0000064563 00000 n An increasingly consolidated meat industry learned to transform cheap grain into cheap but highly profitable burgers, chops, and chicken nuggets. Ulrike Butz. It was obvious, however, that policy decisions in this area were being made at the State Department. 0000008170 00000 n [29] He is buried at the Tippecanoe Memory Gardens in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 1972, the Soviet Union, suffering disastrous harvests, purchased 30 million tons of American grain. Current agricultural policy has proved this as well, as America can no longer sustain the health and environmental implications of subsidy fueled factory farms. Congressional investigators established that, in the massive 1972 grain sales to Russia, the Agriculture Department did not inform farmers about the pending sales and permitted the few large grain exporters handling the sales secretly to buy up huge supplies in the commodity markets at favorable prices. 0000028915 00000 n I told him, You've got too many instant experts on agriculture in the White House They're brilliant people, but with no judgment. The act granted settlers one hundred and sixty acres of land, which they would own outright on the condition of improvement after five years of homesteading, or could purchase at a low cost after six months. 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. 0000070684 00000 n As the scandal spread to include nearly all the major grain companies, and as it became clear that it was the conflictridden inspection system that was the cause, Butz changed course. Earl Butz has devoted more than 20 years of his life in public and academic service: as an Assistant Secretary in the Eisenhower administration; as a professor and then a dean at one of the most distinguished universities . At the 1974 World Food Conference in Rome, Butz made fun of Pope Paul VI's opposition to "population control" by quipping, in a mock Italian accent: "He no playa the game, he no maka the rules. 0000043465 00000 n A year after Butz became Secretary, department officials in Des Moines, Iowa, received an unprecedented message from Washington: Sell the millions of bushels of corn being held in Government storage. The program went from limited and controlled by the government to expansion, so more food could be produced. "Federal Farm Policies Hit". 0000049217 00000 n That is one of the most outrageous things I've seen, but it's typical of the way Secretary Butz operates, says Foreman. in agriculture (1932) and a Ph. Earl Butz Oral History Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum 3 Butz: Oh, Nixon was warm and personal when you got to know him. He died still holding an emeritus position at Purdue. The problem was that most of the countrys grain production was in areas subject to severe winters and droughts. The Butz farm policy is one that involves risk. Twitter, Follow us on Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. Describe that change. 0000041223 00000 n 0000008094 00000 n In 1973, he reduced the number of acres set aside or taken out of grain production from 25 million acres in 1972 to 7.4 million acres in 73. www.ers.usda.gov/media/259572/eib3_1_.pdf, Atkin, Michael, Grain in the Global Political Economy. In, Henderson, G.C.. Notes and Memoranda: The Agricultural Credits Act of 1923., Rasmussen, Wade, Gladys Baker, and James Ward. 18. 0000065934 00000 n 0000041878 00000 n 0000009293 00000 n On June 19, he was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1970, the Government was paying farmers $3.7 billion in subsidies, mostly as an incentive not to plant. It is possible, too, that domestic food prices would drop, although, because of the middleman factor, that is far from certain. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed him the 18th US. [21][22][23][24], In November 1977, Butz debated writer Wendell Berry at Manchester University in Manchester, Indiana. But over the years not unlike his political patron, Nixon he returned to respectability. 0000044615 00000 n Design and build by Upstatement. He was the uncle of NFL defensive tackle Dave Butz, an All-American at Purdue University and All-Pro with the St. Louis Cardinals (1973-74) and Washington Redskins (1975-88). 0000019559 00000 n 0000060447 00000 n In other words, plow up and plant every bit of land you can get your tractor on. Earl Butz I challenged things that needed to be challenged at Purdue. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $61,183 in civil penalties. Twitter, Follow us on 0000029355 00000 n But New Times magazine enterprisingly sleuthed out Butz's identity by checking the itineraries of all Cabinet members. analyzed the issue of executive immunity in terms of general policy considerations, and stated its conclusion, quoted supra, in the same universal terms. His policies encouraged farmers to plant as much corn and other commodities as they could, o View the full answer Transcribed image text: Briefly explain the relationship of Earl Butz's food policy from 1973 to the meat that we eat today. 