what she spent live coverage of the funeral services former president jimmy carter on the c-span network but c-span now are free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> democracy, it is not just an idea. it is a process shaped by leaders, elected to the highest offices to a select few guarding its basic principles. it is where debates unfold, decisions are made the nations court are charted for democracy in real-time. this is short government at work. this is c-span. giving you your democracy unfiltered. democracy unfiltered with c-span experience history as it unfolds c-span saliva coverage this month as republicans take control of both the chambers of

congress a new chapter begins with the swearing in of the 47th president of the united states. on monday generate 20th, to an end for live all day coverage of the presidential inauguration donald trump takes the oath of office becoming president of the united states stay with c-span this month comprehensive live unfiltered coverage of the 119th congress and the presidential inauguration. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> brian arise in your is the author of this book land rich, cash poor my families hope and the untold history of the disappearing american farmer. joins us from california. what was your goal in writing this book? >> good morning pray thank you so much for having me. my goal is to answer questions i've been caramel for most of my childhood i grew up working and work of the family farm for as

long as i can remember there were people driving into the yard talking with this farm going under, that farmers farm isselling and i never unded why.ew i knew a grip and a special place a place of hard work and beauty. i never understood why farms are disappearing as i pursued my career in the farm i began to see economic system had been leaving our farmers behind. so wanted to answer the question of whys that was? how did that happen and that's what led to this book that marries the hidden histories of those issues with my families for generation from the generation today. >> what kind of farm is your family? >> felt small family farm in the hills of southern wisconsin. we are a traditional theory farm milking cows was about 50 cows which is a one time a medium-size farm became a very small farm for lipson's diversified my debt is still farming my sisters working to take it over from him. the weight they have diversified they sold the dairy herd when you get far bigger which some

families do or would need to sell the herd. so we sold the herd and diversify their still raising cows for other dairy herds they areth recent beef for consumers and cash cropping. as we speak working through on the right path forward for the farm. see what we talk about farms is to bring what you mean? >> absolutely. this'll wide variety long and short of it is fewer farms and the farms have been hit the farmers are h family farms all across the country. many of them have disappeared during economic crises. we need they have gone under bankruptcy and things like that. others him and bought up as economic pressures have made it harder and harder for farms to continue to make it. others have gone away and the farmland has turned into urban development and other things for there's no one specific bill and necessarily per there's a wide range. of factors have created pressure year after year to make it harder for our farms to make it. to grind out that living and are forced to sell their land for

development. or they simply go under. stuart according to the american farm bureau 1.9 million farms and ranches and that u.s. at 95% of them are family operated. farmers and ranchers equal about 2% of the u.s. population. farmers and ranchers receive about 15 cents on each food dollar spent. ninety-five% still family operated. >> guest: that's absolutely write the broader context on thoseht numbers we once had 6.5 million farms in this country that was the height and has gone down to less than 2 million. that's about 70% the loss of for the past century price spoke with the farm bureau for the book as well as critics of modern apartment to talk to people on all angles. the cost of that massive disappearance the nearly

2 million farms left nutley or 90% of the family on but 88% are small farms people are shocked to hear that. everyone envision a great big farm that's replaced farms of the past. here's a rails of his nearly 2 million farms most are small farms most are not making a full-time a living. the much larger firms peruse the bulk of our food. smaller farms 88% are small they working two -- three they're pouring concrete, and addition to operate the farm which is right now only supplemental income. in addition to trying to operate their farm which is only supplemental income. more and more small family farms disappear each year because people are trying to grind out a living, working 2-3 jobs and many times they can't make it anymore. host: a few more facts before our -- we continue our conversation. farming equals 1% of the u.s.

gross domestic product. farm exports were about 175 billion dollars in 2023. when he percent of the total farm product. an average farm feeds 169 people, annually. one acre can bring 50,000 pounds of strawberries or 2784 pounds of wheat. five pounds of butter a >> ten pounds of cheese and that is on a daily basis from one cow. >> one of the things we have to understand is there's a natural market consolidation this. happen withs any industry, and inre a industry like farming or logging or ranching, where there's a limited resource and

so much land after the country was settled, there's always going to be some salvation. one farm doing better than buying that farm. that's natural market forces and in america is not just natural market forces and ones that were mishandled.

