The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal said the original statement was available in the newspaper office; more than 200 stopped by to read it. support in the Midwest. In Iowa, bin-busting harvests gave rise to an explosion of massive concentrated-animal feedlot operations (CAFOs). He tells the farmers that they are the last bastion of patriotism and hard work, and that the food they grow will be the key to world peace during the next quarter century. As usual, the country dealers and farmers of Iowa got the short end of the stick, says former Iowa Senator Harold Hughes. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed him the 18th US. 0000044615 00000 n The problem was that most of the countrys grain production was in areas subject to severe winters and droughts. In order to profitably mass-produce convenience fare for a growing middle class, the food industry needed unchecked access to cheap inputs. 0000044154 00000 n 0000052925 00000 n He received a bachelor of science degree in agriculture in 1932, and then a doctorate in agricultural economics in 1937. As their desperation grew, farmers failed to practice sustainable farming methods, which exasperated the Dust Bowl. 0000010640 00000 n They know that when you punch in a woman's girdle in one place, it's going to pop out someplace else. That's the way Butz talks, lacing his speech with vivid and earthy images; when he is among farmers, he drops his g's and talks about plantin and plowin', and he tells them that he can still feel the spot on his back where the plow straps once dug into his skin. Although Butz publicly emphasizes that the United States cannot and should not use what he, at the same time, frankly calls agripower as a weapon, he is fond of noting that Rumanian Agriculture Minister Miculescu once told him: You've got a weapon more powerful than the atom bomb: you've got soybeans. Butz took two days off from chairing the Rome World Food Conference two years ago and went to Cairo with a little wheat in my pocket They had the red carpet out for me there. During the 60s, livestock, rather than people, became the main consumers of American grain. These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corporations, and the declining financial stability of the small family farm. 0000009419 00000 n High Agriculture Department officials began refusing to answer questions relating to grain sales to Russia and to Eastern European countries, saying sareastically that the diplomats had taken over. Earl Butz was Secretary of Agriculture. why was it used? I was a stubborn cuss, and I made some mistakes. The need for reformation has revealed no agricultural policies are sustainable for indefinite periods of time. Get big or get out, he routinely thundered. 0000059674 00000 n A Short History of Agricultural Adjustment, 1933-1975. National Agricultural Library Digital Collections. Butzs great policy change had given rise to the deepest rural crisis since the Depression. The successes and failures of each installation of land and agricultural policy emphasize the understated influence each wave of policy has extended over American welfare. Dr. Butz graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. 0000057943 00000 n As a result of the boom in exports of American grain, prices for grain shot up. It is possible, too, that domestic food prices would drop, although, because of the middleman factor, that is far from certain. Earl Butz, who was born 105 years ago today, was one of the worst US government officials ever.He was Secretary of Agriculture in the Cabinets of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. (The habit of stuffing the USDA with industry cronies has proven hard to break. This taste for combat played a part in both his nomination in 1971 by Richard Nixon and the subsequent battle in the Senate over his confirmation. accessLinx is a boutique multimedia production company that communicates your business's messgae with clarity and impact. Earl Butz While he was president, it was popular to be a Nixon hater. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); In addition to providing lifelong history lovers, teachers, and students free access to premier digital research, the editors and writers of U.S. History Scene are available for freelance or consulting work. We hit your inbox once a month and never abuse your personal information. Earl Lauer "Rusty"[1] Butz was a United States government official who served as Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Ulrike Butz. Now lets face it, they are. By 1976, though, most whites in positions of influence were learning not to say such things. 0000068736 00000 n 0000049389 00000 n Jenny Georgieva. Blocked by White House budget officials and by President Ford's uncompromising stance against further Government regulation of business, Butz tried to patch up the graininspection system by adding more Federal supervisors. %PDF-1.4 % Butz fanned their frenzy. It was a crude joke that turned Butz into a household word and punch line on Johnny Carson's ``Tonight'' show. Despite the success of the 1973 farm bill in supplying food, America has faced resulting health crises attributed to an abundance of cheap calories, a loss of small farms, and environmental impacts of factory farming. 0000009293 00000 n Throughout the Grain Belt, abandoned farmhouses were burned to the ground, cleared, and incorporated into ever-larger corn and soy fields. Earl Butz. Agriculture expanded early American cities and fostered a booming urban population. 0000062082 00000 n 0000004416 00000 n They are disturbed, too, by the continued exchange of top personnel between the department and the big grain companies. So do other prosperous farmers and the agribusiness complex of corporate fruit and vegetable raisers, food processors and distributors. 