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John Cougar Mellencamp Had It All Wrong
By JLP | August 13, 2008
The other day I was driving and the old song, “Rain on the Scarecrow” by John Cougar Mellencamp came on. I listened to the lyrics and they ticked me off:
Scarecrow on a wooden cross blackbird in the barn
Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm
I grew up like my daddy did my grandpa cleared this land
When I was five I walked the fence while grandpa held my handChorus:
Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plow
This land fed a nation this land made me proud
And son Im just sorry theres no legacy for you now
Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plow
Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plowThe crops we grew last summer werent enough to pay the loans
Couldnt buy the seed to plant this spring and the farmers bank foreclosed
Called my old friend schepman up to auction off the land
He said John its just my job and I hope you understand
Hey calling it your job ol hoss sure dont make it right
But if you want me to Ill say a prayer for your soul tonight
And grandmas on the front porch swing with a Bible in her hand
Sometimes I hear her singing take me to the promised land
When you take away a mans dignity he cant work his fields and cows
It’s a heartbreaking song but the blame is misplaced.
Nowhere in the song does he mention personal responsibility. Instead he talks about praying for a guy’s sole who’s doing his job! He failed to understand that farming was a business and that with all businesses, if they aren’t managed right, you can lose them. Just because the land was in his family for several generations doesn’t mean squat if you can’t pay the bills.
Maybe this was the start of the victimization of America.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 26 Comments »
August 13th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
“Couldnt buy the seed to plant this spring” is an increasing problem. In certain crops and certain regions, now that Monsanto and others are selling single-use seeds that must be purchased again every year, it’s impossible to save seeds from one crop to plan the next one. This has driven up the cost of doing business significantly. The affected farmers can’t choose to set their selling prices higher to compensate – they have no control over a global commodity market. This has nothing to do with personal responsibility.
Surely, some farmers do go out of business due to poor management decisions, but farmers really are at the whims of global markets, with much less control over their own income and expenses, than most business owners.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Common lament of farmers. Similar to teachers complaining about low salaries. People seem to think they have some right to have the job they WANT but also think they should be paid a lot for it even though they knew going in it would be a hard way to make a lot of money. Many generations of my family were farmers, but when my grandfather got too old to farm he purposely sold the family farm just so his kids wouldn’t choose that life because he knew it wasn’t much of a future.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I wholeheartedly stand for personal responsibility…but there’s also corporate responsibility, isn’t there? Or is it okay to singlemindedly pursue profitability at the expense of ethics and morals and community responsibility? That’s a touch question, I think.
I hope we continue to see an increase in locally grown/farmed food. I do believe it’s a trend that will grow. It’s already becoming pervasive here in the Portland area, but we’re usually ahead of the curve when it comes to conservation/green activities.
Yes, farming is a business. But I hope there’ll always be room for the little guy as well.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Shucks, with commodity prices so high, on top of congress’s pork-laden farm bill largesse, the song should be called “Champagne on the Scarecrow”
August 13th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
It is JUST A SONG. You can’t take a song written by one guy and then assume that is really reflective of a large group of people. By this logic would you look at Willie Nelson and then conclude that farmers are all pot heads? Songs are popular cause they sound cool, not because they are accurate.
Jim
August 13th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Haha, wow. Jim, take a chill pill. I’m pretty sure JLP was being a bit facetious when contending that this single song was the cause of the victimization of America.
Humor. You should experience it some time. Of course, if you lean to the left, that is probably impossible.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I’m fairly certain it wasn’t bad business practices that caused the record-setting extreme drought conditions in my area last year that resulted in many, many farmers losing their land and/or their livestock.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Leslie,
Shouldn’t they have had money set aside for the bad times?
August 13th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
“Shouldn’t they have had money set aside for the bad times?”
Maybe, maybe not. Even if the farmers had set aside enough money for personal expenses, would (or should) they have enough left to save the farm? Remember that farms are businesses; is it better for a business owner to keep a large amount of cash on hand, or is it better to use that cash to maintain or grow the business?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Fred,
I think you have to have enough set aside for existence. How much is that? I have no idea as I’m not a farmer.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:09 am
@Leslie, it is bad business practice to not plan for common disasters.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I’d say it’s more about the trend and circumstance. Lots of family farms were sold or shut down because of low commodity prices at the time, and appreciating land values. It’s more about the loss of a way of life. I didn’t hear him say they were looking for a government handout.
Also, I’d wager that he could have kept the farm but nobody wanted to put that much work into it. Farming isn’t the easiest way to make a living.
Also, J: I know teachers complain they don’t make enough, but I really think good teachers ought to be paid more. A good teacher worth more to society than the meager pay they receive. Maybe we could at least respect them more. (But we do need better ways to get out bad teachers)
August 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
“I have no idea as I’m not a farmer.”
