A reflection on the lasting legacy of 1970s USDA Secretary Earl Butz Industrial agriculture lost one of its greatest champions last week: Earl "Rusty" Butz, secretary of the USDA under. 0000050347 00000 n 0000029778 00000 n But domestic consumption was only 11 million tons greater; so the rest must be disposed of abroad. [citation needed], For example, he abolished a program that paid corn farmers to not plant all their land. Some world food organizations are concerned, not only because of American fuzziness at Rome but also because of the tendency of the United States to sign longterm supply agreements with people who pay cash for grain. 26 0 obj<> endobj From there, he went on to study agricultural economics, and eventually used his knowledge, along with his knack for political maneuvering and his quick wit, to forge a career that, in leading to his current post in the President's Cabinet, included serving in positions as Assistant Agriculture Secretary in the Eisenhower Administration, dean of agriculture at Purdue University and muchsoughtafter public speaker. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. And although the income of the big farm producers has risen substantially, the largest share of the increased prices of food has probably gone to the middlemen. Agricultural policy has supported Americas greatest triumphs. In 1973, Nixon's agricultural secretary, Earl Butz, oversaw a change in the philosophy of the U.S. farm program. Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died this weekend at 98, leaving a colorfully offensive legacy and, thanks to the political correctness of the mainstream news media, a bit of a mystery as to why he's died in such ignominy. President Franklin Delano Roosevelts passing of the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment enacted an unprecedented and highly successful approach to agricultural policy that defined farming for four decades. Surviving farms responded to low prices by planting more, hoping to make up on volume what they were losing on price. We think alike. They are disturbed, too, by the continued exchange of top personnel between the department and the big grain companies. Butz had helped to arrange that sale in the hope of giving a boost to crop prices to bring restive farmers tempted to vote for George McGovern into the Republican fold.[10]. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit. 0000043800 00000 n 0000044805 00000 n In 1976, just weeks before a tight presidential election, he left the USDA in disgrace after making a stunningly crude racist remark. b. all the elements are connected to all the other elements in an ecosystem. Now lets face it, they are. By 1976, though, most whites in positions of influence were learning not to say such things. These policies benefited the burgeoning. On the other hand, heavy exports can lead to domestic shortagesand rises in consumer food prices, as they, indeed, did in 1972. 0000019559 00000 n 0000045147 00000 n 0000004416 00000 n 0000051337 00000 n Beginning in 1973, policy changes promoted by Nixon Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz deregulated the corn market. Facebook, Follow us on Assistant Secretary Clarence Palmby, for instance, negotiated a credit deal with the Russians in the spring of 1972, and then took a job as a vice president of Continental Grain. Butz resigned his cabinet post on October 4, 1976. 0000011887 00000 n 0000046621 00000 n Plant fence row to fence row, he exhorted from his bully pulpit. 0000054304 00000 n Then, during President Fords election campaign of 1976, Butz told a racially offensive joke, and he was forced to resign. Providing a grand example of how his vision might work, Butz engineered a massive grain sale to the Soviets in 1972. 0000056620 00000 n Top 10 Earl Butz Quotes (2023 Update) - Quotefancy Top 10 Earl Butz Quotes (2023 Update) 1. why was it used? Butz was vice president of what has become the American Agricultural Economics Association (1948), and he was . But New Times magazine enterprisingly sleuthed out Butz's identity by checking the itineraries of all Cabinet members. But Butz did forcefully equate the interests of agribusiness with the national interest. Millions of hogs, cattle and chicken were sold for slaughter as producers reduced their inventories. In terms of 2009 dollars, corn reached the equivalent of over $15 in 1973.Overall farm income jumped along with grain prices, from $2.3 billion in 1972 to $19.6 billion in 73. 0000041732 00000 n Assuming the readers interpretation is correct, Butzs pope jibe was at the very least a much nastier and more personal insult than I realized.]. At the time, Butz served as a board member for several agribiz firms, including Ralston Purina, then a sprawling food conglomerate. The Agriculture Department is estimating that grain production will roach 255 million tons, 13 million more than last year's. 0000043291 00000 n A publication of Hillsdale College Over 6,200,000 Readers Recent Posts The establishment of farmland allowed for urban economies to flourish and more people to live in cities, and provided both food and work for Americas rapidly expanding population. He has antagonized or alienated food shoppers, environmentalists, labor leaders, social reformers and religious and ethnic groups. 1973 Farm Bill - Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act [As Amended Through P.L. I tried to interview him last fall for Grists Sow What? A partial bibliography of sources is here. citation-type="booksimple" Argued Nov. 7, 1977. . 