Single Sport Athletes ... err ... Farmers

Before we started the farm (and during the first year of farming) I was a head girls varsity soccer coach in our community. I loved soccer, coaching, and impacting students so it was a perfect fit for me. But, what it wasn't a perfect fit for was the farm and it seemed that just as soccer got busy the farm got busy so I knew that soccer had to end if I wanted to farm. But, if you have had any sort of involvement in high school sports over the past 10 years or so you have experienced or heard of the push towards single-sport focus. What I mean is that many students are moving away from playing four different seasons of sports and beginning to focus in on one sport and playing/practicing year-round.

It just too me about 30 seconds and a Google search for "single sport high school athletes" to come up with article after article talking about how it is detrimental to the athlete in so many ways. Here is one article and here is another. A few quotes really stood out to me ... "'A lot of parents are going to fast-track their kids,' Cuthbert says, 'and you've got to be careful about burning a kid out.'"

"Experts and may area high school coaches contend the one-sport emphasis is premature for an athlete who has yet to reach full physical and emotional maturity and has the ability and desire to play multiple sports." 

"A growing number of young athletes are focusing on playing a single sport, putting themselves at greater risk of serious injuries, physicians said." 

"Some parents believe that specialization can help their children becomes stars, earning a college scholarship or even a pro career." 

"The movement toward specialization may produce more successful athletes, but it also results in more injuries. More than 3.5 million children 14 and younger were treated for sports injuries in 2010, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. In contrast, 1.9 million were treated in 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control."

You can see there is quite a feeling that this specialization in sports for students is not a great idea. I tend to agree with that because of what I saw with the students I coached ... or the ones I didn't get to coach because they were "focused" on only one sport. But, this is far from a sports blog ... so what does it have to do with farming?

To put it simply I think much of agriculture (like American youth sports) is too fractured and specialized. Of course I could go on and on about how specialization in agriculture is something I don't care for, but that really isn't my current frustration. My current frustration stems from the news I heard on the way into town this morning ... the farm bill will have to wait until after the election.

Of course this is the same farm bill that I went to Washington D.C. to discuss two summers ago (I guess things take time). But, it really isn't the fact that we won't have one that frustrates me (I don't know enough about it). What really has me down is the fractured state of agriculture in the United States (or the world). As I listened to the radio and read a few news reports I found that not only was the legislation fractured along party lines, but also along farmer lines. Farmers are at times lined up fighting against other farmers!

While in D.C. I had one senators staffer tell me that all I wanted was the playing field tipped in my direction. That I wanted an advantage, "because that is what everyone wants". That made me angry ... it still makes me angry! I don't want an advantage ... I just want to be able to do my thing and I want to be able to look at things holistically ... not fractured and compartmentalized.

It seems if we continue down the fractured and specialized road we will just find ourselves with twice as many injuries each year ... you know ... like we are seeing in youth sports partially as a result of the "benefits" of specialization.

"Get Big or Get Out"

Yesterdays post on the current/impending crisis in the pork industry and how we got to this place made me want to read a little more about Earl Butz. (As an aside, according to a post on Allan Nation's blog pork prices could hit $10 cwt.) Since Americans don't spend a lot of time discussing Agriculture Secretaries in their high school history classes I didn't know much about Mr. Butz until I watched the "King Corn" documentary. In the movie the two guys went and visited him and talked about some of his policies that helped keep food costs low for the consumers. Even though the movie is about the over abundance of corn in our food, and Mr. Butz helped that along, they seemed to soften up as they talked with him because they could see what his intent was ... to a point.

Anyways, since I didn't know to much about Mr. Butz I did what any self-respecting twenty-something raised on computers would do ... I looked him up on Wikipedia! He served as the Secretary of Agriculture from 1971 - 1976 under Presidents Nixon and Ford and according to Wikipedia had a sometimes bumpy ride. It seems like he liked to run his mouth a little bit and that eventually caught up with him (he resigned a week after making some comments).

There are plenty of people out there that believe the ideas of Mr. Butz, "Get big or get out", "From fencerow to fencerow" farming, and his never ending encouragement for farmers to produce more and more have led to the obesity of America and more. I may not go so far as saying that today ... I'm no scientist ... but, he did make some radical changes in farm policy that are still with us and effecting us today.

I do agree with people who say that the policies of Mr. Butz did lead to the agri-corporations we have today, but for the sake of fairness and to present both sides of the story I will post this quote from an article by Sara Wyant of the "High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal":

For a lot of today's "Baby Boomers," President John F. Kennedy symbolized the hopes and dreams for those lucky enough to live in America in the early 1960s. A few years later, Earl Butz became a cabinet member and delivered a similar sense of promise and optimism for those wanting to make a living off of the land.

During his five years as agriculture secretary, net farm income more than doubled over the previous 10 years and farm exports tripled. He engineered a massive grain sale to the Soviets in 1972 and the Soviets essentially bought up the U.S. grain reserve.

Do any of you have any thoughts on Mr. Butz or his policies?

2008 Farm Bill Passes

Well, the 2008 Farm Bill was finally passed yesterday by the Senate 81-15 and in the House earlier with 318 yes votes. That means that there will be no veto from the President and a bill that was supposed to be done a couple years ago will finally be signed. But, is it a good farm bill? I have been trying to follow as much as I can, especially when there was talk of letting CRP acres out early, and have just a few thoughts after reading THIS ARTICLE from FoxNews.com. I would also be interested in hearing your thoughts on the new Farm Bill.

About two-thirds of the bill would pay for domestic nutrition programs such as food stamps and emergency food aid for the needy. An additional $40 billion is for farm subsidies, while almost $30 billion would go to farmers to idle their land and to other environmental programs.

-There is where the money is going. I guess I don't have too much to say about that one that wouldn't possibly get me in trouble so I will just throw it out for informational purposes. Although, I wish they would knock a few bucks off of that $30 billion for environmental programs and let me take my land out ... I feel like a properly managed grazing system would be better that just a bunch of scrub brush taking over a pasture.

But drastic cuts to subsidies were not possible, lawmakers said, because of the clout of Southern lawmakers who represent rice and cotton farms that are more expensive to run.

-Gotta keep everyone happy I guess, but the only way that we can get rid of subsidies is to slowly wean people off of them. Maybe next time...

"This bill has reform in it," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Could we have done more? Perhaps. But if we'd done more we wouldn't have gotten a bill."

-I love that quote ... "Could we have done more? Perhaps." Yep, sounds like a lot of thought about what is actually best was put into this bill.

The farm bill also would eliminate some federal payments to individuals with more than $750,000 in annual farm income — or married farmers who make more than $1.5 million.

-Government money for farmers who make $750,000. I realize we are addicted to cheap food and it is the subsidies that keeps stuff cheap, but at what point do we realize that it may be a little absurd?

There is a lot more stuff in the bill of course and you can read about some of it in the article, but these are just a few of the things that really stuck out to me. So, what do you think?