Around the country talking with family farmers i had a hard time understanding how so many farmers could be losing money if farm income was rising. And then in may of this year the u. S. D. A. Changed the way it figured out farm income to include the average income for farmer households the u. S. D. A. Reported that in 1990 when net farm income was 50 1000000000. 00 the average farm family earned less than 6000. 00 from farm operations. Now here we are some 29 years later and according to the u. S. D. A. Economic Research Service in 2918. 00 net farm income fell to a 12 year ago at just over 59000000000. 00 with a median foreign income of negative 1216. 00 negative. Which is why farm aid keeps going strong. This year the festival was held at the alpine valley music theater in east tri wisconsin deep in the heart of dairy country farm aid showcase some of the most innovative family farmers from around tired nation Whiskey River no rudra farm a president 34 years Country Music icon Willie Nelson opened the festival well 1st of all im glad to see us all year to do. But there is. A lot of help is needed and were glad to be here to offer our support what are those challenges while one is pricing take Dairy Farmers for instance according to the u. S. D. A. Foods 2015 the price of milk paid to farmers has not only been going down but its also unpredictable from month to month making it hard for farmers to absorb that extra cost farm aid presented 1. 00 of the many solution through the small farmer and old traditions on a sense of community through grazing we created grazing it would help the cows be held. Beer and it was less labor plus they talked about the profitability of it our cows actually produce half as much today perk how in one year as they used to before we started grazing however with this system for every 100 pounds of milk rather than making 0. 50 we might be making 5. 00 dairy farming is and economic engine for wisconsin and is essential to the culture of this state agriculture contributes 88000000000. 00 each year to the states economy and almost half of that comes from dairy Dairy Farmers across the country are laboring right now under extreme pressure earning less for a gallon of milk than it cost them to produce it since 1973 weve lost a staggering 93 percent of this countrys Dairy Producers faced with the possibility of extinction a group of determined Dairy Farmers starting in wisconsin but now from all over the country are working together to activate communities built power and propose solutions to fix a broken system at the same time a Resolute Group of entrepreneurial women have come together to counter the prevailing narrative that Rural America is dying. The way. Music icon youll young explains why were america and the family farmer is worth saving i think myself that the solutions. Are simple and big i think we need to have legislation to make sure that all the farmers in america you Sustainable Practices whether theyre corporations for Small Farmers if youre farming in america. Or in canada for that matter. You should follow Sustainable Practices and not destroy the earth. It isnt just milk that according to the u. S. Government data as of this time. 30 of the 29000 over 40000000 pounds of pork bellies is sitting in warehouses on sold uneaten and without a home. In 40 years this is partly due to the decreasing demand for oil is which are the cuts they give us here in the United States unfortunately bacon not as popular overseas as things like however work producers were advised to build up their birds due to swine fever reducing the relation in china by over a 1000000 eggs now trying are not increasing farmers are left. With too much baking and small hog farmers to short change in the marketplace as the price stays so low only vertically integrated factory farms can show a profit even Country Music star tiny tucker was moved by the facts this has farmers and consumers ive learned a lot sitting here listening to all of you all speak its become. Its made me more aware when i think about having that glass of milk with my i go to bed im going to think of the Dairy Farmers and to know that a pig grows up in a crate and then thats the bacon youre even i think just we just need to be more aware of what were buying and not just be more aware but take it to another level we are at this country and they are just representing a so weve got to make the statement and we got to tell them what we want and we want things changed one group looking to change policy and perception of farming is the wisconsin based soil sisters the problem of overproduction is a problem that weve all fallen into this system has pushed us to produce more and more and more just to keep our heads above water the average eater isnt connected to the farm and doesnt realize these things and when there is go under it doesnt affect the mill. Theyre pulling from the shelves we as a society have devalued food and cheaper is better and bigger is better and that is not sustainable industrialization of agriculture has really changed the way we treat the land over production due to pricing seems to be the prevailing problem with every sector small and family farming partly because the Big Industrial sector can absorb the cost a point not lost on the soil sisters our group is based in green county in southern wisconsin so we are in a very traditional conventional industrial egg area however if you look at a statewide wimmin make up 35 percent of producers in wisconsin and thats a 16 percent increase and if you look at the fact that wisconsin leads organics in dairy and livestock were 2nd in vegetables only to california slightly longer growing season were part of a Broader Movement and when youre part of something bigger than yourself things start to change and we saw sisters and we are also sisters if we are committed to our land and our agriculture