0000017516 00000 n Butz decided that America could sell them 10 million tons right away, then embargo further shipments but possibly resume them in September after the effects of this country's drought could he more accurately gauged. 0000071573 00000 n Naftali: Was it surprising to you when you were asked to come to Washington again to be in his Cabinet? QB&qGN(>[:#u*@uE(RMkc'-b!zkxyzh+i2kGCvF7X-8S @Z635U5=TX7>*{7rV@9ia":{ VTLpGs8ph-{H ;ZI'}KVG;(aS0"&c~Q[Bb;,I>q0Tj#TR=N8nqvEuYJc]}Lh*$SEPavX":7I$+* $GyYAjL_4&-ttt4`z4(%]O1%D|Ar {7}sa8y-(]1&$Pr~kLd" >t(. (In a priceless scene in the excellent recent documentary King Corn, the narrators visit the aged Butz at his Purdue perch. 0000011491 00000 n 16The average income of farmers, which doubled following the first farm bill, fell to late 1920s levels, and farmers returned to practices of overproduction to make ends meet. 0000014845 00000 n You are the most productive part of America! 0000056798 00000 n 0000011078 00000 n [12], News outlets revealed a racist remark he made in front of entertainers Pat Boone and Sonny Bono and former White House counsel John Dean while aboard a commercial flight to California following the 1976 Republican National Convention. He dismantled supply management policies, selling off government storage bins . 26 206 He's not on the side of farmers or consumers. Follow us on Many of the farmers themselves are beginning to agree with the criticisms. Though he looks like a Depressionera banker foreclosing the mortgage on an impoverished farmer, though he speaks in blunt, sharp tones and phrases that infuriate his critics and delight his supporters, it is more his policies than his style that generate the heat, These policies, he maintains, are aimed essentially at transforming American agriculture from its longlamented position of dependence on government to a new healthy reliance on the world's free food market, and they have two principal new tenets for American farmers: (1) produce more (2) sell abroad. 0000070129 00000 n Exports sustained high grain prices, leading the United States Department of Agriculture to describe the years between 1910 and 1914 as the golden age of farming. Then they made secret deals with the five biggest American grain companies for 24.2 million tons of grain worth almost $1.5 billion in 1972 dollars $7.6 billion in 2009 dollars. " Earl Butz 4. [2] He attended a one-room country school through eighth grade and graduated from high school in a class of seven. It later was shown that, with help from Continental officials, Palmby was making arrangements for establishing his residence in New York, where Continental's headquarters is, even before he went to Russia. The Agriculture Department is estimating that grain production will roach 255 million tons, 13 million more than last year's. [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. Butz . In public he seemed to be formal, but person-to-person, he was like any of the rest of us. 0000009377 00000 n 0000054094 00000 n Ronald Reagan notes his continued popularity arming many farmers and frequently praises him in his Midwest campaign speeches. 0000061873 00000 n 0000060715 00000 n Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. 2023 U.S. History Scene, all rights reserved. He wouldn't embarrass a Cabinet member. [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. BJW -WYFW(.V*(T[)&(?`".\xc;; [16], The reference in Time was to John Dean's article published in Rolling Stone issue #223. This program had unsuccessfully attempted to prevent a national oversupply of corn and low corn prices. We think alike. 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. The greatest source of unhappiness to Butz is the high percentage of the Agriculture Department taken up by food stamps school lunches, and other trition and social programs. 0000042749 00000 n ), The feisty Earl Butz is now being drawn into Presidentialcampaign warfate as he was in 1972, when ??? 0000064407 00000 n Butz was not one of the smarter ones. Butz was assistant secretary of agriculture from 1954 to 1957, during the Eisenhower administration. 0000008094 00000 n Here's How. 0000071060 00000 n HV6}W\]l]E6 T@>m3D;6d6}X"9s/~=[*W/2*" ss(vKr>WuPaX@Y6%PWAyR +u] ?`]_E(,a(i 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. The Butz farm policy is one that involves risk. 0000070292 00000 n Export sales, currently running at about $22 billion a year, have almost doubled. 0000049967 00000 n 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. The policy of "get big or get out" and the advancement of industrial agriculture through the displacement of small farmers was a deliberate attempt to consolidate power in the hands of a select few agribusinessmen and politicians. After the Great Depression which featured the stunning confluence of huge grain surpluses, widespread hunger, and a tide of farm failures the Roosevelt Administration put in place mechanisms to help farmers manage supply.. What policy did Earl Butz promote in 1973? 0000051337 00000 n [25] In this debate he defended what he saw as the achievements of an industrial agriculture that was replacing the longstanding structure of small family farms and rural communities. 0000043664 00000 n Yet Earl Lauer Butz is often referred to these days as the greatest Secretary of Agriculture in the history of the Republic. