By David Awbrey
Senator has conspired against the very people who have voted for him all these years
Suppose a few years ago, then-House Agriculture Chairman Rep. Pat Roberts and corporate lobbyists decided they had to wipe out traditional, small-scale American farmers if the United States was to compete -- and agribusiness earnings soar -- in the new era of global capitalism.
And, partly to disguise their intentions but also to add a touch of postmodern irony, they named their plan the "Freedom to Farm Act."
It worked perfectly. What American folklore considers an ideal life -- a family homestead with kids, cows, crops and electricity -- is nearly gone thanks partly to the Freedom to Farm Act that Roberts and his big business buddies pushed through Congress in 1996.
But, no, it couldn't have been a conspiracy. No politician could be so corrupt as to intentionally bankrupt the very people -- Kansas family farmers -- he claimed to represent in Congress. Not even the greediest corporation would plot the devastation of rural America and small-town society.
It must have been "other forces" that since Freedom to Farm was enacted have driven thousands of American farmers off the land, plunged commodity prices to near record lows, caused the corporate consolidation of basic farm industries, produced massive surpluses and poured billions of federal tax dollars into the coffers of the largest farm operations while the little guy was obliged to get a day job in town.
Maybe it was because of the Asian economic slump or perhaps European trade barriers, but certainly Roberts and his allies would not do this on purpose.
Or would they?
"The agribusiness giants like overproduction because it keeps their costs down," noted New York Times reporter Tim Weiner in his recent analysis of farm problems. "There is a farm crisis, but it seems to be that the market, supported by the government, is forcing Americans small farmers to get big or get out."
Roberts, whose lengthy political career has been so heavily subsidized by corporate agriculture that he often acts like a wholly owned subsidiary of ConAgra, Cargill or DuPont, is not finished. Having restructured the American farm economy to fit corporate needs, he now is trying to do the same with the rest of the world.
As evidenced at the world trade talks earlier this month in Seattle, the Kansas senator is firmly tied to the global financial interests working to expand "free trade." Taking his cue from corporations that exploit third-world workers and pollute with impunity, Roberts has special scorn for Americans who want to link international trade issues with labor and environmental concerns. To do so, he said in a Nov. 29 press release, "will create chaos in world trade."
According to Roberts and other corporate globalists, human rights and ecological conservation are not the business of big business. Trade agreements should center solely on enabling goods and services to flow freely across borders. If national health, labor, environmental or consumer standards, such as U.S. laws on food quality or wildlife protection, get in the way of profits, they must go -- mandated by the World Trade Organization, a secret, non-democratic agency in Geneva.
If Roberts and his corporate friends have their way, American farmers will become serfs to corporate agriculture, totally beholden to executives in Omaha, Minneapolis or New York for their livelihoods. Essential American laws will be vulnerable to corporate attack through WTO bureaucrats.
The honored American goal of expanding human and democratic rights worldwide will be sacrificed to the big money to be made off virtual slave labor controlled by money-hungry dictators or, in case of China, by communist tyrants.
But, to Roberts, it's all part of the freedom to farm.:
