Jack Block, a now-90-year-old Illinois farm boy, was former President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Agriculture from 1981 until 1986, during the worst of the domestic farm crisis. Pigs, Politics, and Persistence: The Life and Legacy of John “Jack” Block was recently released and offers insight into the era and into the making of the man who led agriculture through the crisis.
The stories that mark the 80s on the nation’s farms and ranches run the gamut from farmers from southeastern Colorado joining a tractorcade to the nation’s capital, to bankers being shot by anguished farmers who lost everything.
Block’s memoir details his farming operation and time at the helm of the USDA. Courtesy photoIMG_5113
While secretary, Block’s son and father operated Block Family Farms and he said he saw the farm’s equity plunge by half during the 80s, even though they were among the lucky ones who had little debt. The “seeds of the crisis” were sown, he said in the 1970s, when Soviet grain purchases drove up prices and hopes. He said farm incomes rose, land prices were bid up by speculators, and farmers were told to borrow more and produce more. When the dollar was overvalued, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and farmers were left overextended, without a major trade partner, and facing interest rates near 20%.
Though Block was at the helm during that time that is primarily known for hardship, there are a number of major accomplishments that also mark his time as the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
LIFTING THE EMBARGO
President Reagan invited Block, likely, he said at the behest of the late Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, to California to discuss a potential cabinet position and the two agreed that their first goal was to end the Soviet grain embargo enacted by President Carter to punish the Soviets for their 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
Block answers questions from the press about the Soviet grain deal struck in 1983. Photo courtesy John BlockIMG_5112
Russia had long been an excellent trade partner, Block said, because “they purchased a lot and always paid cash.” The embargo failed because the Soviets found other countries to purchase grain from — Canada, Australia, Argentina and Brazil — and no longer needed American grain.
Even members of Reagan’s new cabinet, notably Casper Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, and U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick took a hard line and opposed lifting the embargo. Block said lifting the embargo was one of Reagan’s campaign promises in farm country and keeping the promise was what ultimately led to it in April of 1981.
Block said the embargo would have been lifted earlier, had Reagan not been shot on March 30. That day, Block agreed to ride with Reagan to his appearance to capitalize on some one-on-one time with the president to discuss agriculture issues. Block’s secretary reminded him of a prior engagement that prevented that ride. Block arrived on his own to the event and said he was standing about 20 feet from the president when he was shot.
Block famously invited foreign dignitaries to Block Family Farms, in many instances handing them a piglet, which he said always resulted in a flurry of flashbulbs and interest from the press. He hosted then-vice president George Bush, Indira Gandhi, French president Francois Mitterrand, and Soviet Minister of Agriculture Valentin Mesyats. Block said Mitterrand held a piglet, and also wanted to drive a tractor. He and Block climbed into the cab and, despite a language barrier, he knew the French leader was eager to drive. Block said he put it in low gear and allowed him to drive, crawling along while the French press swarmed the machine taking photos. Block said Mitterrand shoved the throttle up, scattering the press. Block slowed the tractor and said no members of the press were injured. Soviet Agriculture Minister Mesyats drove a combine a few passes while at Block’s farm and Block said he jokingly invited him back for harvest.
DAIRY AND BEEF
One of the major programs Block brought forward as part of the 1985 farm bill was good for dairymen, but bad for beef producers. At the time, there was an overabundance of dairy products languishing in warehouses and Block designed the Whole Herd Buyout to reduce dairy production at the ground level. Dairy producers were invited to exit the business for five years and their herds were exported or slaughtered, and they were paid by the federal government. Large numbers of dairy producers participated and the program rolled out faster than expected, with 15,000 dairies participating. It leveled out the dairy products, but drowned the cattle market in beef. Block said Oklahoma producers told him they went from earning $62 per hundredweight for calves, to $6 per hundredweight, a loss of $250 million in Oklahoma alone. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association sued the USDA for flooding the market, which resulted in changes that settled both the cheese and beef situations.
Presenting the president with an ag department team cap during a cabinet meeting in 1984. Photo courtesy John BlockIMG_5111
The Conservation Reserve Program is administered by the Farm Service Agency within USDA and it pays farmers to convert highly erodible or environmentally sensitive areas to native grasses, trees and riparian buffers. It’s not uncommon to see CRP fields standing where plows may have operated in decades previous. The CRP program doesn’t take appropriate farmground out of production but puts to use what ag producers learned from the driest years.
Block said the CRP program concept had been tossed around in the 1950s. but when the 1985 farm bill was being discussed in 1984, he said many of his own staff questioned whether it could succeed. Its original iteration called for a three-year commitment to resting the land, while Block wanted a 15-year production stop. Block found the funding within the farm bill to pay producers 50% of the cost to landowners for installing conservation measures.
Block said he, just as every ag secretary has and does to this day, struggle with public criticism of the huge USDA budget and the federal government handouts to rich farmers. The farm bill is comprised today of about 70% nutrition program funding to programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. To demonstrate that recipients received ample assistance from nutrition programs, the Block family went on food stamps for a week and Block even carried a brown bag lunch with him on flights. The press had a heyday. They were even further riled when ketchup was classified as a vegetable, which made great fodder for Reagan detractors on late night television. Ketchup or not, he said when he left Reagan’s cabinet, he helped get a grip on spending, reduce regulations, and expand trade all while navigating difficult times for ag producers and rural communities.
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