0000056005 00000 n He received a B.S. 0000047333 00000 n What policy did he promote in 1973? Subsidized foods became less expensive, yet were higher in energy than unsubsidized crops such as fruits and vegetables, so Americans were financially inclined to purchase them. He left both of the aforementioned posts in 1957, when he became the Dean of Agriculture at his alma mater, Purdue University. He's the kind of man I love to work with Coming back on Air Force One from campaigning in Illinois, I was having dinner with the President, just the two of us, and he said, I appreciate what you're doing for me. I said, Look, I'm not doing this for you I'm doing this for America. 0000043291 00000 n You could no longer assume your fellow whites would protect you for telling a joke insulting to blacks, and you could no longer assume your fellow blacks would protect you for telling a joke insulting to Jews. He is blamed for high food prices, accused of hurting small farmers and of playing politics with malnutrition and hunger and he is charged with disrupting the nation's foreign policy. You are the most productive part of America! "[11] A spokesman for Cardinal Cooke of the New York archdiocese demanded an apology, and the White House[11] requested that he apologize. Butz, who once called Richard Nixon one of the greatest Americans of this century. now says he has very good rapport with Gerald Ford. It's true that if we suddenly stopped exports, food prices would fall, he says, but with falling prices paid to farmers, production the next year would be cut back. Indeed, the Agriculture Department has provided little support to those in other branches of the Government who have attempted to investigate the middlemen in the farmtomarket price spread and to probe the monopolies in the food industries, which include proces sors packagers, wholesalers, shippers, supermarkets. 0000049770 00000 n . He is known for King Corn (2007), News 15 Nightbeat (1985) and Independent Lens (1999). First published in 2009. Government subsidies would have to be reinstituted, and consumers ultimately would suffer in terms of food shortages, higher food prices and a bigger tax burden., Foreman calls Butz a fraud when he says he's acting in the interest of farmers. Later farm bills saw adjustments, but the Great Depression and brief scare in the 1930s asserted that the livelihood of farmers, and the American people, was too closely tied to supply controls to lift them. By artificially increasing demand for food, food production became more efficient and drove down the cost of food for everyone. 0000063693 00000 n I think many educated consumers understand that most farmers often do very poorly financially and have only a small return on their investment. She points to the Secretary's recent creation of an eightmember Agriculture Department advisory committee to evaluate regulaLions affecting the food industry. x|kQO$c*M3Sj In the 1974 incident, the Times reported, Butz, using a mock Italian dialect, criticized on Pope Paul VIs opposition to using artificial birth control as a solution to world food problems. In the 1976 incident, the Times said, Butz made a remark in which he described blacks as coloreds who wanted only three things satisfying sex, loose shoes and a warm bathroom desires that Mr. Butz listed in obscene and scatological terms.. Nevertheless, there has been, as Butz asserts, something of a revolution in American agriculture during his tenure. The move worked dramatically. Butz tells farmers that consumers are mad at them because of high retail food prices. 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. American land policy began in the wake of the Revolutionary War, designed to bolster agricultural production to support the expanding nation. Secretary of Agriculture. The Earl L. Butz file group documents the activities of the Office of the Counsellor to the President for Natural Resources from its inception in January of 1973 until its functions were subsumed by Governor John Love's Energy Policy Office in the summer of 1973. 0000064144 00000 n He is fond of the disparaging statement; he likes to question the political motives of those who disagree with him. That was true in the Soviet Union, as well. 0000065488 00000 n Earl Butz, 2006. 0000070292 00000 n 0000050525 00000 n Understanding why and how agricultural policy has changed over time contextualizes the shift from farming communities to factory farms, environmental crises, Americas role in international grain trade, and how food travels from farm to table. 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. 0000059674 00000 n The need for reformation has revealed no agricultural policies are sustainable for indefinite periods of time. The Center was founded on a different belief. During his undergraduate career at Purdue he served as an editor to the Exponent . http://millercenter.org/president/monroe/essays/biography/8. "Get big or get out," Butz told farmers in 1973, and boy, did they. 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. Instagram, Follow us on I've got a department full of people who know how people react out in the country. