NFO 156 (AV10654): Who Is NFO?

[music] the national farmers organization the organization that awoke America and represents the leadership of agriculture presents us farm report a public information program brought to you in the interest of agriculture rural business and the well-being of our nation the national farmers organization a pioneer of collective bargaining the market system to meet the needs of the 20th century presents who is the National Farmers Organization your moderator is Ivan Struzynski welcome to us farm report while the world has been catapulted into the space age today it is very important that you listen to this program because this program will be affecting everyone we will be talking about food specifically we will be visiting with the people that produce this food I'm sure that this will be a very interesting program we'll be talking about milk we will be talking about grain we'll be talking about meat well the National Farmers Organization program and philosophy can enlarged to other products the principles remain the same we feel that there is a great misunderstanding in other words there are a lot of muddy waters in respect to the terms that the good people in the National Farmers Organization are using and we hope that as a result of this program you will have a better understanding of us and the people that bring you the good food that you enjoy every day we have with us today three people from Eastern Iowa they are leading farmers in their professions and certainly farming is a profession we do provide the nation with a great abundance of food and fiber we have with us today mr. Richard Schaffer who farms in Linn County we have mr. Orrin James who farms in Benton County and we have a farmer's wife who I might say in all sense of the word is a farmer mrs. Louella Berstler from Iowa county we will be visiting with these people today in the spirit that as a result of these discussions you will have a clear understanding of who is the NFO well this is a broad subject and I'm sure that many of you are hearing about collective bargaining for agriculture these are the people that are doing things about collective bargaining for agriculture without further ado we'll visit with Dick Shaffer who is known to all his friends in the NFO better as Dick Dick what type of farming operation you have well Ivan I found 320 acres here in Linn County Iowa it's all tillable ground we raise corn oats hay feed a few cattle raise a few hogs got a heard of dairy cows milk 20-24 cows even got a few chickens around the place just for our own eggs and oh market a little cream and basically this is about dollars they have 180 acres of corn in this year and corns gonna do probably 100 bushels per acre price is terrible but we really got a good crop of it anyhow fine dick would you tell us a little bit about why you feel that the American farmer needs collective bargaining for agriculture under the national farmers organization program well Ivan I believe that we should have or do have a basic right we've never we never have had it and this is the right or the freedom whichever one you want to call it to price our product and this is what we're after in the national farmers organization this is why I joined the organization because I want it gained this right for myself and for my children I hope we can set up an organization that will give brand children if they're going to produce farm commodities a method or means by which they can price the fruits of their labor we manufacture farm products let's place them this is why I joined then in other words its business definitely we're in business just as much as a company General Motors Ford Company General Electric Westinghouse don't mean to name any particular company but we have a business and we we manufacture a product we're the ones that knows or should know what the costs are we know that we need a little property to stay in business to handle actually it should be the farmers responsibility to price the production of his farm we've never done this we've always let somebody else do it for us we've never accepted this responsibility we need to accept it in this day and age now this sounds as a sound program to me dick would you go into a little bit more of a description of some of the terms that we have come to know in the national farmers organization as our terminology in other words we just use these words assuming that everyone understands them would you like to expand on some of these things Dick you mean I even like the holding action and marketing rate limits and so on well I haven't I think this has been a basic misunderstanding of a lot of people generally were talking about wanting to well as I said a little bit ago we want a price or production now generally in the situation we're in today we need to raise these prices what are the some of the tools you do this with I think the thing in my mind that a lot of people don't understand is that we have a lot more tools that we use besides the holding edge in a lot of people's mind I believe and this is is totally wrong the holding action is our only effort at raising prices I made up a little chart here Ivan and I like to go to that the present time and you know this pricing of farm products and this business that we're in is kind of like a little game we're going on one team and you've got another team that's your opposition this is the same in agriculture as it wouldn't be in any other business but let's say that this is kind of like a football field here I've grown out of a picture of a football field here I hope you people can all see this but up here there goal line should make some pictures of goalposts up here but our goal is marketing contracts for cost of production cluster reasonable profit now how do we get to this well here are some of the ways we get to this holding action this is one of our players on the field marketing arrangement this is another player player on our field on our team store whole program in dairy product this is another player baby to program this is another player there Grain Bank another player this is in the grain harvest sales of grain instant sales of grain collection points for meat imposition grain sales master contacts we've got a lot of programs the thing I wanted I've foam here Ivan is the fact that holding active is only a small part of our total program true this is probably the only thing that a lot of people hear about the NFO and the holding actions over they think we go home and aren't working in it but we're working at this day and night every day every week every month and happen for several years here we're making games we have processors that are accepting production problems through these marketing arrangements the present time we're moving grain through our great instant sales imposition grain sales master contacts have been sang with processors the point I want to get here we have a lot more programs than just a holding action now this is fine Dick I would suggest that in the space of