Feeding a Divided America

Giles Stockton is author of the new book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change, published by University of New Mexico Press. A third generation cattle rancher, he raises beef cattle and sheep on a 5000-acre ranch in Grass Range, Montana. He’s also an international agriculture development specialist and an advocate for ranching and farming communities. The new book imparts a lifetime of wisdom and analysis of what happened to our food system, why, and how we can create a system that gives power back to the farmers who are actually growing our food.

TIMELINE
3’01 the book is an extension of his op-ed pieces
4’24 multi-generation ranch background
6’30 raises cattle and sheep, as well as hay
7’14 how Western ranching improves the land
7’46 overgrazing damaged the land; it developed from the collapse of homesteading
9’47 ranching the only sustainable model of large scale agriculture in the US
10’48 the decline of his town early 20th century, and the decline of farms in general
11’57 overproduction led first to subsidies, then to the elimination of small farms
13’37 200,000 farms produce 80% of our food. The rest are trying to survive in an industrial agriculture economic model that doesn’t really want them
14’48 how megafarms came into being in the 1980s–the decision not to enforce antitrust laws, leading to monopolies/cartels
16’57 the problem of externalities
18’11 the difference between competitive capitalism (free enterprise where buyer and seller have equal power) and cartel capitalism–which is more like old-style communism
20’33 cartels can raise prices indiscriminately
21’14 not enough slaughterhouses–system is too centralized
21’52 agriculture has never had a golden age–it’s always been difficult
22’48 farmer gets 15.9¢ out of consumer dollar
23’22 the system steals from the farmer and farm labor
24’25 the “illusion of economies of scale”
24’45 smaller farmers are better farmers
25’20 the role of the farmer has been squeezed out in the name of “efficiency”…then there’s no advocate for the land and animals
26’24 what’s lost when you don’t have the farmer on the ground…the land, the workers, the animals
27’20 corporate boards instead of farmers are making decisions about things they know nothing about
28’23 why monocrops systems are so un-resilient, especially during climate instability
29’39 the problem of the super wealthy buying farm land–looks like colonialism
30’11 the wealthy neighbors don’t understand how their elk sanctuary affects their ranching neighbors
32’02 rural people hate environmentalists more than they hate the corporations that are ruining them
32’36 the sense that their vote doesn’t count
33’32 “they don’t ask our opinion”
35’16 policy for the last 50 years has been anti-rural. Rural voters vote red, but they don’t do anything for rural people. But blue doesn’t either.
36’15 climate change is making things existential
36’46 there’s a movement for anti-trust enforcement, which is encouraging
37’54 we need to decentralize in order to have a healthier food system — what that could look like
38’35 about 1/3 of food in France is sold locally, unlike the US where it’s more like 3%
39’16 the US imports more food than it exports. So much for “feed the world”
39’47 the need for auction markets for all food commodities (instead of contract work)
40’46 we don’t need new anti-trust laws, just enforcement of the existing ones
43’04 Citizens United decision of 2010 was a huge gain for the wealthy and corporate power
44’15 revitalizing rural communities = revitalizing democracy
45’05 the importance of being organized around an idea and staying with it
47’04 the local foods movement is extremely important. But it’s very libertarian in its politics, which means that they don’t deal with the globalized competition, they just do their own thing and stay a part of the 3% of local food
48’33 the Farm Bill isn’t so much a farm bill as an ag business bill. The orgs doing good work need to organize with each other more
49’42 what gives him hope
50’35 what happens after Gilles, what is the plan for the next generation