LONDON, Ohio - Farmers might not be swayed by agricultural issues when trying to decide whether to vote for President Bush or Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
Experts believe the stable farm economy and lack of clear-cut farm issues separating the candidates will make farmers more likely to base their votes on other issues such as Iraq, health care or abortion.
Fred Hitzhusen, environmental economist at Ohio State University, said it will be difficult to sway farmers as a group because they have become more specialized, with conflicting interests at times.
For example, farmers who grow corn and soybeans want prices for those crops to go up, while cattle farmers who buy grain for feed would like to see the price go down.
We've got huge differences now between farmers
Hitzhusen said. That homogenous farmer that used to farm doesn't exist.
One thing that binds farmers is their reliance on federal programs, which can include subsidies. Farmers make decisions on what to plant and what new equipment to buy with that in mind.
Agriculture is driven almost solely by economics retired Circleville farmer Bill Richards said in an interview at the Farm Science Review, an annual exposition of farm machinery. You're looking for not much change. Richards, 70, plans to vote for Bush.
When it comes to agricultural issues, Ohio farmers seem most concerned about expanding foreign markets for their crops and increasing the production of ethanol so they can sell more corn to produce it.
Nancy Martorano, assistant professor of political science at the University of Dayton, said Bush stands to benefit the most from farmers' attention to other issues because rural residents are usually more conservative on social issues than city dwellers. Bush collected 60 percent of the nation's rural vote in the 2000 election.
Kerry will have to try to capitalize on voter discontent in rural areas with high unemployment or where factories or businesses have had major layoffs, Martorano said.
Only about 2.5 percent of voters are connected to agriculture compared with about 20 percent in the early 1900s, said Larry Sabato, political scientist at the University of Virginia.. ...However, he said the farm vote could be important where the race is close.
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