Farm Care

I admit some bias toward farms and farmers. Call it nostalgia.

We are told that the agricultural era replaced hunting and gathering. Then the industrial age took over from the agricultural age. Now we are in the information age. Of course these are simplifications intended to indicate major changes in society. But thinking in terms of a new age can diminish a previous one, which is too bad. We are still very much in the agricultural age. Given an option between meals and the computer I'm using to write this, I'd choose food. If I had to choose between electricity and food, I'd still pick food. Until we stop eating, we remain in the agricultural age.

I wonder if we appreciate the age of agriculture enough. Do we appreciate our farmers enough? Why, for example, do we honor soldiers over farmers? I find it hard to believe a bloated military-industrial complex is more important than eating. I'm not saying I don't respect soldiers, just that I respect farmers at least as much, probably more.

As a kid I grew up dreaming of being a Midwest bachelor farmer, and I spent high-school weekends and a couple of years after graduating working on farms. But my political views, which have moved center left, no longer match those of many of the farmers I worked for and with. For example, American farmers, for one reason or another, may disagree that universal healthcare is a good idea.

The Affordable Care Act helped insure millions of people who could not afford health insurance. I consider this a good thing. But I'm not sure it worked out great for farmers and small business owners. For one thing, subsidies are based on previous earnings, so in a down year healthcare costs can be a burden just when the money is needed for maintaining farm and family.

Recent tariffs hit farmers hard, so the government paid them subsidies. As so often happens, the largest agribusinesses benefited the most. If the government had started by providing healthcare for all farmers affected by the tariffs, the smaller, family farms would have benefited the most, since they are the ones least able to afford insurance.

Farmers and citizens in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, nearly all of Europe, Israel, and Japan are incredulous that America still doesn't have healthcare for all its citizens. Most of them see no reason you can't receive government-sponsored health insurance and still be a bonafide farmer.

I got this nutty idea the other day: let's try a national pilot project and provide healthcare for any farmer or small business with no more than 10 employees. The ACA works pretty well for low-income workers, so let's fill this other gap. If it works out well, we can expand it.

Many of the farmers I know are independent, not only as businesses, but in terms of giving instead of accepting help. "Don't make a fuss about us; we'll manage." And most do, most of the time. But for a pretty small investment we could make sure this one worry is no longer an issue for those keeping us fed.

It seems a pretty small thank-you in return for three meals a day.