Market to Market: The Third 10 Seasons

As 1996 began, we turned our attention to Bovine Spongiform Ecephalopathy, more commonly known as Mad Cow disease. We’d been following the issue on European shores since 1986. 

We checked on a pilot project for hemp production in the United States. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency eyed the project with some concern because of the difficulty to visually detect the difference between hemp and illegal marijuana.

We were following the North Carolina legislature wrestling with permitting issues for hog farms. The next year, a moratorium would be established on expansion of the hog industry in the Tar Heel state. The measure was made permanent in 2007. 

As 1997 dawned, dairy producers were already experiencing a severe downturn in prices and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman went to the countryside. 

Patricia Swetter, Dairy Producer, Clifford, Pennsylvania: "In one month the government cut the price $4. Why can’t in two weeks or a month put the price back up $4, like that?. It went down like that, put it up like that. We’re going out."

Sec. Dan Glickman, USDA: “It went down like that because the market went down like that. It may have been a manipulated market, the market went down and our basic formulated price is by statute to reflect the market. I did not snap my fingers and say, ‘I don’t like a $16 price, I want it $12 tomorrow and push it down. I didn’t do that. What, do you think I’m crazy? Would I want to do that to you? Of course not."

North Carolina citizens took to the streets to protest the expansion of a hog farm in Vanceboro, many were carrying firearms. Iowa and Illinois were also working on how to handle the issue of local control over hog operations. 

1998 saw the end to several years of arguing over the addictive nature of nicotine and who was responsible for the medical costs associated with smoking. Tobacco companies agreed to pay U.S. state governments more than $200 billion in damages as part of The Master Settlement Agreement. The decree included payments to tobacco farmers for some of their losses. 

We also profiled an environmental restoration project in Florida’s Everglades, the largest one ever attempted at the time. Sugar cane growers changed their management practices by reducing phosphorus runoff that was changing the ecosystem in the River of Grass. 

In November, the price of commodity pork fell to eight cents a pound, well below the cost of production. It eventually prompted a referendum on the Pork Check-off, the fee paid by producers for marketing their product. 

As bells rang in 1999, the largest discrimination lawsuit in the country’s history, Pigford v Glickman, was settled. The U.S. government agreed to pay $50,000 to every Black farmer who could prove they had been denied USDA benefits. 

Larry Ginter, hog producer: “I want my checkoff dollars back.”

At the turn of the century, a battle brewing over the Pork Checkoff came to a head. An official vote was held in September and a majority voted to drop the mandatory fee paid by producers. However, in 2001, newly minted Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venneman, concerned about some of the signatures on the original petition, announced the checkoff would remain in place. 

One of our crews went to the DelMarVa peninsula, where Delaware, Maryland and Virginia meet, to investigate conditions in the poultry industry. Farmers and workers in the heart of broiler country were speaking out about how they were being treated by poultry processors. 

Deb Zacharias, Tri-County Home Health Care “Good morning. How are you this morning?”

In our continuing coverage of the difficulties of providing medical care in rural America, we explored rural telemedicine.

We examined high nitrate levels in Iowa waterways. Some were placing the blame squarely on the backs of farmers.   

We rolled into 2002 looking at the Coalition of Immokalee workers who were pushing for higher wages at the rate of one penny per pound of tomatoes. CIW members pressed Yum Brands, the owner of Taco Bell, for the pay increase claiming the higher price would double workers’ wages. Taco Bell agreed to the increase in 2005 following a boycott that had culminated in a hunger strike outside corporate headquarters.

The 2002 Farm Bill, formerly the 2001 Farm Bill, was signed into law that year. The measure was a retreat from the free market reforms of the 1996 farm law adding countercyclical payments into the mix. The concept was the precursor to the price loss coverage plan or PLC included in the 2014 Farm Bill. 

In 2003, we were keeping tabs on water rights in California. 2817 and looking at food deserts in places like western Nebraska. 

As the end of the year rolled around, one of the cattle industry's biggest nightmares became a reality. On December 23, a cow with BSE was discovered in a U.S. packing plant. The animal never made it into the food chain. Cattle prices plummeted 

John Nichols, Executive Producer, 2003-2015 "…it had a major impact, when the cattle prices went down, corn prices went down. And every step in the way, people reacted. And markets don't like uncertainty, and they were pretty jittery.”

Japan, one of the largest importers of U.S. beef, joined a long list of countries closing their borders to U.S. meat imports. The Japanese market remained closed to U.S. meat products until 2005. 

We began our 2004 coverage with the fallout from the discovery of BSE coupled with a later revelation that Avian Flu had arrived on U.S. soil. 

As 2005 came to an end, we looked closely at the attempt to even out worldwide trade through the balancing of subsidies and tariffs among the 148 member nations of the World Trade Organization. The summit in Hong Kong ended with representatives of the top economic powers unable to come to an agreement.  

And through it all, we looked at prices, prices, prices with the likes of Tom Pfitzenmaier, Virgil Robinson, Sue Martin and John Roach.

For Market to Market, I’m David Miller.