On March 18, 1973, the first issue of Pro Farmer newsletter was published. The goal was to “provide America’s leading farmers with a competitive edge in marketing and financial management.” On our 50th anniversary, we maintain that same goal. For those Members that have been with us from the beginning, we are forever grateful. To those who have joined since then, we offer a heartfelt thank you.
On the 50th anniversary of Pro Farmer newsletter, co-founders Merrill Oster and Jerry Carlson penned the following message for you, our Members.
A View of Agriculture Past and Future
A message from Merrill
When Jerry Carlson and I launched Pro Farmer in 1973 we planned to deliver real time information that would lift farming from the “mom and pop” stage to one of professionally managed businesses. We believed that if you treat faming only as a way of life you could lose the business, but if you treat farming as a business, you could reap a wonderful way of life.
We realized that a businessman’s judgment is no better than his information sources. So we hired a Russian watcher, a Chinese informer, a Washington watchdog, and a staff of journalists and analysts to deliver current, market-impacting, decision-making facts in the weekly, first-class Pro Farmer newsletter. We accelerated the process by ushering the information age into agriculture with high speed news and analysis hitting farm offices via telephone, video-text, satellite and the internet.
In the newsletter and Pro Farmer seminars we championed the idea that grain companies owned the storage silos that line America’s railroad tracks, but that they were paid for by our own marketing ignorance. As a result, we promoted the use of commodity futures, on-farm grain storage and forward contracting to level theplaying field with the grain merchants who had manipulated harvest time prices to their advantage.
We were there to help farmers navigate the energy crisis of the 1970s, Nixon’s unleashing the dollar from its gold moorings, the Russian grain robbery, and lenders throwing farmers under the bus by raiding our equity in the land price crisis of 1984.
We showed members how to reduce operating risk by employing futures markets, and how to transfer that risk-bearing ability to land ownership. More than 5,000 farmers attended Pro Farmer seminars on land buying in the 1970s and 1980s. Today the largest number of American millionaires reside in rural America as a result of well-timed land purchases.
Looking forward, there are threats to global economic stability and America as a nation that could have both positive and negative impacts on American agriculture. If left unchecked, economic chaos will result from the loss of moral restraint which the American Founders saw as a necessity to maintain freedom. As we debase our moral currency, we debase the American dollar.
There are other forces of evil lurking: open borders, Chinese thievery, fiscal irresponsibility, climate mania, lawlessness and Marxist ideology with its hate for the faith of our Fathers. These are combined forces coming at America like a tidal wave. Unless these threats are resisted, the painful disruptions in global economic activity will likely include widespread famine, bankruptcies, runaway inflation, and regional wars. Some governments and currencies will completely collapse.
For the American farmer who has land mostly paid for, the ride will be rough but survivable. For those who are highly leveraged and financially unprepared to handle volatility, the result will be disastrous.
On the positive side, land price will likely double every 10-12 years, fueled by dollar devaluation, government driven inflation and a higher level of land productivity. Investors will continue to flock to land as an inflation hedge and the world’s best storehouse of value. Globally, food or its digital equivalent will be the new currency.
Robots will milk cows, feed hogs and drive tractors. The farm office will be a pushbutton paradise with artificial intelligence at our fingertips.
The greatest opportunity for farmers now is to use our hard-earned wealth, significant influence and prayer to support causes that advance our founding values. Our Founders held a Christian worldview that presents a golden triangle of ideals: Freedom requires virtue. Virtue requires religious faith. Expression of faith requires freedom.
The largest reservoir of American wealth, passion for freedom and God-loving family values resides in rural America. These powerful assets will be unleashed against the tidal wave of destructive forces that lurk on the horizon. Hundreds of ministries, charities and freedom-loving institutions hunger for investments needed to educate the next generation on America’s founding ideals, and in various ways provide salt and light to a decaying and dark culture.
Although there will be tribulations and volatility in our future that will require sound judgment to survive, I am optimistic. In the end Good will overcome Evil. Peace and harmony will reign. I am not a prophet, just a businessman/journalist reporting on what is written about cause and effect relationships in the Good Book upon which our Founders structured the great American experiment, the superstructure for a flourishing American agriculture.
