Stateline - share of lawmakers who work in agriculture is half of what it was in 1976. Since then, the percentage of farmers has fallen from 9.7 to 4.6 percent, according to a new survey of the composition of the nation’s 50 state legislatures by Stateline and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Even traditional agricultural states have seen the percentage of legislators who consider themselves farmers fall off. North Dakota, which had the greatest percentage of farmers at 42 percent in 1986, experienced the largest drop. Now, 23 of 141 legislators, or 16 percent, are farmers.
Vogel, a Republican and the chairman of the Pennsylvania Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee, worries that independent farmers won’t have a voice inside legislative committees, and on state House and Senate floors.
“Without someone there to say, ‘Whoa, let’s take a second look at this, this might not be the best thing for farmers,’ we’re going to get steamrolled,” Vogel said.
Farmers aren’t the only ones holding fewer seats than they used to. The percentage of lawyers serving in statehouses dropped from 22.3 percent in 1976 to 14.4 percent this year.
Lawmakers with business backgrounds hold the biggest share of seats. The survey found 29.5 percent of legislators are business owners, or are in accounting, insurance, real estate or other business fields. In all, 55 percent of state legislators nationwide work in business, are lawyers, or say lawmaking is their main profession. In 1976, 61 percent of legislators were in those fields. Since then, the percentage of lawmakers from other professions, such as consulting or nonprofit work, has grown.
The survey also revealed that the legislators generally have higher educational attainment than the population as a whole or the populations in the states they serve. Full-time legislators — who tend to be serving in more populous states — generally are more likely to have college diplomas than those in states with part-time legislatures.
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Of the small percentage of those still identifying as 'farmer', a dominant percentage of that subset happen to be Mennonites. It is difficult to arrive at a precise number because USDA does not record that demographic, despite maintaining data on other ethnicities. Typically Mennonites choose not to vote, though that it is not always the case. They are, however, content to have others act indirectly promoting their interests, often these surrogates happen to also be lobbyists for Cargill, Bunge, Frontera, Monsanto... it's an exhaustive list. Not to put too fine point on it, for the most part throughout the world Mennonites ARE industrial agriculture---the bucolic image of nineteenth century style farms and horse buggies not witthstanding.
The Mennonites in our region are all about vast fields of near mono-culture, GMO #2 hard shell corn and GMO soy, Confined Animal Feeding Operations, industrial grain milling facilities, ect. It is no surprise, therefore, that farm legislation passed in our state tends promote profit over sustainability, production over environmental protection, and everything aligning with the theocratic agenda of the Christian-right.
Given that the many business and consulting types now occupying seats in our legislature formerly worked for or with business like Cargill, Bunge, Frontera, Monsanto... it's an exhaustive list, prospects and hopes of seeing enlightened and progressive legislation anytime soon are nil.
And on it continues...
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