0000011491 00000 n 19Dubbed the Great Grain Robbery, food prices in America soared. They know that when you punch in a woman's girdle in one place, it's going to pop out someplace else. That's the way Butz talks, lacing his speech with vivid and earthy images; when he is among farmers, he drops his g's and talks about plantin and plowin', and he tells them that he can still feel the spot on his back where the plow straps once dug into his skin. A side goal was to go easy on the land. Five years later, he pled guilty to tax evasion and served a short stint in jail. Millions of hogs, cattle and chicken were sold for slaughter as producers reduced their inventories. 0000072272 00000 n 0000067829 00000 n It's like naming someone from Gulf Oil to be consumer representative at the Federal Energy Administration., This March, an independent group of scientists who operate the Center for Science in the Public Interest named Butz to its Terrible Ten list of persons and institutions that favor unwise food policies saying that the Department of Agriculture has changed beefgrading guidelines in a way that gyps the consumer, has liquidated the pricestabilizing grain reserves and has sought to undercut the foodstamp, schoollunch and other Federal food assistance programs., George McGovern says that although Butz is often referred to as the greatest Secretary of Agriculture, he isn't even in the same league with Henry Agard Wallace, who conceived of and administered many of the innovative programs designed to lift farmers out of the Depression of the 1930's: Wallace had a dimension that Butz can't even comprehend the concept of food as a humanitarian instrument. In the summer of 1972, the Soviets shook up the grain market when it hid from the world the fact that their grain harvest was in trouble. Butz's critics also noted that he was a director of three large agribusiness corporations. Days after Butz died, the Wall Street Journal reported, In the U.S., farmers are razing old barns, ripping up sod and grassland, and uprooting fences some in a routine attempt to improve land, others in an effort to make room for the grain boom.. We hit your inbox once a month and never abuse your personal information. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/13/archives/why-they-love-earl-butz-prosperous-farmers-see-him-as-the-greatest.html. 0000059437 00000 n In King Corn, Butz argued that the corn subsidy had dramatically reduced the cost of food for all Americans by improving the efficiency of farming techniques. [4] He was the uncle of American football player Dave Butz. YouTube. Earl Butz stayed on as Secretary of Agriculture after Nixon was impeached and engineered legislation sharply reducing federal subsidies for farmers. 0000042235 00000 n 11Subsequent government policy implemented to save farms failed because it provided only short-term solutions. ' , See the article in its original context from. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Butz as Secretary of Agriculture,[4] a position in which he continued to serve after Nixon resigned in 1974 as the result of the Watergate scandal. Earl Lauer "Rusty" Butz (July 3, 1909 - February 2, 2008) was a United States government official who served as Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Earl Butz No, I try not to be a negative thinker. He also came up with a weakly worded proposal to Congress to strengthen criminal penalties and minimize conflict of interest in inspection agencies, some of which had been owned by the same grain firms whose products they inspected. ), To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Help us continue to bring you the best of the archives without the dust! I went to Syria. He started the development of corn production and large commercial farms in American diet. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. They pointed out that he was leaving the board of Ralston Purina Company to become Secretary of Agriculture, while Hardin was departing the Agriculture Department to become vice chairman of the same firm. Wallace would have seen these as the glory of his department.. [2] He attended a one-room country school through eighth grade and graduated from high school in a class of seven. 0000055231 00000 n 0000068573 00000 n Changes in farming supported by government policy especially over the last century have incentivized farmers to grow crops that are easy to ship, store, and processnamely cereal grains and sweetenersensuring these foods are inexpensive and widely available. We believe in our ability to come together to shape the future through policy change. Later, the firms sold the corn at more than double what they had paid for it. 0000013599 00000 n 0000049967 00000 n Although Butz publicly emphasizes that the United States cannot and should not use what he, at the same time, frankly calls agripower as a weapon, he is fond of noting that Rumanian Agriculture Minister Miculescu once told him: You've got a weapon more powerful than the atom bomb: you've got soybeans. Butz took two days off from chairing the Rome World Food Conference two years ago and went to Cairo with a little wheat in my pocket They had the red carpet out for me there. " I understood public relations and always maintained a high profile. 0000047529 00000 n Butz's motto became "get big or get out," encouraging the growth of corporate factory-farms and increasing subsidised production of staples for export. 0000051487 00000 n 0000052132 00000 n As the supply of grain dried up and U.S. stockpiles were depleted, Butz advocated increasing production. 