M. S. Swaminathan Quotes

Never in my life would I have expected USDA to be opposed to farmers and ranchers.

As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.

The only thing I'd like to see hi [Jimmy Carter] do when he gets to the White House is appoint a working farmer as secretary of agriculture, that's all.

The National Policy for Farmers calls for a paradigm shift from measuring agricultural progress merely in terms of growth rates, to measuring it in terms of the growth in the real income of farm families.

We need a strong farm bill that gives assistance to farmers during times of drought, creates markets for local goods, protects our environment, and helps struggling families bridge the gap between hard times and a full dinner table.

To keep farmers on the farm we must maintain a strong farm safety net, but we will also have to build a thriving companion economy to compliment production agriculture in rural America.

Agrarian reform should not merely subdivide misery, it must raise living standards. Ownership raises the farmer from his, but productivity will keep him on his feet.

The agricultural interest of the country is connected with every other, and superior in importance to them all.

Farmers are farmers in the first place because they have the deep-seated instinct to raise crops, not to cut them back, not to leave the land unproductive.

Consumers cannot enjoy the prices and variety we farmers produce without embracing the technologies we use.

The [Agricultural] Department’s budget was $51 billion last year – more than the total net income of American farmers.

Food should cost more …. The farmer needs to be paid enough money for his food so that he can send his children to school and college.

What our family has done is participate in the farm programs … programs I think essentially almost every farmer in South Dakota has participated in those, and they haven't been bailouts, they have been programs that the United States has put forward for farmers to participate in.

Keeping our agricultural sector strong and secure should be a bipartisan concern.

With global markets ever expanding, we need to make sure that our American farmers, ranchers, foresters, and producers are well positioned to continue to lead the world.

It was in the best interests of Zavala and other counties that we move forward with a farm bill and provide certainty to ranchers, farmers, food banks, and other providers.

Waiver of farm loans is not an ideal solution. To ensure that the situation is not repeated, the government should focus on creating a robust system to extend the necessary ingredients of farming such as water harvesting systems, seed and fertiliser supplements.

I will always be a relentless advocate for our farmers, producers, and our way of life.

To achieve a Green Revolution, African farmers, must have access to land and security of tenure. They also need access to markets, technology and improved infrastructure.

We don't pay truckers not to truck, we don't pay miners not to mine and we shouldn't pay farmers not to farm.

We all flourish or decline with the farmer.

The only way to keep food prices down is to keep them [farmers] down on the farm after they've seen the parity.

The people we seek to relieve [farmers] from the oppression of unjust conditions are the largest and most conservative class of citizens in this country.

Shall we encourage our young men to be farmers and mechanics? Yes, a thousand times yes, encourage them to become producers as well as consumers, to be owners and tillers of the soil as well as cultivators and rentors; teach them that it is just as honorable to be an honest farmer as to be a lawyer, teacher or a preacher, and the royal road to success and happiness is built on honest labor, either of muscle or brain.

The majority of us don’t want to be farmers, see farmers, pay farmers, or hear their complaints. Except as straw-chewing figures in children’s books, we don’t quite believe in them anymore