>> happening to tame inflation and that made that debt more expensive. argue for or against any of thosee decisions. you can say i needed to do each of those things and combine them together and when you fail to account for how it affects our farm family, we had the government encouraging farmers to go together.

>> in the storm term there was a harm and farms going to borrow money theyer need to and uncertainty in the agriculture industry and the farm bill not passed and long term there's harm because we're not doing the work to roll up our sleeves and make sure the government programs are functioning in a way that have their intended impact.

>> it's a rich and harrowing story when you lookic at all things that americans have lived through. the farms that feed us. >> this is from kyle in reno, nevada. good morning. >> good morning. i have a question from mr. rise reisinger. i did my internship on the

universityed of arkansas. it helps them going for corporations andpo owning and leeing the property and then them having to the corporate in it construction and maybe subsidies will become m more fair and access to lower cost interest andnd become more competitive. >> speaks to what happens when a policy maker and gridlock and making sure we're farming our

programs and i mentioned earlier and really glad this was brought up andr the reality is that thee are so many programs and so much of our taxth dollars that go toward farming and they don't have the impact they're supposed to have. what happens is you have ram after program that passed on top of other and they're contraticket reigns leading and in time, it's -- contradictory and it's not for or against but it happens overtime and the reality is the largest operators have the army of lobbyists and lawyers to help them navigate in the first place. for all of those reasons, for the continued piling of these programs and the way they can be become prone to abuse over time and the fact that larger organizations are in a better position to take advantage of them, many times our tax dollars are not going to the place they're intended to go. you have this dilemma and family farmers are on the ground saying

thatha economics don't work and they're not getting assistance that is necessarily intended and where are our tax dollars going and what's happening with all the money? the caller iss talking about a very real problem that our policies aren't necessarily geared to helping both sides. they're some are family owned and larger surviving the economic forces that make it so hard for family farms and owned and supporting and multiple generations and many farms are mid sizeded and making a full-te living and not able to help supply the bulk of our food. there's ways to change governmentnt policy and more evn keel and something that is more catered to farms of all sizes and medium and small sized farms and feeling better to compete and better to make a full-time living for their families but

also be able to supply more food supply and coming over and caring about where they food comes from. >> tom from dubuque, iowa. tom, you're on with brian. >> good morning. ii just want to say, my mother was raised on a farm in minnesota that was homesteaded in 1843. small dare farm and 300 acres. my uncles raised nine children of that small dairy farm. >> what's your point in emphasizing that, tom? >> it's still in the family and operating better for them.

>> going for chicken plants and migrante labor and working there and have you experienced that in wisconsin? >> across the country i'll say the kind of farm i grew up on really didn't experience that as much. the reason is many of the larger need of the family and increasingly m in many cases and upon countries and so many family farms and aren't making a full-time living for a family and kind i grew up on provided a middle class living and growing up and that was fortunate enough and it was common for large

families and emblematic of farms and farming was hard and always involved great economic hardship in total and going for the letter and our family farms providing for a large family and did it in the depths of the great depression and families are smaller iner finding that te farmwh farms cannot make it anymore.

feed 14 children and feed them for the great grandfather climbing in the middle class and even in the depth depths of the great for example. exploring the family histories and lining up with the issues going for the disappearance of the farms. >> aren't larger farms more efficient and able to feed more people than the smaller family operated farms? >> it's a great question and there's certain truth and has its limits and what i mean is that larger farm haves the ability to food system more

broadly is a modern miracle and vulnerable. now our food system is so integrated and very few maths from the farm to dinner table and saw from covid when the supply chain was disrupted by plans being shut down. one large distribution center going down can affect the food chain.

>> it's bird flew our availability of eggs and going for them in any part of the country and going for the holiday season and whether it's weather event and pest for them happening over and over and we have such an integrated group system and a larger organization that's very easy for the food supply chain to be disrupted and many of the family farms are perfectly efficient and able to operate in as well and government policies more people on the farm or small farm would agree that we're having a landscape and farms that are more types and sizes can compete and better for all of us and i think that people looking at their grocery bills finding their >> can you walk us through

that supply chain? >> yeah, absolutely. the bestgu example is milk all though our farm has shifted in more recent years and diversified and milk is the best example and whatft happens is tt a farm like ours and from 100 years, we have -- we would milk cows morning and night and there were. machines and able to take on more and more cows but still very physical labor for a farm like ours and bring in the cows to the barn from the pasture and hauling machines and you were putting the machines on the cows and you were doing all kinds of physical labor, carrying feed and different things to and from the cows. in addition to field work and other things it takes to get that feed from the cows and shipped to a small fact i have that would large dairy

