Good evening District 27. Yesterday I shared with you photos of the farm that I grew up on. Today I share with you two photos of all that remains from the farm: an original rhubarb plant from the garden and a purple Clematis Vine Flowers that my mom grew on the south side of the house. I transplanted both of these plants at my home here in Martin after my mom moved off the farm. They are still thriving after many years. I am thankful that I have them because they are a subtle reminder of my roots and days gone by. I share these photos with you as a preview of what eventually occurred on the farm over a Thanksgiving weekend on November 25, 2017.
After my dad died in June 2004, neither my siblings nor I had any interest in farming the ground that my mom and dad had rented for over forty years. My mom chose to stay on the farm for an additional four years until she realized after having to make an emergency trip to the ER that she could no longer stay on the farm by herself, especially during the winter months. My mother would rely on a local neighbor to help her get the driveway snow plowed which was probably a ½ mile in distance or longer. Moreover, at this point in time, the home place was steadily being taken over by undesirable thistles and weeds. The fencing all along the hog yards that we had taken care of was starting to fall apart and the cow and sow barns were starting to show their age and fall into disrepair. The landlord had rented out the land to a local farmer who wanted nothing more than to farm the ground and was not interested in maintaining the outbuildings that were taken care of by my dad and all of us kids. It was depressing for my mother to watch the farmstead fall apart right before her very eyes. To this day, she says, “I don’t miss it,” but I know if my dad was still alive today, they would be living there still.
Once my mom got settled into town, the home place was rented out to a local family, but the place was eventually sold after the landlord passed away in February 2013. Once the farmstead was sold, the new owners took possession of the acreage and completely removed all the outbuildings and burned down the 100+ year old barn and log home.
You can watch video footage of the home and old barn being burned to the ground here on these shared YouTube videos that my older brother made:
The demolition and removal of the home, outbuildings, cow barn, silo, grain bins, shelter belt, as well as the old wagon train wheel indentation marks in our meadow that were left behind from a century ago, disappeared from the face of the earth. The burning down of the farm to make room for a well and central irrigation pivot is a precursor of things to come and is currently happening all across our country, including here in South Dakota. With technological advancements, family farms are steadily being swallowed up by large corporations and growing larger. According to the US Department of Agriculture,
“The number of farms in the United States has fallen below 2 million for the first time since before the Civil War…In 2022, there were 1,900,487 farms in the country, a 7-percent decline from the level reported in the 2017 Census…The latest Census also reported that the total U.S. land in farms declined 2.2 percent to 880 million acres in 2022. This decline, when combined with the higher proportional decline in the number of farms, meant that the average farm size increased by 5 percent to 463 acres per farm” (1).
I have included a USDA informational graphic supporting this latest trend.
If these trend lines continue, which there is reason to believe that they will, then where does that leave us as a country or state? How will swallowing up Ag land by big corporations and private investors affect our domestic food supply? Will our state and federal government protect our interests from foreign entities purchasing our prime Ag land? Once the foreign nationals and big corporations own the land and the food supply, they then own you. Maintaining possession of our own Ag land is in the best interest of our national security. Moreover, maintaining control of our farms and ranches at the local level supports our rural communities who are dependent on our farmers and ranchers.
I recall hearing a story not too long ago of a farmer in South Central South Dakota who was offered top dollars for his farmland by an out-of-state investor. Thankfully, this local farmer had turned down the offer because in his words, “I want my children and grandchildren to be able to afford to farm in this community.” I couldn’t agree more and leads me to the point of this posting.
We are at a crossroads in this country and in our state and need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the question: Do we want to sell out to big corporate farms, special interests, and land speculators for top dollar, causing our land values to skyrocket across this state making it impossible for our children and grandchildren to attain ownership of farm and ranchland? The days of a young 20-something couple wanting to get into farming and ranching are over. Either one has to win the lottery or inherit the land from their parents and grandparents to have a family farm. This is a concern of mine and I will make it a priority if elected your state senator. I recognize that in a free market economy, farmers and ranchers can sell to whomever they wish. That is their right; however, with these rights come the long-term consequences of our actions.
As I have posted previously, my dad said, “Farming is going to change in the next 25 years,” and it has. He was “over the bull's eye” when predicting this outcome. Farms have steadily increased in size while the number of Ag producers has decreased in number. As a son of former sharecroppers, I admit that farming is not for the faint of heart, but the quality of life was far beyond what I had imagined based on what I observe today. Growing up on the farm taught my siblings and me to be resilient and resourceful. Growing up on the farm taught us the value of hard work and the critical nature of each season for our survival. It also taught us how one’s faith in God can easily be challenged in moments of adversity, especially after a hailstorm wipes out your entire oats or corn crop for the year. The point of this posting is if I am elected to be your state senator, I will do what I can to support our local farmers and ranchers. I will fight to preserve our prime Ag land from being swallowed by foreign corporations, special interests, and land speculators who want nothing more than to gain control of the food supply. As a result, I desire to promote and support legislation that preserves and maintains our farm and ranchland under local control. For example, I will be voting "NO" on Referred Law 21 this November. South Dakota may be open for business, but we are not for sale when it comes to special interests wanting to use eminent domain to construct a carbon pipeline across prime Ag land and circumvent local control. The current "Landowner's Bill of Rights Law" (formerly SB 201) was designed to favor out-of-state special interests and is deceptive as to how it was written which I will discuss at a later time.
In closing, together, we will preserve those values that made our country and state great. Your vote this November is a part of the great American comeback story where we can make America and the State of South Dakota the greatest place to raise a family and to preserve the American values that we so love and cherish from days that have gone before us. God bless.
Source:
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=108629 (Retrieved July 30, 2024).
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