A Refreshing View
John R. Norton III, former deputy secretary of agriculture, expressed some refreshing points of view on America’s farm problems in the June 3 story “State’s Farms Seen as Healthier Than Midwest’s.” Norton’s support for returning to “free-market agriculture” is not often heard from farmers, much less from someone who has been a top-level government agriculture official.
He seems to be one of the industry’s leaders who can foresee that with continued technological advances coming in agriculture, the problem of oversupply will only get worse if some of the producers are not driven out now. Norton said “the unregulated sectors will heal the fastest.” It seems that history has shown us that the regulated sectors will never heal.
CRAIG JOHNSON
San Luis Obispo
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