processers and creating milk for drinking and might be different types of cheese and other dairy products and it is taken by that >> going to distributers and sell to grocery stores or to restaurants and oftentimes there's half a dozen or more transactions between the farm gate and dinner table by the time something gets to the american people and that's an example and one thing we have in wisconsin and some of the family farms continue to survive for longer and wiping them out at rate of 45,000 in the country is because there were options like my dad had, which was to sell our milk to local cheese factory and making specialty cheeses and

purchased all over the country and he hadad choices, more so tn many evidence of infection of the farms overtime and locked into only being able to sell one type of product in one direction or one part of the market. many times farmers are facing the constrained choices increasingly. >> farm bureau reports that one cow daily can produce 10 pounds of cheese and going between the milking of the cow and product one the table. >> that's a great question. really depends upon the product and milk being sold and needs to be pasteurized and going to be on the day and going to have cheese made and that's going for days and sold for more and relates to shotgun you're talking about is the idea of

higher prices and weather farms make more money and the oillet is that they don't. gauze of all the transactions and food being bought and sold between the farm gate to the beginner table. by the time the higher price gets back to the farmers, there's a small share left and farmer dealing with increased prices and consumers frieses are going up. farmers are facing higher cost of seed, fertilizer and energy. when the food price is higher, they don't see much of that money and anything they see is really eaten up by increase in cost and farmers really are in lead with consumer and same economic crush. what do you do for a living? >> it's going beyond them and living in a smallno town here in northern california and the family farm in wisconsin and back ines wisconsin, for a good part of my time as well.

in addition to the book, i'm a columnist for milwaukee general usa today network and public affair consultant and i found as i was growing up, my talent was less on cat and will crops than it was for my dad and sister and pursued a writing career and working in public policy and consulting firm and we help work onc bipartisan and nonpartisan private sector issues work on writing and issues and solving public affairs arena and i'm honored to tell our family's story and get involved in the farm and i don't work there day-to-day, i help on the business side and mention any farm sid in the tractor and harvest this at home as well and that's something i struggle with in the book as well. talk a lot about that.

>> i o struggled with not taking other the family farm and father, grandfather had done and that weight of tradition and pressure itof puts on farm families is a real thing and something we explore in the book generation of generation as well. >> ty in mendon, illinois, thanks for holding and you're on with brian reisinger. >> brian, great to talk to you. my background is retail and i helped farm and my grandparents farmed and i enjoy it. i want to talk about a few myths that people don't understand out there and one is the fact that a big part of that farm bill and food stamps and people don't

seem to understand they see that total of the farm bill and think that's going for the farmers and that's not. >> i hear people blaming them for chemicals on the traffic and you know the biggest abuser of chemicalse is nice. >> they use ten times of any farmer going to do that. people have to also realize that the farmers are stuck by them on the board. not by them. working at corn right now, a little over four something, that price is about the same price it was in the 80s. that is not the -- feasible for a farmer. our government has to work hard tore open up more avenues so our farmers can get a better price. >> thank you, sir. let's hear. from brian.

... each year, the living that can be made on that is worse and worse. the reason is, just the caller said the prices are not necessarily going up. if they are going up and not keeping pace with cost. we don't have enough new possibilities for farmers in this country they would not have a place to take artisan tomatoes at the trying to grow but they noted take corn they've got a local green bar who will take that but we don't have a market

infrastructure or governmentar policy that allows our farmers to branch out and do nine new things a new entrepreneurial. for things we talk about in the book how do we transition from the system thatt pumps out a large amount over process with those farmers a few types of crops that going to be food system but how can we shift from that one entrepreneur more avenues as the caller says for farmers to be able to make money, new crops they can experiment with? that will create new opportunity and meet what i think is a growing demand amongst the american public to know where the food comes from. if we have farms producing more local and regionally produced a more food goes into special markets like happens with wisconsin cheese we have more that happening. farmers are able to find more economic opportunities consumers are able to find more types of food including fresh and local and the type of food they want to increase in the habit. is still a mismatch is not enough consumer demand to