in our rural areas we do things by changing up the rules and not. Going to corporate capitalism but setting up our own systems of collaboration and supporting each other and when you know youre on a bigger team and you know people have your back and you know other women have you back you take risks and you show up and thats what weve been doing what exactly is that stake if groups like are made and the soil sisters dont succeed so well sisters chris mary and explains whats at stake is a few Food Security if people can stay on the land growing food were going to have to get our food elsewhere and then were going to be at the mercy of other places. For some the tradition of growing food locally isnt just a way to avoid the large factory farms that are uttered Cutting Family farms is due to the traditions of their people and their ancestors and a path beyond processed food an illness or a manthey of the united white corn growers group. No neither wisconsin explained its a group started in 20152016 we wanted to take on the responsibility of growing food for ourselves in our community or our tribal program. Had been taken on the responsibility of growing corn for the community but it would sell out so fast that it wasnt able to sustain the whole community and i talked with a lot of people and people just started saying hey we should grow this together we shouldnt be having individual plots we should do it the old way we do have quite a few people in our group that have diabetes and they do want to eat better and they didnt have access to food that was then they didnt understand how to cook it before but if you were to go back to a traditional diet and eat with our food circle that has to do with the seasons in the cycles and in the ceremonial food thats already identified you dont have diabetes anymore. In many ways had we listened to the native wisdom of food we may have avoided some of the worst of our Health Related struggles tied to that food and right alongside indigenous communities striving to keep their our cultural traditions thriving immigrants are helping breathe life into farming langley of mike one explains we were farmers by generals while we migrated to america as refugees we need some of our traditions to america my mom her mom or my grandmother we used to do this together so it brings a memory of bags. At that Nature Preserve our 25 years were saying i did. A better way its a far. Timing isnt just about food that despite how silly that may sound one thing farm a continues to do decade after decade is show that farming impacts communities big and small in ways you might not expect these issues in farming order Dave Matthews explains i remember when i was a kid and my father my father was ill and eventually. He died from his illness i remember after he died my mom started gardening almost like a crazy person. Shes just in that youre just outside digging planting. But in a few days it started to look like she was sort of magical and she just said it helped her heal. Being connecting herself to the earth what i mean is say when i when i compared the sort of over industrialization of farming which severs us from the earth it makes us separate from the earth and it turns us into part of a profit driven machine that doesnt take into account anything but the dollar and theres that compared with connecting ourselves to the earth to know that when we eat and when we pay a fair price for the food that we eat that were supporting people who are taking care of the earth its a system that we need to support because all were doing is paying them what theyre do if we pay them enough to survive were not paying them too much were paying them what theyre doing. But if she warned you can i do the dishes at the bazemore in those jeans nudist beach and you see me you. Know muffin when you die. You mean yes i mean those are the infants involved. A lot of people see sawing as if parts of the 2 kids its out to both sides. As in the. Cabinet 5 film days doing the sort of. People who simply knew. Going to fulfill that purpose is possible to the people. You do its all pots to. Be. Pretty. Subtle. If you want to 1st. Know. All. Well you know coming coming coming. Today there are good and bad debt its bad terrorists and those in yemen the United States deems to be a threat the good of those who work in syria the cia and u. S. Military were engaged in covert actions to really draw the world. Where they were assassinating populist leaders they were backing up right military juntas funding an army thats why theres no. Because theres always a small. So what is a fair price under the Current System that price may not have been because bring the cost of production according to the United States department of agriculture the retail price of a pound of bacon is around 5. 00 the share of that price that ends up in the farmers pocket is around 0. 69 what about say flour a 5 pound bag will run the consumer about 3. 79 the farmer gets 0. 44 and since were talking so much about Dairy Farmers look at a gallon of milk the consumer pays 4. 59 while the farmer if there are a lucky sees about one dollar and 0. 50 per gallon weve had consolidation in the industry for a long time which means that some players particularly processors have a lot of power and that means that in some cases we see farmers not having places that sell their milk or farmers having to be price takers be being told how much they should be paid and not necessarily that reflect how much the cost it is to actually produce. I was so proud of the site it had all the falling numbers and everything was just for big business and i tried to find a market for it and it was worth nothing i mean those were the. Penalty. Was very frustrating for me because it shouldve been worth 5. 00 to 6. 00 times of what i actually sold it for because of the quality remember when we discussed the price of flour and how out of 3 dollars and 79. 