time we have here that of course we'd like to explain a lot more of these terms to you so that you do understand them or because of the lack of time I would suggest that you contact your friendly NFO neighbor member and visit with him and get to know him and he get to know you get acquainted and he can help you to understand what some of these terms are moving wrong we'd like to at this time visit with mrs. Louella Berstler Iowa County would you like to tell us a little bit about your farming operation we live in Iowa County we farm two hundred and forty acres we have corn soybeans we raise hogs and we feed our fat cattle out we don't buy any and run a fat cattle lot but we do feed our own cows fine well thank you why do you feel that farmers need the national farmers organization I believe that agriculture is possibly the most misunderstood segment of our national economy I think that it is far more important to the overall economy of the nation than most people realize I think that many people fail to realize that farmers are the largest consumer of steel AG rubber of petroleum and that they produce the commodity that that is the most essential to the prosperity of any nation and that is food and fiber and I so selfishly next I consider farming as a way of life and we intend to preserve the family farm system in the United States through the national farmers organization and the farmers problems can all be convinced in one short phrase low farm prices and I the NFO is endeavoring to gift the farm prices to a level but it's profitable to the farmers to start the money through the economy at the farm level this will save when we spend it with our small town business they will in turn spend it with their larger cities and that will keep all of us in business and this would benefit every segment of the economy to have the farm prices profitable so that farmers would have money to spend we intend to accomplish this through the national farmers organization by bargaining together and selling together well fine Louella I do know that of course here we're speaking with producers and our conversation tends to injure out the producer portion of food in other words the farmers telling their story I do know that consumers we all are we are all consumers of food and we should be concerned with if the farmers do get a fair price how will this affect my food budget I think this is one of the areas that is mostly and one of the biggest areas that is misunderstood would you give us an example of how much does a farmer receive or what portion of a commodity tastes such as milk or eggs that the farmer receives on the consumer dollar well first of all I think possibly if farming farmers prices were raised at the farm level that it might increase the consumer prices that they pay at the retail level however I don't necessarily think that it would have to for example the farmers share in this loaf of bread is two and a half Sam if we would raise the farmers a Prophet's or the farmers share of this loaf of bread it would only raise the price of this loaf of bread two and a half cents and that would raise the farmers profits 100% you can take a quart of milk if the farmers share of the quart of milk is ten cents you can raise if the quart of milk would raise one cents that would increase the farmers income by ten percent well I think that this would be I don't think that the consumer realizes what a small percentage of increase that would take to to raise the farmers level of any kind and we are organized in the national farmers organization under the capper-volstead Act and this also protects the consumer it gives the farmers a right to bargain collectively together but it also protects the consumer as to the high prices that the farmers couldn't to price them you're saying that the consumer has protection under the capper-volstead Act also in the event that farmers do get organized to the extent where they could raise the prices of food to a great extent of this correct yeah that's right and but I think more important to every housewife should be the questions that if farmers do not get fair prices who is going to control the food production and how much am I going to pay for food when farmers no longer produce it with corporation dividends in the last 20 years have increased 232 percent while the farmers percentage has dropped 12 percent well I do not think that the elimination of farmers is going to make food cheaper in the United States in fact when corporations have charge of producing the food of processing the food and then of retailing the food they have a chance then to set their price on all three phases of this operation and I do not think that the elimination of the family farm is going to make them so I think that it should be more important to them that they wonder who is going to control the production of food rather than how much food it's going to raise my price of the food if farmers get fair prices fine Thank you Loutella now to further support this theme of yours would you give us an example of how many dozen of eggs it would take for example to to fix your hair well that's present price of eggs it would take approximately twelve and a half dozen of eggs to fix my hair at the beauty shop this would be if it was all profit now you do have some cost understand well with they figured that it cost approximately 27 cents to produce a dozen eggs so I don't know how much it would take for me to to fix my hair with losing eight cents or nine cents a dozen on a dozen eggs well thank you Louella it will get to you back to you in just a moment next we're going to move over to visit with Orrin and would you tell us a little bit about your farming operation well I'm consider I consider myself a general farmer simply because I operate a diversified farming operation I raise somewhere between three to four hundred head of hogs a year I feed out my own cattle produced from my own beef cow herd we milk a few cows to kind of help out with the the daily needs I raised approximately hundred and fifteen to twenty acres of corn a year and twenty or thirty acres of beams and the balance being in old sand pasture and hay ground well we've been discussing here collective bargain for agriculture and we hope that you as a result of this will better understand the producers and the farmers telling this now or would you tell us a little bit why do you feel that collective bargain is the answer for the American farmer and respect to pricing is production well I think it's the answer because there are too many farmers out here going boats and there hasn't been anything else that has worked to solve the the basic problem of price as long as I could remember this is why I think it's the answer would you like to comment at this time about the law of supply and demand as you see it well the law of supply and demand as we have always understood it means that whenever we produce over produce the demand wasn't there in the price dropped or that when we under produced the demand was was over