How About Some Clean Laundry?
Posted: February 11, 2008
“Kick ‘em when they’re up, Kick ‘em when they’re down,” go the lyrics to the Don Henley classic “Dirty Laundry” about the news media and it is so true when it comes to mainstream reporting about agricultural issues.
As National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman laments, the mainstream media ignores the positive news about agriculture and either turns it around or focuses on the negative. “We’re doing more with less, we’re getting more output for less inputs, making agriculture more environmentally-friendly, more productive,” said Tolman. “It’s just a great story and it saddens me to see the negative side or a side that isn’t even true that looks negative being put out there to the general public.”
Tolman uses words like “opportunistic,” “unfair,” and “inaccurate” to describe many news stories, especially those linking biofuels to high food prices and world food shortages. He notes that corn production has never been higher, and the price is actually less when adjusted for inflation.
“We’re producing a 151 bushels to the acre of corn, back in 1944 it was 33 bushels to the acre,” he says. “Even with the increase in prices, if you deflated it for inflation, the price of corn is cheaper now than it was back in 1944.”
Can we get that word out? Doubtful. As Don Henley says, when it comes to the news, “we all know that crap is king, give us dirty laundry!”