For years, it was common “wisdom” that the secret of our high standard of living was our industrial production successes, such as those in automobiles, other factories, and transportation. Those who think that have overlooked something more important: the miracle of our agriculture.
When Khrushchev came to America in 1959, he expressed a desire to visit two places: Disneyland and an Iowa farm. He wanted to see for himself how the United States copes with the problem of feeding itself.
When he actually saw an Iowa farm, he was incredulous. He could not believe that a Towa farmer with two sons produces more on 500 acres than could hundreds of Russians. He demanded to see the hidden farm workers. Of course, there were none.
In Russia, half the population work in agriculture but are unable to féed their own people. In the United States, only five percent of the crop population feeds all Americans and, in addition, produces tremendous surpluses for export.
The 1982 U.S. corn crop is 8.32 billion bushels, one percent larger than the previous record set last year. The soybean crop is 2.29 billion bushels, which is 13 percent larger than last year’s crop and one percent bigger than the previous record set in 1979.
Americans consumed only half of last year’s record U.S. wheat harvest and left the other half in storage. An even larger surplus is forecast for this year. Our gigantic farm surpluses are accepted and paid for by very smart buyers all over the world. The United States clearly leads the world in quality and quantity of crops.
By contrast, Russia’s 1982 harvest is a disaster, and the Soviet food supply is the most acute in two decades. The official party line is to blame it all on the weather, but this is the fourth year in a row for the same hard-luck weather story.
The Soviets set 238 million metric tons of wheat, corn, and other crops as their 1982 production goal. This year’s harvest turned out to be only about 170 million metric tons, less than last year, far less than the year before, and the poorest since 1975. The Russians must now import much more wheat and corn during the next 12 months.
Visitors to Russia are impressed by the scrawny size of the cattle. Out of fear of social discord, the Kremlin has kept the size of the herds constant, but there simply isn’t enough fodder to fatten up the animals. The Russians cannot maintain their herds without importing 45 million tons of grain per year.
At the same time, more than six million acres of barley and rye growing land have been kept out of production because of a lack of fertilizer. Most of the stores are bare of meat, eggs, and cheese, and butter is rationed to 10-1/2 ounces per person per month.
Visitors to Russia also report that the Soviet countryside is dotted with rusting, unusable farm machinery. The Soviet system cannot supply parts to service and maintain essential tractors, trucks, and cambines, or garages to protect them from severe winters.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the shortage of tractors and trucks leads to other problems. Grain rots in the fields because it can’t be harvested, and the grain that is harvested sometimes rots in overloaded warehouses because of inefficient transportation and delivery systems. The Soviet press admits that grain losses due to improper handling could be as high as 20 to 30 percent.
The principal advantage American agriculture has over Russian agriculture is not weather, machinery or fertilizer, but freedom. Soviet farmers are the victims of a gigantic bureaucracy that dictates how many acres may be planted and where, which crops may be planted and when, who may work on the land and who may leave. Centralized planning results in far more inefficiency than private enterprise and competition.
One of the favorite clichés of liberals for decades has been “poverty causes Communism.” The liberals have things completely backwards. The fact is that Communism causes poverty. The economic “achievement” of the Communist system is that it turned Russia from a grain-exporting nation under the Czars to a nation whose motto today is, import food or starve.
The Soviet Union today has a military arsenal substantially more powerful than ours, and it constitutes the only external threat to American security. The policy of the Reagan Administration in forcing the Russians to pay cash for the grain it buys from us is one of the best ways to force the Kremlin to cut down its spending on weapons.