and above the supply and the price was supposed to rise this is the concept that we've been operating under however I don't quite think that this is the way the rest of the economy understands the law of supply and demand I think the rest of the economy says we will produce a supply and demand a price and this is the way the American farmer should this is the way the American farmer should get in the position to do also all right well thank you and if do you have any comments at this time that you'd like to make in respect to Raven it seems like you know I've talked a lot of people here but you know our forefathers come into this country and there wasn't too much here and there hasn't been too long ago and they had to set up school County government state governments federal government they had to dig out roads they had to build cities and she they had to do so many things surely in our generation it wouldn't be too much to ask the American farmer to set up a marketing system for agriculture or to let the young man start with a little bit of nothing the middle-aged man maybe make a few dollars the older man to kind of cut back retire and enjoy life you know it seems like we're coming to a society in which you've got room for a little bit of everything but people and this is something I think we need to stop and think a little bit let's make room for these young people let's give them an opportunity machines and so on are available today that probably aren't here and mrs. Berstler and her husband and my family and I we could form a tremendous amount of ground but I've got three sons I'd like to see them be able to come into farming now they don't have too much and I think this is good the ambition but I'd like to set up some kind of a system where they could start with this little bit of nothing grow raise their family support their schools support their churches in other words let's build a society for people this is to me is the important thing but surely in our generation it's not too much to ask us to set up a marketing system for agriculture when their forefathers had so much else to set up government roads and so on well this certainly sounds good to me dick and I'm very proud to be able to visit with you and the other NFO members and neighbors and certainly it has been educational to me I certainly feel that I understand the national farmers organization goals and people much better at this point now let's move to mrs. Berstler known better to her friends in NFO as Louella why do you feel that farmers should have better prices well first of all I think that this is a land of plenty there's and we want to keep it that way but to accomplish this we must pay our farmers enough that they will to make it possible that they will have enough to buy the equipment and to pay the costs of raising livestock to live- to have money to live on the farm to feed our people and to clothe our people and I think that we should have to have raised the farmers income enough that it will be a financially attractive to the young people we need young people in farming farming the average age of the farmer is becoming I don't know 57 or approximately that we have become a business of old people and and we need these young people to come back into farming any business in America that does not have young people coming back into it is a dying business and for to produce this abundance of food we must have young people coming back in to agriculture so that they can raise this abundance of food that we have always enjoyed in the United States well thank you Louella one of the basic things I think that should be remembered is that only farmers and farm producers can belong to the National Farmers Organization number two that it is a grassroots organization that people touches these that you and I have been visiting with here today are working the organization we hope that the title of this program who is the NFO has been answered to a point at this time that it is neighbors it is NFO farmer who is the NFO and with all the philosophies and with all the mechanics of the National Farmers Organization program we hope that we are helping you to understand the National Farmers Organization which very simply put is bargain together and selling together now dick do you have any comments you'd like to make it this time well I got the membership agreement second year Island I talked to a few people on membership agreement to me this is a good part of NFO it lays out a program or a system by which we accomplish the things we're talking about I'll read one sentence this thing he says the I authorized the NFO its agent or representative to act for me as my exclusive representative and collective bargaining in respect to all commodities marketers from my farm I serve on a bargaining committee for milk NOAA final one is an authorized and tried to bargain for a price for somebody it's for orange milk and he had authorized me to do this I've been doing something illegal so this to me is a real important part of membership agreement you authorize somebody to bargain for you down here little ways we elect the people that we authorize to do this over here a little further in the membership agreement after these people have bargained for us and secured a contract they must come back to us for their for our approval before we are affected by it what does it cost to belong to the national farmers I didn't say cost twenty-five dollars a year up until the time that we are actively selling under marketing contacts which we have approved I see well getting back to your football field description there reminds me that this is somewhat of the basic rules to a football game that right players have agreed to abide by Ivan I have something here that I would like to comment on here regarding dicks football field I noticed at the top the holding action and I think that this is the most misunderstood part of our whole program we simply got to realize that when we bargain with a processor and he says no do you sell your production anyhow or do you make up your mind you're gonna get a price and hold well thank you we feel as a result a program such as this and we'd like to that you will better understand the national farmers organization and we hope that you will contact your friendly NFO member we have them in some 25 states as I understand so may I end with this one word think and also keep informed thank you us farm report has brought you the special program of Ivan Struczynski the members of the national farmers organization invite you to tune in again next week for more facts on agriculture and rural America which is the gear wheel of our economy that produces the majority of our nation's new wealth from a new generation of new American farmers the national farmers organization is the organization that devotes its time effort and resources in preservation of the farm family structure and private enterprise in America tune in again next week at the same time for another edition of US farm reports [music]