Word: usda
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Though Time counts on its readers to forget that writers (and editors) with opinions bang out its byline-less features, the author(s) of its Nov. 6 cover story, "The New U.S. Farmer," had obviously studied up on his Adam Smith economics and his Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics in preparation for this defense of U.S. agriculture, "the productivity wonder of the world." Couched in Timese idiom, readers might almost be lulled into believing this bland prose. But beware -- it is really a simplistic, inaccurate polemic dressed up as objective journalism. It is Time at its myth-making best...
Time managed to overlook one USDA study conducted by economist Frank R. Baily. He comments that "we are so conditioned to equate bigness with efficiency that nearly everyone assumes that large-scale undertakings are inherently more efficient." But after a survey of farms in different regions of the country, he concluded that most economies of scale "are achieved by the one-man fully mechanized farm. While the most efficient farm size has increased in the last decade, due mainly to tractor improvements, this 1973 report found that most farmers need a much smaller acreage and capital investment than Pat Benedict...
Time dicounts the importance of agribusiness, using USDA figures which indicate that corporations have only 2 per cent of U.S. farm sales. But the USDA does not include the corporate farmers like Del Monte and Tenneco who produce food for their own processors and packagers because they make no farm sales...
...reducing bureaucracy is a constant theme, and his appointees respond to it eagerly. On Sept. 12, 1977, Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland reported that he had attended 45 hours of hearings on the 1978 budget for the Agriculture Department. "At present," the minutes note, "he said that the USDA is 'a mess...
...haven't really worked out the details of how the research will be allocated and conducted," Steven King, USDA regional administrator of the northeast region, said yesterday. A planning committee, which is expected to include Robert Geyer, chairman of the Department of Nutrition, will meet in October to work out administrative details, he added...