complete overhaul the industry so many farmers are left growing crops and producing products and inlife certain limited economic value. that getsmi into the issue of chemicals and other things for the many farms working to transition off of chemicals. but they do not necessarily have those new crops that can transition and do something new and different. if you want to grow field corn in this country be resilient and be competitive you have to do some amount of that. many of our farmers want to go to shift o off of those chemicas want to pursue new types of economic opportunity. they are locked in and it cost money to make changes. especially when margins are so tight there's a lot of good observations there that speak to the limited options of farmers have in this country. stuart larry in michigan tweets in our puts on x, how is the price and availability of fertilizer affecting farms? >> severely. that's a very good observation. the reality is the price of

fertilizer is gone up in recent years. one of the most expensive with the cult inputs, input costs you have to put into producing that subject to many things that are global forces that affect that. but the reality is that's one of the closets has increased t exponentially. along with other increasing cost while the prices farmers receive, as part of the economic squeeze. the previous caller also mentions farmers don't set the prices per that's true but that'st corn or any other commodity crop -based week at the commodity markets dictate. that's a manager tried to find entrepreneur opportunities. they have the ability of the farmers to sell new types of they can say here is what i need to charge for this that's the way to break out of the situation where the commodity prices dictate with the farmer receives. cost like fertilizer,

seed and energy dictate with the cost for the farmer. it is a business you don't set your own prices. you do have prices dictated to you but it's very difficult economic situation we need to try to break out of. >> are street institute in washington, d.c. so-called middle of the road think tank, writes this this is from april federal farm subsidies increase landrices which benefits wealthy landen ownerst the expense of the many farmers who rent agricultural subsidies and the expectation of more in the future are capitalize further elevating prices and making farmland a good bet for hedge funds, wealthy investors better establish nearby farmers. do you agree with that? >> i do. he gets to the dilemma the book's title speaks to what it means to be land rich cash poor. thee cash port harder and harde. average family farm to make a living on the farm for all the reasons we talked about.

it gets harder to grade up that living future time the land is increasing in value only if you sell it. farm families dads and moms are looking around trying to figure out whether they're heading towards a did they have to tell their kids we can't make it anymore. we cannot continue to make a living here. what they want to turn around and sell it they list everything else for a farm family the land is a farm is not a sure mom and dad's job at your home, it's your community and heritage it also times of four generations. that is up very real. a large corporation. we tried to hold onto its harder and harder each year to make a living. entry sent little rock, arkansas. as china or other countries purchasing farmland in your area?ch

>> is a great question. i've not seen as immediately as it has been other places. all of our farmland is at risk. one of the reasons that happen less in wisconsin there is still somewhat of a base of small family farm small landowners and hold onto that land. we lose our farms at the rate of 45000 a year in the past century becomes easier and easier for foreign adversaries to buy a bur my per that's happening across the country for the recent comes easier the farm on his one entity if it's easier to come in at make a deal for one land owner gets further for the family farms the land may be held and less hurtful cans hanson care about investors being able to get a return for their investors. so it's easier for foreign adversaries like china or a company that the front for foreign adversary to come in a purchase thatom land. it's happening more at an alarming rate the amount of foreign farm ownership increased 15% in just two years.

some of that investment is by friendly countries there are farmers that welcome investment from investors from friendly countries they can help capitalize the industry the other who wouldfr never dream of it. the reality is a growing chunk of that is foreign adversaries for this a lot of concern about china, north korea, russia, iran. china in particular has been purchasing farmland and a way that not only endangers our food supply the holes on the land but measures are national security but they've been purchasing farmland near military installations as well. i don't think we can count as a coincidence. stu and paul is a farmer in pennsylvania, hi paul. >> hello. >> host: please go ahead. >> caller: thanks for calling attention to the reality of american agriculture. second, i am 80, fourth-generation my son is fifth-generation on the farm. we have food and grain operation in the last two decades. my son is very heavily into

agricultural entertainment. my question is where do we go from here? were stealing credits through a land of lakes and tariff, it appears as though the future may not be food the food may be energy, ethanol, sustainable aviation fuel biodiesel or something like that to the questions were to go from here? >> before you leave you say your farm is getting agriculture entertainment? >> yes. >> host: what is that, what is thatat mean? >> caller: i think your guest will know quite well. we are having guests come out to the farm, my son has a corn maze. it started with the corn maze is now diversified a little more into other things that families can comee out, be on the farm. pick their own fruit.

