope the church becomes aware of the situation," said Willis. "I feel so
pessimistic. I believe a lot of people don't care if we have domestic
agriculture as long as they can go to the store and get food cheap. It
doesn't bother them that it's imported from Third World countries where they
use slave labor almost.

"Farming is protected in western Europe and Japan," he said. "They remember
what it was like to go hungry after World War II. But we don't have that
commitment. I believe it's as important to have domestic agriculture as it
is to have a military."

Jameson expressed concern that most Americans do not understand what is
about to happen. "After this harvest is in, we'll have tremendous need. Once
the work is done and we're not busy, when we can't pay the bills, it'll be
really tough. This disaster is taking a toll." 

Richards, who has been farming 46 years, said farmers are becoming an
endangered species. " It would shock you to realize how few are left. We've
been heading this way for a long time."

All the men agreed that farm income would be 60 percent less than last year.

"You're going to see a lot of blank faces in the pews," said Nunn, who
stressed that the crisis will not be limited to those doing the farming.
"Retired farmers, most on fixed incomes, will have no one left to work their
land.  Widows, dependent on rented land for a living, will have nothing
coming in.  Shopkeepers in farming communities will have no one to buy their
goods.  Banks won't be able to lend money to farmers who don't make a good
enough harvest to underwrite the loan. Loss of the farming dollar will have
a wide-reaching effect."

Roger Hopson, superintendent of Paris District, and other church leaders
acknowledged that when farmers suffer, the whole community is affected.
"It's critical," said Nunn, referring to the suicides he remembers from the
last drought. "We have to show people we love them and care for them."

The group discussed how the church could be of assistance during the next
few months and influence long-term systemic change in government
legislation.  

Short-term possibilities being considered include the training of pastors so
they can offer one-on-one counseling to farmers, a media blitz to inform
rural and urban congregations about the crisis. 

Long term, Carder envisions church pressure on Congress for change in farm
legislation and possible re-training of farmers who must find other jobs. 

# # #

*Farmer is director of communications for the Memphis Annual Conference of
the United Methodist Church. 

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