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Homestead.html, The Library of Congress. Nixons Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz favored increased agricultural exports, and allowed the grain trading companies to continue to receive subsidies on the price and transportation of the Russian grain stocks to seaports. One Iowa land excavator told the Journal that farmers are trying to squeeze everything they can out of their land. 0000072272 00000 n You could no longer assume your fellow whites would protect you for telling a joke insulting to blacks, and you could no longer assume your fellow blacks would protect you for telling a joke insulting to Jews. 0000045535 00000 n 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. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Butz as Secretary of Agriculture,[4] a position in which he continued to serve after Nixon resigned in 1974 as the result of the Watergate scandal. How does corn get in your hair King corn? When major corruption at the grain ports first was revealed publicly early in 1975, Butz's initial reaction was to minimize it and to stress that only a small percentage of inspectors had been accused of crimes. Rather than use federal policy as a check on farm output, Butz saw it as a lever to maximize output. [4] They were married on December 22, 1937. A side goal was to go easy on the land. Argued Nov. 7, 1977. . At that time, the Russian grain purchase of 1972 was the largest grain deal between two nations in history, and it set in motion a host of changes that would dominate agricultural history for at least the next two decades. 0000041732 00000 n In the summer of 1972, the Soviets shook up the grain market when it hid from the world the fact that their grain harvest was in trouble. During his leadership from 1964 to 1982, Premier Leonid Brezhnev made it official Soviet policy to maintain steady growth in the livestock industry. in Agriculture in 1932 with a major in animal husbandry. 0000011887 00000 n 76-709. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. 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. Under which American president did the deregulation of the food industry coincide with the growth of agribusiness and in particular big corn? Dr. Earl L. Butz, educator, administrator, and government official was born on July 3, 1909 to Harmon Lee Butz and Ada Tillie Lower in Albion, Indiana. When the conversation turned to politics, Boone, a right-wing Republican, asked Butz why the party of Lincoln was not able to attract more blacks. Let Them Eat Ketchup In, Roberts, Paul. That same year, he was also named chairman of the United States delegation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. For Butz and his agribusiness cronies, the program amounted to socialism an intolerable check on farmers ability to plant and harvest as much as possible. Later, as technological innovations increased crop yields and international demand declined, policy curtailed production to regulate supply and demand. 1973 Farm Bill - Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act [As Amended Through P.L. Dont worry about overproduction, Butz told farmers on trips through the Midwest. At one time, he headed the Purdue Department of Agriculture. Eighteenth and nineteenth territorial expansion had tragic consequences for displaced Native American populations, and many still face the ramifications of mass removal. But over the years not unlike his political patron, Nixon he returned to respectability. 0000012251 00000 n After Butzwell, the jokes about gays limped along for awhile, but it finally sank in that racism and anti-Semitism would seldom be tolerated, even in private. . Butz should be praying for drought right now, says one observer. Earl Butz, who died on Saturday aged 98, served as US Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and courted scandal by telling offensive jokes; he was eventually . 0000056400 00000 n A partial bibliography of sources is here. An increasingly consolidated meat industry learned to transform cheap grain into cheap but highly profitable burgers, chops, and chicken nuggets. Jesse Jackson learned the latter lesson in 1984 when a black reporter for the Washington Post passed along to another reporter the news that hed heard Jackson refer to Jews in private as Hymie, and refer to New York City as Hymietown.. He went on a speaking tour and encouraged farmers to plant fence row to fence row to meet global demand. Friedrich Nietzsche. When prices threatened to go too high, the payments would end and the land would go back into cultivation. 10.How . 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. 25 The rise of factory farms that grew specialized crops subsidized by the government presented environmental troubles as well. 0000071933 00000 n 0000064144 00000 n 0000050525 00000 n 0000007858 00000 n 0000070881 00000 n 0000062275 00000 n 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. 0000055231 00000 n Butz has been saved twice, by dry weather and by the Russians, said Representative Neal Smith, a Democrat from Iowa, referring to droughts in the American corn belt in 1974 and 1975 and to Soviet purchases of 16.5 million tons of grain from last year's crop and 2.2 million tons from the 1976 harvest. Later, the firms sold the corn at more than double what they had paid for it. Nevertheless, he was confirmed in the Senate by a close vote of 51 to 44. Reader support helps sustain our work. A reflection on the lasting legacy of 1970s USDA Secretary Earl Butz Industrial agriculture lost one of its greatest champions last week: Earl "Rusty" Butz, secretary of the USDA under. Earl L. Butz, the outspoken U.S. Agriculture secretary forced from office in 1976 for making a racist joke, died Saturday morning. Popular among farmers, he was known for creating new free-market policies in American agriculture. Current agricultural policy has proved this as well, as America can no longer sustain the health and environmental implications of subsidy fueled factory farms.