have a day for good family entertainment on our farm. it went okay. you also mentioned you are selling carbon credit. can you briefly tell us how you do that, what you are selling it to whom you're selling it? >> i wish i could give you a really good explanation. we are adapting the way we farm so that we capture carbon in the soil we are increasing the organic matter in the content by the way we farm. we are working with her true tara who is the middleman who certifies we arere doing what we say we are doing. they sell those carbon credits

to businesses. whether at the pepsi-cola or delta air lines, or somewhere else he wants to offset their carbon footprint. so it is complicated. it is a pain in the neck sometimes. we think it may be that is the direction we need to go in the future. sue and okay final question. you mentioned large agricultural concerned land o lakes. do you work directly with the company with land o lakes? >> linda lane earned true tara. true tara is that certifies carbon, we are in fact capturing carbon in the soil. certifies that, does the test and then marketed carbon credits we have captured. >> and got it.

appreciate your time, thank you for sharing your expertise. will hear from our guests brian reisinger. >> guest: what paul is talking is a great example of the family farm working to diversify in as many ways as you can. they're still growing certain types of crops and products. there also pursuing agri-tourism the tulsi gabbard place on the edge of the people care where their food come from one took about an expensive farm lifestyle. participating in the offset all kinds of avenues they're all strive your where the revenue streams come from. how it needs to evolve your in the question what's next, or to god from here question of the reason for that farms operate on incredibly tight margins. despite amazing creek to be like you're in for that farm they make the economics are still incredibly difficult. someme of the places will be

dictated by what we talk about in the book as an r&d revolution but research and develop it in this country is not what it once was decades ago per government r&d and private sector r&d. so much of our technology is focused on how can farms get t bigger and bigger more efficient in terms of size. scale neutral technology will be the type of technology only at large firms at medium and small print at myy dad or paul michael penciling out. you sit down to purchase this piece of technology's going to pay fore itself in five years, r 10 years. if you can't see that on that on a shortenough time horizon tt afford it. it is impractical and also affordable for firms of all sizes but there are good examples of this. one example being explored is

called gene editing. it's not scary like science fiction or cloning dolly the sheep sort of thing. they do notha have to be artificial or dangerous very basic. more on the order but we discovered hybrid corn. the gene editing can make it more types of crops and products can be grown and more types of soils, across the country, climates, or times of the year. they might be there for farmers to grow more types of crops and products are currently only available in one corner of the globe are that's a kind of thing that can create new opportunity, new avenues whether crop crops have meaningful markets to pursue the meat be opened up the possibilities for families like paul and like the onerg i grew p in to be able to have our farmerse be able to persist and reverse this trend. if we do not do that by the way,

we basically will continue to lose our farms this would get to the past century. despite their hard working good things they're doing are concerned about this. >> brian in the year 2024 is there anything that is really a non- gmo product on our american farms? most of the food produced in this country is produced by larger farms. many seeds and genetics of the seeds have been in one way or another changed or reformulated. some of that is very routine and normal to thought altar the altar the health of this food. they'retr working to supply food to the american consumer. there is a mismatch between the farms on the market. there are many firms that are

growing and would love to grow more of. food and fiber, products like hemp. their small niche markets for these they're not robustar enouh to build a fully make the transition. so you have many farms that therefore part-time income. working at many jobs off the farm in addition to the firm briefly at consumer g demand to continue to grow. it's been a growing people are caring for the food comes from ever.han older consumers to take a bit more of a step towards crops and products that come directly from the farm or they know where it comes from more market demand that can help farmers make that transition. making more types of crops and products where people can feel good about what they're putting into their bodies. >> host: timothy is an easter in eastbrookshire, vermont good morning. >> yes, good morning gentlemen.

i live about 3 miles away from the largest farm in the state of vermont. the way this farm became the largest is the fact is a smaller farmers which was mostly nil. their weight costs were down to nothing. of course the retail costs keep going up. this farm, collectively probably milks about 200,000 cows a day. what's funny is milk prices have

been so low for so long made a huge methane. cut the milk out of the parler. and then they got around back. right into the methane digester. >> host: o'brien, could you put it? or. on what you're trying to tell us? i'm sorry timothy. >> caller: okay, well, all i am saying is the small farmer has so many hurdles against it.

