Sean Dengler.

For a person who is not actively farming, I spend a lot of my time thinking about agriculture. One question which has puzzled me is how farmers are expected to have a second job. What other profession has this expectation? No one tells a doctor, lawyer, or HR person, they need another job to sustain their business. Being a farmer is just as honorable. It appears it is active policy to reduce the number of farmers or tell them to find another job and to lose their independence.

As each generation has arrived, less farmers are staying on the land, and less people are staying in rural communities. While no one expects a rebirth of farmers, the devaluation of the farmer is a problem. Having independent farmers and a system meant to reward the masses and not the few is important. In addition to farmers, labor has been devalued in American manufacturing, the gap between productivity and a typical worker’s compensation increasingly growing since 1979, and the focus is on the stock market only going up. Investing in people and reinvesting in American capacity to grow and build stuff is not happening leading to a devaluation of human labor.

At its core, to be a farmer is to be a laborer. Before the machines, it was all muscle whether dealing with livestock or crops. Old farmers still show the physical wear and tear. While technology has helped reduce the physicalness in some capacity, farmers and rural communities have not shared in this “progress.” The “advancements” which increase wealth go to fewer individuals. Instead of five farmers owning a combine, one big-time operator can own five combines while putting thousands of acres under one roof.

While “efficient,” this condition is only met is this exact, predictable system. Everyone knows farming is not predictable. While smaller, diversified operations can better brace for headwinds in the different markets at various times, a specialized operation is more fragile when tough times hit their specific markets. The unfortunate part is these specialized operations are like the banks during the Great Recession when they become too big to fail. They see more government help in tough times which further perpetuates and makes the system more fragile.

Labor is devalued while the benefits of this devaluation leave these agricultural communities. Consolidation ensues with farms, medical clinics, the Catholic church, schools, and other institutions and businesses. This consolidation also results in the middlemen in agriculture gaining more power. Despite being broken up in the early 1900s, meatpackers regained their market power. Taking what used to be an open market and using their power to force farmers to participate on the meatpackers’ terms. With seed breeding, which were once led by public entities like universities, under the control of global seed companies, this leads to private companies, mainly two, using patents to control and extract wealth for one of the most valuable parts of human existence to grow the two major Iowa crops.

The labor it took for a farmer to raise quality livestock and breed or save seed to grow the best crops has been taken from their control. Not trusting the masses but only the few to decide how agriculture will be run has resulted in concentrated industries guiding the “free market” by influencing government policies. The farmer knowledge of being on the land and knowing how each crevice of the owned property works best is devalued in addition to the labor.

The devaluation of farmer labor results in negative impacts on water quality, the hollowing out of rural areas, and further consolidation. This happens while these private entities secure the profits while socializing these external costs onto the public. For those who won the ovarian lottery, the fight against the devaluation of labor is slightly easier. For those true beginning farmers, there is an even harder uphill climb to make value out of their labor. Either way, the value of a scrappy, young farmer trying to make it becomes harder each day until society determines farmers need to be valued again for the sake of the economy and democracy.

Sean Dengler is a writer, comedian, now-retired beginning farmer, and host of the Pandaring Talk podcast who grew up on a farm between Traer and Dysart. You can reach him at sean.h.dengler@gmail.com.