Merrill Oster resides in Aurora, Illinois and Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife Carol. They have two children, six grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. They founded Iowa’s second largest Master Planned real estate development, Pinnacle Prairie in Cedar Falls and a Christian ministry, Pinnacle Forum, which encourages and equips leaders to develop a Christian worldview and engage in positive cultural change activities.
A message from Jerry
Merrill Oster’s eloquent epistle describes how Pro Farmer helped our members outsmart the market intelligence of global grain corporations.
Also, thanks to Merrill’s instinct for land stewardship, our LandOwner newsletter helped farm families increase their resilience against global corporations’ costs of fertilizer, GMO seed, weedkillers like glyphosate, and other pesticides.
Amid the 1980s ag crisis, we presented Renewable Farming seminars and articles encouraging farmers to leverage soil biology profitably. LandOwner published one of our first “bio” features 38 years ago: Miracle Microbes and other Beneficial Bugs that Build Your Land’s Productivity.
For almost a decade after 1984, LandOwner featured innovative ways to replace NPK and chemical dependence with natural nutrition from cover crops and rapid residue conversion. Goals: Higher profits. Toxin-free, healthy soil and nutritious food. More resilience against weather and captivity to high NPK and chemical costs.
Today, many new biofarming consultants and companies are multiplying our early encouragement.
Last December, more than 450 farmers and dozens of exhibitors convened here in Cedar Falls for “The Big Soil Health Event” organized by Soil Regen (https://agsoilregen.com). Keynote speaker was Dr. Jerry Hatfield, former director of USDA’s National Laboratory for Agriculture and Environment at Ames, Iowa. He described how higher-humus, living soils help farmers buffer stress from the Midwest’s trend toward rainy springs and drier summers.
Biofarming is blossoming into a global megatrend. It’s often labeled “Regenerative Agriculture.” The most optimistic farmers I know are those phasing into non-GMO corn and soybeans, adding cover crops and microbes to multiply humus and soil life. They’re capturing carbon and other nutrients from crop residue. Ag labs are expanding services to include measures of microbial activity, sap tests and other “regen” analyses.
As my wife Jill points out, the most difficult struggles take decades, but generate the most momentous outcomes.
Today, Farm Journal and AgWeb regularly feature farmers enjoying non-GMO biofarming success. In March 2021, Farm Journal editors published a landmark article, “The Biological Race is On.”
Here’s a quote from a Farm Journal feature by Chris Bennett: “Iowa Farmer Goes Bushels Up and Fertilizer Down With Biologicals:”
In 2012, Matt Brincks went whole-hog, shifting his entire operation to biologicals. The result? “The effect has been incredible,” he says. “Fertilizer reduction, yield increases, soil structure improvement, and much more—I’ve seen serious changes. I’m an open book and the math doesn’t lie about what I’ve experienced on my farm.”
For another powerful biofarming inspiration, read about the dramatic success of Seven Sons Farm near Roanoke, Indiana. On their website (https://sevensons.net), founders Lee and Beth Hitzfield describe their adventure: “In the late 1990s, we embarked on a journey to build a regenerative pasture-based farm based on transparency, with an open door to the public. Because of overwhelming support from folks like you, we now partner with like-minded farmers to help serve thousands of families with nutrient-dense, ethically raised foods.”
Some of the best-known and effective advocates for regenerative ag are members of Gabe Brown’s family, based on their 5,000-acre ranch near Bismarck, North Dakota. (https://nourishedbynature.us)
Rising consumer eagerness for tasty, highly nutritious and toxin-free food is also spurred by health anxieties. Today, 42% of Americans are clinically obese, leading to shorter average lifespans. Medical costs have doubled since 2000. Now, this administration wants to grant the World Health Organization sovereignty over U.S. medical mandates amid pandemics!
After analyzing more than 60 studies of GMO/glyphosate impacts on health, Mexican authorities are intent on banning GMO corn imports. I see opportunity in this: Raise crops our customers want!
These trends offer rich opportunities for farmers. Millions of families worldwide are choosing healthier lifestyles, including non-GMO and organic food, for greater natural immunity and fitness. Join the adventure to satisfy this market!
After co-founding Professional Farmers of America and serving as Editor of Pro Farmer and LandOwner, Jerry retired in 2001. In 2008, he and his wife Jill launched Renewable Farming LLC, a biofarming research and manufacturing firm. It’s now owned by their son Erik and his wife Jeanene.