Let’s Take Farming Back to the 90s

This Week In Ag #158

What were you like in the 1990s? That’s the question trending across social media. Inspired by the hit TV series about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, 90s nostalgia has become a pop culture infatuation.

So… what was it like to farm in the 90s? Few periods in history can claim more change in agriculture than the “Post Cold War” decade.

Economically, a semblance of stability returned, after the tumultuous 1980s Farm Crisis. This was aided by 1980s policies (farmers are often the first to struggle and last to recover from economic hardships) that dramatically dropped interest rates and lowered inflation. Farm income tripled compared to the previous decade, spiking to record highs in 1996. Trade increased dramatically due to NAFTA (although there is debate about who really benefited). Farmland values not only steadied, but they also grew 6.5% annually. This helped bolster balance sheets.

Technologically, we ushered in the biotech boom, and with it, introduced the most controversial acronym in food production history: GMO.

We saw the introduction of Bt corn hybrids, made to rid farmers of the “billion-dollar bug” known as corn borer. Roundup Ready soybeans made weed control easy: plant genetically modified Roundup-resistant soybean varieties, wait for the field to become so weedy that you can’t stand it, then spray the field with Roundup. Everything died except the soybeans. These were the first of many in-plant protections that made farming easy (at least at the time) and set back crop scouting and Integrated Pest Management for decades.

Solid strides were made in soil conservation. Conservation tillage was the rage, as chisel plows replaced moldboard plows with the goal of leaving at least 30% crop residue on the soil surface after planting. Aided by government programs (and yes, the expanded use of Roundup as a burndown herbicide), no-till acres exploded from 16.9 million to 62.4 million acres from 1990 to 2004.

Another acronym, GPS, made farming less of an art and more of a science. Auto-steer technology guided tractors with military-grade precision, eliminating crooked rows. Yield monitors gave us real-time, on-the-spot bushels-per-acre readings. This put huge grins on our faces when we hit sweet spots in the field, and grimaces in problem spots – all while opening our eyes to field variability.

Not since horses gave way to tractors had farming seen such rapid advances in efficiency.

Culturally, the face of farming changed forever. All this efficiency reduced time and labor, making it easier to farm more acres.

Meanwhile, the 1996 Farm Bill altered farm subsidies to include direct payments to producers based on total crop volume. Government payments nearly tripled by decade’s end. By 2000, subsidies comprised over 40% of farmers’ income, as 7% of farms received 45% of all farm subsidies. This drove up cash rents and drove out smaller operations. Mid-size farmers soon gave way to large producers.

Flaws in the system were exposed when it was revealed that NBA superstar Scottie Pippin received over $130,000 from the USDA while earning over $10 million for playing basketball.

Specialization is a by-product of efficiency. As many farmers abandoned livestock and gravitated to monocropping, the pork industry gave rise to factory farms. During the 90s, the number of swine producers dropped by 2/3. Operations producing over 50,000 head per year increased their share of total production from 7% in 1988 to 51% by 2000. America’s Dairyland lost 1/3 of its herds as Wisconsin relinquished its title as top milk producer to California.

But what happened on the farm was a mere reflection of what occurred within agribusiness. The world’s largest grain company, Cargill, bought the number-two company, Continental Grain. Monsanto not only acquired the iconic Dekalb and Asgrow seed brands, but they also purchased Holden Foundation Seeds, which supplied genetic access to hundreds of local seed companies. The Big Six (Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, BASF, Bayer, Dow) emerged from merger-mania to dominate the seed and chemical industry.

As for the farm life I knew prior to the 90s, when every farmer raised multiple crops and livestock, when pride was planting straight rows and building straight fences, and when neighbors acted like neighbors instead of competitors… it was “Hasta la vista, baby.”