2025 Scholarship Winner
Peter Nydam (471412112)
Peter’s essay discusses the impacts the US government’s policies have on farmers today, and in Jonas’ day.
Peter's essay -
As someone born in 2006, for better or for worse, I am a child of the digital age. The impact of resources such as artificial intelligence search engines, modern warehouses, and personal transportation devices play a large role in shaping my day to day life. Furthermore, I carry in my pocket a device capable of complex mathematical modeling, streaming movies, and taking high resolution videos. These are feats that would seem akin to magic in the eyes of my ancestor Jonas More, who was born in 1778, two and a half centuries ago. When Jonas was born the United States was a nation in its infancy, having just drafted the Declaration of Independence two years prior, and still without sovereignty which would come in 1783 after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, when Jonas would have been five years old. In addition to being a newly formed nation, the United States was not yet industrialized and many families were still in the farming industry, including the More’s. Due to this, Jonas was raised as a farmer in a period of political uncertainty, which is perhaps what prompted him to become so involved in politics. Jonas was elected supervisor of Roxbury in 1831, 1833, 1834, and 1842. In 1839, he represented Delaware County in the New York Assembly. While I do not share Jonas’s desire to participate in politics beyond my civic duty as a voter, I notice the effect that politics have on farmers the same as Jonas would have.
In the era that I live in, which follows the Green Revolution, farming looks drastically different than when Jonas was alive. This applies to both the amount of people who are farmers, and the manner in which the farming is done. Nowadays, chemical fertilizers increase crop yields, irrigation systems keep fields hydrated in the absence of precipitation, and anaerobic digesters are used on large dairy farms to extract natural gas from manure. My own parents, Daryl Nydam and Gillian Perkins, work as veterinarians and epidemiologists to improve farming practices. As a result, I live in a unique scenario where I hear from them how certain policies are affecting agricultural practices while not being a farmer. For example, the FDA has set limits on the amount of growth hormones that can be used on cattle even though there is no evidence which suggests a connection between hormone residue consumed and human health detriments. This not only makes the cows less environmentally efficient as they produce less nutrients per resource invested to them (feed, water, land use), it influences the profits that the farmer can make from their herd because they have less material to sell. Another example of the government impacting the lives of farmers lies in regard to subsidies placed on certain crops. The most subsidized American crop is corn which has been estimated to be around 115 billion dollars since 1995. While there are many benefits to growing corn opposed to other crops, the most prominent reason for a subsidy so large is lobbying from large corporations. Because corn is used to make food additives like cornstarch and high fructose corn syrup, making it an ingredient in almost every processed food product, there is huge demand from large processed food companies for corn. It is also used to make ethanol furthering its economic importance. As the primary role of the subsidies is to drive the nation’s economy forward, not benefit farmers, farmers could be growing a suboptimal crop, for public health or ease of production, due to governmental economic influences. In the present day, government decisions clearly direct the decisions and lives of farmers.
During Jonas’s time involved with politics he had a front row seat to witness the effects the government had on agriculture as both a farmer and policy maker. During Jonas’s time involved in New York’s legislature many of New York’s residents, particularly those living in the city, were drinking swill milk from Long island or New Jersey. This is part of what encouraged the state to invest in the Erie Canal to allow the flow of goods between the Hudson Valley and Western New York. Imports from these regions to the City fixed the swill milk problem and spurred agricultural development in upstate New York. For a time New York was the biggest dairy producer in the country. While Jonas would not have been directly involved in the deliberations regarding the Erie Canal as it was completed in 1825 and he served in the Assembly in 1839, and began local government work in Roxbury 1831, it is perhaps the effects of the Erie Canal that drove him to petition for office. It is also incredibly likely that Jonas’s farm prospered due to economic opportunity presented by the waterway. During his tenure in office, he also most definitely had a voice in other agricultural issues of smaller magnitude. I like to think that Jonas was a great legislator because his background as a farmer gave him first hand insight on what the results of his decisions would be on the agrarian economy.
Despite the difference in resources and technology available to us, both my ancestor Jonas More and I have had our lives shaped by the government and how it has dealt with agriculture. At the moment, these effects might seem more niche like the use of growth hormones or subsidies on certain crops, the effects are still noticeable in everyday life. For Jonas, the effect of larger projects like the Erie Canal or policy that he wrote himself during his time in government are perhaps even more prominent. Jonas is sure to notice them more to me as he lived his life as a farmer while thus far I have been a full time student with a seasonal landscaping job. I predict that many of my other relatives, past and future, will be able to relate to Jonas as well because the government will continue to look to boost the economy whenever possible and farms are not going anywhere because people need to eat.
Works Cited
Chapter 4: The Problem with Milk | Sheffield Farms, sheffieldfarms.neighbors.columbia.edu/content/chapter-4-problem-milk. Accessed 1 June 2025.
Hayes, Tara O’Neill, et al. “Primer: Agriculture Subsidies and Their Influence on the Composition of U.S. Food Supply and Consumption.” AAF, 3 Nov. 2021, www.americanactionforum.org/research/primer-agriculture-subsidies-and-their-influence-on-the-composition-of-u-s-food-supply-and-consumption/.
JMA Directory – Directory of Descendants of John and Betty Taylor More, www.more.org/directory/aboutMe.php. Accessed 1 June 2025.
Johnson, Hannah. “The Use of Growth Hormones in Beef Cattle: Environmental Benefits and Consumer Safety.” New York Animal Agriculture Coalition, 5 May 2025, nyanimalag.org/the-use-of-growth-hormones-in-beef-cattle-environmental-benefits-and-consumer-safety/.
“Jonas More (1778-1852) – Find a Grave Memorial.” Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/58542719/jonas-more. Accessed 1 June 2025.