Exactly.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:49 am
What’s the old saying? “If you eat, you are involved in agriculture.” You can take the attitude that farmers are just like any other business but the difference is that if they fail, we don’t eat. If Microsoft fails, I don’t have a computer but life goes on.
The dilemma for farmers is that the better they do their job, the worse the situation potentially gets for them. If they grow more corn the price of the corn goes down and they end up making about the same amount as they did if they had planted fewer acres.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Jim,
Why should farming be any different from any other business? If you make bad decisions and don’t have enough money to get through the lean years, what should happen to the family farm? Just because I’m not a farmer does not mean that I don’t have common sense.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Dave,
How’s that any different from oil producers? The more they produce, the less valuable becomes their product.
My dad grew up on a small farm and they got by by living within their means and by diversifying. They didn’t just rely on their corn crops. They had milking cows, chickens, and other ways to make money when times were tough. They also didn’t go out and buy a $250,000 tractor.
Farming is a business and lots of farmers made bad decisions and that’s why they lost their farms.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
First of all, it’s just a song.
Second, when you say he “has it all wrong” you are incorrect. He is describing in the song a depiction of a small farm going under, which a common and realistic event in this day and age. You may disagree with the reasons behind it, but his description of that, and how the farmer may feel seems pretty correct.
As the number of farms in the US has been steadily decreasing, one may surmise that farmers used to know what they are doing, but now suddenly don’t, thereby going under.
Or it’s possible that global agricultural economics are changing, making small farms unprofitable to run.
The discussion of the ultimate impact of the loss of small farms in the US is left for another day.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Farming is heavily regulated by the government these days. Yes, farming is a business. But like any over-regulated business, it is more difficult to make the right decisions about what to put capital into, what to cut to limit losses, etc. Do you know why so much corn is grown in this country? Why so much of our food is laced with corn syrup? It is because the U.S. Govt subsidizes corn production. This distorts the market and encourages producers to produce too much corn. Farming in America is not a free-market business. It used to be, 100 years ago, but not today. As market, much of it is centrally planned in Washington, DC, mostly to the benefit of large agri-corporations. The little guy, of course, finds it harder to compete in that environment. Not because it’s free-market capitalism, but because the odds are deliberately stacked to favor large agri-businesses. Clear that away and fortunes may begin to change for small farmers who are good at managing their businesses.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I think your picking a fight with the wrong folks. All of the family farmers I know work damn hard and exemplify the idea of personal responsibility.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Wasn’t that song from the “Farm Aid” era? My recollection is that Mellencamp was a big supporter of that movement, along with Willie Nelson and some others. John has always been a prairie populist sort a guy, kinda like Springsteen, but in Indiana rather than New Jersey. Boy, that brings back the memories. That was back when oil was way cheap as well.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
JLP do you think farmers buy a $250,000 tractor just for fun? Times have changed quite a bit since your father’s time. If you are farming hundreds or thousands of acres you definitely need to spend quite a bit of money on equipment just to plant, fertilize and harvest your crop.
You are correct that in the past farmers diversified by raising animals as well. But that doesn’t work so well when the animals cost more to raise then you can get selling them!
As for this comment… “Just because the land was in his family for several generations doesn’t mean squat if you can’t pay the bills.” I have a couple thoughts.
Farming is much more then mere land and profit, it is a lifestyle. Many had ancestors who poured their blood, sweat and tears into the soil. They do not view their land, by how much money they can squeeze out of it, but instead how can they care for the land and protect it so it is there to provide for future generations.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
People were losing the family farms right and left due to a lot more than just poor business management. Do little research next time JLP.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Yemen makes a good point about crop/product diversification. I would add that the U.S. Govt regulates and subsidizes sections of farming to the point that it heavily enourages mono-culture. It is not a free-market business anymore.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
What about ever-increasing property taxes as land values increase due to development from ever-expanding cities? The perceived value of the land goes up, but it doesn’t magically become more productive. Similar case with estate taxes. Sure, they could sell their land to cash in and avoid these expenses (in fact, many do), but then there wouldn’t be any farmers. And without farmers, we don’t eat.
August 17th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Great!“I have no idea as I’m not a farmer.”If you make bad decisions and don’t have enough money to get through the lean years, what should happen to the family farm? Just because I’m not a farmer does not mean that I don’t have common sense.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Why bother to analyze the plight of a farmer in these days in the context of world economy? Why speculate on whether a farmer is responsible or not. The next time you open a can of corn and think about someone having to drive a planting machine across 40 acres of land and toil over the fertilization, insecticide, the high cost of bringing their product to market after turning on yet another machinic behemoth to just reap it off the stalks, the hard labor of loading and unloading that huge amount of husks, just so you can pour a 16 ounce can of sweet fresh corn on your plate, think about the one unavoidable fact that kills our poor farmers: It takes the same amount of gasoline to run that equipment as it did 40 years ago, but a can of corn went up in price only by 35 cents while the price of gas went up by more than three dollars.