when it comes to organic milk, comes the bird flu guess what? there's another nail in the coffin. >> host: i think we are getting the gistha here, timothy, what u are talking about. try to do any response for that collar? >> the caller's on what the broad economic forces that push agriculture in this direction as we tell the story in the book from the early 1900s when my great-grandparents came here to dig a living out of the dirt and on up through today. the reality is farms have been pushedto more and more in the directionea of getting big or gettingd out. farms have gotten much larger to tragic survived the economic forces. they've been able to do that and squeezed out with the reality is the situation with milk and dairy is much like so many crops and products across the country where you have to be able to do is provide economic scale to make a living. to make a living on the low milk price when you compare the low

milk price andn. the cost of production. this is what we need to make semi- changes we need to talk in terms of the r&d revolution turns a change in government policy and programs make for the functioning of the way they are intended. too also shift so we have more competitive domestic international markets that have a fair shake for our farmers. all of these things these kind of things are hurdles to small family farms try to make it as a colorsync. >> white do most farmers republicans today? >> one of things it driven sentiment and rural america and among farmersg in general is ts feeling of being left behind. people can decide they agree or disagree with the reasons and the direction of politics and rural america. the reality is what happened in this country, that has affected the small communities that were built by theed farms. many of those communities have been shrinking that's on top of

the back manufacturing jobs and other things have disappeared from rural america the months filled some of those gaps. there are two economies there is the economy that affects everyone and then the rural economy that's been on a downward slope for very long time regardless of the ups and downs of the rest of the economy. t it's ann incredible amount of economic frustration and rural america. that something thein republican party at current has been able to tap into by their times in our history were democrats have been able to tap into that. the reality is we need new entrepreneur more economic opportunity for farmers and rural america but when to solve the real problems of farm families are facing. currently that frustration is playing out in the direction of the republicans. it has been in different directions and other errors it's weight about six of the it took both parties and into this

predicament both parties and everyone in between to sell it over the long haul it's a long term problem much bigger and broader than the recent political trend. >> host: thomas in birmingham, michigan. please go ahead tom. >> caller: good morning and thank you c-span for having brian reisinger. i'm very proudr. you're right we should be thereyo i understand your lament and leaving the family but your purposes definitely being served as a past national president of the board of physician nutrition specialist and nutrition and food are two separate things. even if intimately related. i would love to get your further perspective on what you have been touching on. a picture him sitting in metro detroit one end of the parking lot it takes me $6 to buy a pintof raspberry the other end s mcdonald's selling for $5 of value meal. you've already discussed some of us in terms of inertia, and the market and the subsidies and so forth that happened with the farm bill. can you comment a little further on the impression the general impression people have were over

subsidizing commodity crops at 220 millions and anchor in the nine seats, 30% of its corn? and, the modesty of any subsidies to go to so-called specialty crops were refined fruit andsp vegetables in that mismatch every american tried to eat the optimal amount of fruits and vegetable tomorrow would not be possible prices would skyrocket et cetera to your point i really appreciate further deeper thought into that i hope we canan get you to speak at the american college of lifestyle medicine at some point. >> host: thank you tom. three to think of your kind words i appreciate that i love these discussions. i would love to do that. something that is so w important to understand. which is that we have this large food assistant and creating overly processed foods also make it possible to food all across the country and traditionally for it to be affordable for the alternatives of that local food in many cases have been more

expensive. using t some of the inertia in e direction you're talking about the change that. unfortunately, as americans have experienced such high food prices we are seeing our modern food system although it's a modern miracle is deep in vulnerability and also the cost of food is going up within that system. the food system that was once affordable mainstream a way to get our food is not as affordable as it once was the reality is as we have more farms working for local regional specialty foods or his inability for economics to bring that price down as more and more farms are able to make that transition. this will be a gradual transition is going to take time it takes farms as you won't know it takes farms of money to make a transition like that to say i'm going to put a few acres in this other crop to see if there's a risk to that and also cost money they're operating in very small margins. we do need toar move in the direction i with the callers

talking about. more consumers caring about where their food comes from acting on that and helping withh that also to the point we need to change the way that her government programs work. right now you do have so many subsidies ago to certain types of products and other crops and products for example blueberries andbl asparagus in her neighborg michigan, those farmers do not have basic crop insurance. we do need to figure out a way to diversify the way our government handles its programs. that basic safety net that is there originally in part to help with uncontrollable weather and other factors. the basic safety and it is something that can be there for farmers more generally. during a lesson taking winners and losers through the program. more of what consumers want with more opportunities to pursue than economic opportunity government policies not standing in the way of that. we dress on these other factors