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. He received a bachelor of science degree in agriculture in 1932, and then a doctorate in agricultural economics in 1937. I went to Syria. Help us continue to bring you the best of the archives without the dust! 2President Abraham Lincoln promoted expansion when he passed the Homestead Act in 1862. He took off the restriction that farms had stating what they could and could not produce . 0000029849 00000 n 0000048447 00000 n He's on the side of people who buy from farmers and sell to consumers.. Then, in the 1980s, the bubble burst. Grain farmers are planting fence row to fence row, and the payments to them have nearly stopped. 0000061873 00000 n I tried to interview him last fall for Grists Sow What? Top 10 Earl Butz Quotes (2023 Update) - Quotefancy Top 10 Earl Butz Quotes (2023 Update) 1. 0000049595 00000 n 2027, 36 L.Ed.2d 912 (1973). Earl L. Butz, the outspoken U.S. Agriculture secretary forced from office in 1976 for making a racist joke, died Saturday morning. trailer Policy makes politics. [12], News outlets revealed a racist remark he made in front of entertainers Pat Boone and Sonny Bono and former White House counsel John Dean while aboard a commercial flight to California following the 1976 Republican National Convention. 3By the end of the nineteenth century, agricultural policy contributed to the settlement of 80 million acres of farmland. If lie doesn't get it, he'll have a firstclass farm issue on his hands because we'll have enough of a surplus to remind farmers that he's been against higher Government price supports. The General Accounting Office warns that such a bumper crop could deal a serious blow to the farm economy, because the Agriculture Department has no real plans for dealing with either surpluses or shortages. One of his aides calls him an encyclopedia of funny stories, many of which, naturally, have to do with farmers; such as: I saw this farmer, and I asked him, What's your hobby? He said, Farming. I said, What would you do if you inherited a million dollars? He said, I'd keep on farming as long as the money lasted. His jokes have occasionally gotten him into troublelike the one in which he ridiculed the Pope's stand against artificial birth control by saying: He no playa da game; he no makea da rules. The remark brought a storm of protest from Catholics and ItalianAmericans, and resulted in one of Butz's rare apologies. He went on a speaking tour and encouraged farmers to plant fence row to fence row to meet global demand. Valuating is itself the value and jewel of all valued things. He was married to Mary Emma Powell. [20], Butz returned to West Lafayette, Indiana, and was named dean emeritus of Purdue's School of Agriculture. He was Secretary of Agriculture from 1971 to 1976 under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. 2023 U.S. History Scene, all rights reserved. He died in his sleep, a quiet end for a man whose career shook the earth, causing untold acres to succumb to the plow. A Short History of Agricultural Adjustment, 1933-1975. National Agricultural Library Digital Collections. Instagram, Follow us on In the 1970s, changing diets worldwide, bad weather in Russia, and U.S. government policies combined to create a boom in rural America. Five years later, he pled guilty to tax evasion and served a short stint in jail. Earl Butz and the U.S. He took his first federal post, as assistant agriculture secretary under President Dwight Eisenhower, serving 1954 to 1957. To make the policy shift palatable in the Midwest, Butz needed to convince farmers that they werent risking a return to Depression-era conditions: vast overproduction, low prices, and foreclosures. 0000044297 00000 n The maritime unions seized the opportunity to press for more favorable shipping rates by refusing to load grain vessels bound for Russia. He tells the farmers that they are the last bastion of patriotism and hard work, and that the food they grow will be the key to world peace during the next quarter century. The man was a creep. 0000069148 00000 n Despite the success of the 1973 farm bill in supplying food, America has faced resulting health crises attributed to an abundance of cheap calories, a loss of small farms, and environmental impacts of factory farming. Last year, they harvested 1.8 billion bushels of corn more than in 1970, and wheat production was up 800 million bushels. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973. Earl Butz has been and continues to be a close personal friend and a man who loves his country and all that it represents. The dust bowl was a fresh memory. 0000069545 00000 n Without conceding the criticisms against him, Butz insists that his real contribution has been in restructuring American agriculture by extending its markets abroad. 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]. Naftali: Was it surprising to you when you were asked to come to Washington again to be in his Cabinet? 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