0000065712 00000 n Earl Butz (1909-2008) American government official (1909-2008) - Earl Butz was born in Albion (town in Noble County, Indiana, USA) on July 3rd, 1909 and died in Washington, D.C. (capital city of the United States) on February 2nd, 2008 at the age of 98. He died in his sleep, a quiet end for a man whose career shook the earth, causing untold acres to succumb to the plow. [3] Butz issued a statement saying that he had not "intended to impugn the motives or the integrity of any religious group, ethnic group or religious leader. Known as one of the greenest commercial buildings in the world, since it opened its doors on Earth Day in 2013 the Bullitt Center has been setting a new standard for sustainable design. 0000059674 00000 n On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 0000029423 00000 n First published in 2009. Philpott describes farm policy from the 1930s until Butz as a sort of Nirvana for both farmers and consumers, as it paid farmers not to farm and kept corn prices high. HTPn0Stv4$>Pv@k'@zGq3(:nfd"qlPUByCzv#Ru {!:|A3hrM[6J)V>w7W]Z |H >dO o?j The successes and failures of each installation of land and agricultural policy emphasize the understated influence each wave of policy has extended over American welfare. So he dangled the promise of foreign trade as a panacea. 0000069937 00000 n Expansion efforts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries resulted in western migration that led to agricultural prosperity in rural areas. 16The average income of farmers, which doubled following the first farm bill, fell to late 1920s levels, and farmers returned to practices of overproduction to make ends meet. 24 Since subsidized crops are less expensive, and therefore more sought after, farmers who grew subsidized crops saw the most success, while those who did not fell behind. Others bowdlerized the quote, in some cases replacing the female genital reference with "a tight [obscenity]" and the scatological reference with "a warm place to [vulgarism]" or "warm toilet seats". Yet the food-production machine Butz created kept cranking. accessLinx is a boutique multimedia production company that communicates your business's messgae with clarity and impact. But he endured personal humiliation along the way. American Agricultural Economics Association, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, American government official Earl Butz dies at age 98, "A reflection on the lasting legacy of 1970s USDA Secretary Earl Butz", "Former Purdue Agriculture Dean Earl Butz dead at 98", "Earl L. Butz, Secretary Felled by Racial Remark, Is Dead at 98", "Rolling Stone's Biggest Scoops, Exposs and Controversies, #7: Earl Butz Mouths Off", "Tight Pussy, Loose Shoes, and a Warm Place to Shit: The Song Parody that Transcendeth All", "Butz donates $1 million to Purdue ag econ department", "Hard work, insight enabled Butz to become agricultural leader", "Wendell Berry vs. Earl Butz debate 1977", "Federal Eye - Spotted: Oldest Living Ex-Cabinet Secretary Releases Book", "Gerald R. Ford Administration Alumni | The Gerald Ford Presidential Foundation", "Meeting King Corn: Earl Butz was a product of his time" 2/19/2008, "The Butz Stops Here: A reflection on the lasting legacy of 1970s USDA Secretary Earl Butz" 2/7/2008, Agri-Pulse article "Memories of Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz" 2/10/2008, High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal article: "Memories of Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz" 2/14/2008, Farm Futures article: "A Special Tribute to Earl Butz" 2/4/2008, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Earl_Butz&oldid=1136081838, Purdue University College of Agriculture alumni, United States Department of Agriculture officials, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 January 2023, at 17:21. 0000068736 00000 n You are the most productive part of America! According to this reader, Butz was not commenting onPope Paulsmoresweeping opposition to artificial contraception, which rendered his narrower opposition with regard to food shortages a foregone conclusion. Secretary of Agriculture. a. the average reproductive rates equal the average death rates. 0000063693 00000 n 0000066397 00000 n Earl L. Butz The San Diego Evening Tribune offered to mail a copy of the whole quotation to anyone who requested it; more than 3,000 readers did. You Are What You Grow.. He took his first federal post, as assistant agriculture secretary under President Dwight Eisenhower, serving 1954 to 1957. [3], Butz was an alumnus of Purdue University, where he was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. 0000064144 00000 n That was Butz's kind of deal, according to the Farmers Union and the National Farmers Organization, groups which advocate moderate farm policies and which, in recent years, have supported Democrats. naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87210025/PDF, Bittman, Mark, Dont End Agricultural Subsidies, Fix Them., United States v. Butler. Legal Information Institute. 0000060185 00000 n startxref In a 1973 speech, he accused the housewives of America of having a low level of economic intelligence, and in his office he kept a sculpture of two copulating elephants that he delighted in showing off to visitors. Secretary Earl Butz was the was the Secretary of Agriculture during President Nixon ' s term . For Butz and his agribusiness cronies, the program amounted to socialism an intolerable check on farmers ability to plant and harvest as much as possible. 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