we can have more choices for consumers they don't have to pick between cheap food they don't know where it comes from and they are frustrated with the system more expensive for they know where it comes from they can feel good about for the reality is that system is getting more expensive that alternative is becoming more viable you to move government policy and of the things that are barriers to get in the way ofof that. see what usa today another column you pan rural america faces a silent mental health crisis. my dad fought to survive it. what i happened? >> thank you for asking about that. one of the stories we tell it in the opening pages it's a theme throughout the book is the mental health burden that exists in ruralal america. with help mental crisis all across a the country many walksf life in rural america is a bit of a silent crisis if not talked about this not as many resources. farm families are raise generation after generation keep your head down to get the work

done. the reality is facing that pressure of losing the farm for it not be able to make a living or turning aroundsi in selling t and lose everything else is an untenable pressure when you go generation after u generation great grandpa skate pre-world board one europe to make a living grandpa just surviving the depression, desiree the farm crisis why can't i make it question if that's the kind of pressure farm families feel. my dad in our case who made the decision to sell the cows to try to turntr around to be able to diversify the farmer make a living in a new way the reality is we had reasons for hope. we still had our land we had not lost everything. but my dad was dealing with the fact that he's the first in four generations of moreon than 100 years to sell the cows and could not get up in the morning and have theme same purpose that his father andd grandfather had ha. that led to depression. that's what my dad struggles with we told the story of standing on the cabin in the back of the farmhouse talking and i remember the sun was shining and i remember wondering

if he was thinking about harming himself. in the course of reporting the book and interview my family i learned from myle dad that he hd been thinking that. farmers suicide is a very serious issue trade that is one of the reasons farming is one of the top in this country for suicide. my dad was able to come through it in part because we were talking as a family. a we knew about the issue. he felt for his grandchildren we talk about the story in the book he began to say to himself i've got grandkids here, i've got to teach them. it's an emotional topic. but he thought of the next generation. that is what he sustained our farm families for decades in this country and i'm grateful he is still here. i hopeli anyone who is strugglig with that understands their strengths, not shame in speaking up and asking for help. we decided to tell a story in the book i talked to my dad for a long time and decided to share that story would make sure

people knew they were not alone in that struggle. if anyone is experiencing that whether they are farm family or any other type of family inan ts country i hope they seek help not only fear in crisis but dealing with the day-to-day struggles of life. dealing with it early talking about can help it from becoming a crisis if you are in crisis are people of gotten through that i hope you're able to do the same. we went 1.9 million farms and ranches 95% family operated, farmers and ranchers make up about 2% of the u.s. population. we see about 15 cents for each food dollar spent. farming equals about 1% of that u.s. gross domestic product farm exports lastuc year 175 billion which is 20% of the total farm product. brian reisinger is the author of this book land rich cash port my families hope the untold story of the disappearing american

farmer. thank you for being with us here on washington. speak to think of or have any. i appreciate it. >> idaho governor brad a little delivering his 2025 state and state address from the capitol in boise. >> from washington d.c. to across the country. coming up tuesday morning christopher direction of the kennan institute at wilson center set canadian prime minister justin trudeau resignation and present electron prepares to take office. and the kristine mcdaniel president biden's decision to block the 14 billion-dollar acquisition of u.s. steel by japan and trump trade policies. also author journalist jonathan wrote a biography of jimmy carter talks about the former president life and influence in american politics. c-span's "washington journal" during the conversation live it at 7:00 a.m. eastern tuesday

morning on c-span, c-span our free mobile app or online at c-span.org. ♪ witness democracy unfiltered with c-span experience history as it unfolds c-span's live coverage of this month republicans take control of both chambers of commerce and a new chapter begins with the swearing in of the 47 the president of the united states on monday january 20, to an end for live all day coverage of the presidential inauguration is donald trump takes the oath of office become president of the united states. say was c-span this month for comprehensive live unfiltered coverage of the 119th congress and the presidential inauguration. c-span democracy unfiltered. ♪ democracy is not just an idea that it is a process. this process sheet bite