00 cent bag the farmer only saw 0. 44 well what about Something Like beer a product whose entire quality and taste depend on the grains used in the process while you the consumer will pay 8 dollars and 0. 99 per sixpack the farmer who major brew possible family make 0. 04 per sixpack why one reason is the proliferation of factory farming and its not new since 997. 00 family run dairy farms alone have seen their Profit Margins and market share gobbled up by large corporate conglomerates each year saw these big ag giants buy up and destroy the family farm and he was no mistake it was exactly how earl lauer resi bus wanted it earl butz was the secretary of agriculture under president s nixon and ford but he is most well known for selling out the family farmer to large scale corporate farms instead of giving them a hand when it was possible here he is a 1972 on the subject of hunger and subsidizing food to make it affordable for all we have seen 1000000 americans now receiving food and other to refer americans didnt direct this system i think a very Firm Position on. That truth but that was her private pocket production is not the birthright of americans are going to participate for i think weve a mistake if we pursue ways to promote policy and for that i start with eyes glowed policy regardless of the part by part of my present or the market was just like that theyre awful because of the their t. V. Sets. Right ready for work and butts kept that position for the entirety of his career that farmers need not be subsidized by the government when prices domestically drop below the cost of production but its a many in the big bad world believed it was unnecessary because all farmers had to do was sell their surplus overseas in 1991 man at the National FarmersUnion Conference after all bytes to respond to the fact that his plans had not 20 years later actually done much but line the pockets of the very rich and im a dairy farmer from wisconsin and i was just wondering mr secretary. If you think maybe the conservative views and agriculture may change. You said you learned how to read. Maybe can somebody help you see. The reason i ask is a i dont know of anyone in my community. That still supports hopefully your old views about farming that are left they all went broke my concern is that real farmers need change theyre real farmers do. We need to restore the economic safety net. In production agriculture in america or the future of real farmers. Is is going to be at a tremendous risk and what was the grandfather of factory farms response to 20 years of his own failed policy we all enjoy a pretty high level of living in this country again primarily because our food system is in mission hands with a relatively small share of our total production inputs to make it i think its been a good thing but the adjustments been difficult for some people theyre better off to in most cases because theyve got a pretty good paint job somewhere and i grew closer probably better off because they left because were more and more efficient. You know i think for those of us left in commercial agriculture of a higher level. And the idea that the family farmers would be better off just getting out of the business altogether has not abated the same farm a current agricultural secretary sonny perdue told wisconsin farmers that in america the big get bigger and the small go out i dont think in america we for any Small Business we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability sarah lloyd of dairy together explains why the logic of per deal and buts is so very wrong we need the federal government to take action in the Dairy Pricing so please do call your representatives in washington d. C. Because they will tell you nobody wants to talk about balancing supply with demand were in a free market tell them that theyre riding tell them that youve met the farmers that are pushing for it and were a nationwide force and were growing stronger i think that all farmers and fishermen should be paid decent wages so that they could get dinner to feed their communities in the country and federal policies to support that so were calling on the government to take some leadership in address that area pricing formula so that farmers can be fair their wages musician and longtime farm and participant John Mellencamp and why humans are capable of solving the problems farmers and all of us face despite a negative outlook from big ag it seems to me that this world is in motion. And nature calls for diversity diversity diversity its important to take our minds out and simply observe what is going on around us. As opposed to thinking we have an answer and in giving a knee jerk reaction and then just chill out creativity human beings are the only ones on the other only. Species on this earth that have the ability to be creative tyrants and the smell of it and creative they are at farming 29. 00 t. Really meant some very Extraordinary People were looking at the issue of food and farmings from some pretty pretty creative acres. Venus williams the executive director of alices garden in milwaukee is one of them i was this garden is a 2. 2 acre urban farm thats been around since 70 soon we like to say that we use gardening as the carrot pun intended to get people to come through the gates to impact their inspired quality of life so along with having a production farm area we have an herbal Apprentice Program that has 7 days to the princesss learning with me we have 105. And we have a whole wellness and every Cultural Program for the community when youre looking at urban context and especially in communities of color and especially in the Africanamerican Community youre looking at the sentence of people who grew the food who built the wealth of this nation a long time ago it may have been by force but now it is by choice but part of why im h