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`Wildfire' artist and new TFB member speaks out on agriculture...
Recording artist Michael Martin Murphey sat down recently with Texas Agriculture Field Editor Lana Robinson and TFB Radio Network Director Curt Lancaster (left) during a recent trip to Waco.
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
His hit song "Wildfire" launched Michael Martin Murphey's career as a recording artist in 1975, but it's his love of the land that is the driving force behind his music and lifestyle today. The staunch property rights advocate recently addressed the public relations divisions of state Farm Bureaus at a conference in Austin regarding his involvement in landowner issues. Murphey subsequently became a member of the Texas Farm Bureau, while in Waco for a concert at the historic Hippodrome, and proudly displayed his TFB gate sign on stage the evening of July 16. Murphey currently divides his time between residences in Texas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.
"I've been a Farm Bureau member in New Mexico for probably 25 years. I want to congratulate and thank the Farm Bureau for being first and foremost an information dissemination service. It's really important, I think, for people to join, and read, and let these wonderful people at the Farm Bureau do the research for you, and all you have to do is absorb it," said Murphey.
His love for the outdoors began at an early age. Although Murphey was a city kid, his parents, Pink and Lois Murphey, made sure he and his brother, Mark, had opportunities to visit their rural relatives growing up. The cowboy singer began riding horses on his grandfather's and uncle's ranches when he was six years old. He recalls sleeping on the screened-in porch under the stars while listening to stories, and hearing cowboy songs hummed and sung by the men who loved their land.
"That's where I come by my love of ranching. I became serious about the beef cattle business 15 years ago. I'm in a partnership now. Our operation is down around Kermit and Wink, Texas," he said.
Murphey is also founder and owner of the Rocking 3M Ranching Company, which has divisions in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and Wisconsin. Michael and his ranch managers raise registered Longhorn and Corriente cattle, and raise and train American Quarter Horses, paint horses, draft horses, and "the occasional" mule. Murphey was awarded a rare honorary lifetime membership in the American Quarter Horse Association for his work on behalf of the breed.
Murphey is convinced that agriculture and stewardship go hand in hand.
"I'm a believer in the fact that the agricultural people have done more to protect land and wildlife than all the government management in the world has done," he said "They (the federal government) wouldn't be trying to take away these ranches and land for public lands if they weren't in good shape. They wouldn't want it."
He recognizes that it isn't just the federal government, but local governments, also, in some instances are attempting to take property from private citizens for purposes that are not necessarily for the public good. He noted the recent Kelo vs. New London case in which the U.S. Supreme Court essentially cleared the way for a city government to condemn property in order to let a developer build a shopping center on it.
"I'm sorry for the reason this is true, but I think this is going to make the urban people sit up and take notice about something that we've known about out in the country for quite some time," said Murphey. "People are jealous of open space and land, and they want to get it. So many of these battles that are being fought in the agriculture industry, and have been for 15 to 20 years, have been an attack on the open-space lifestyle, is what I call it, speaking of the people who live out and want to grow crops and graze livestock."
For nearly 100 years, federal agencies and ranchers worked together to improve the range and to develop a growing economic foundation for Western states. Murphey said what began as a partnership has become adversarial, and now the federal government is using environmental issues to force the ranchers off their property.
"Now, we have a situation where, unfortunately due to this one judge, in a 5-4 decision, made a difference to determine that any economic use that is deemed good for the economy by a city council or any other governmental group can take your land away from you. I think our founding fathers would be more offended by this than the recent argument over `under God.' I think we have to stand up. It's not a done deal..."
Murphey cited a court battle in which Nevada rancher Wayne Hage has been embroiled with the Bureau of Land Management since 1990, but the worm appears to have turned in Hage's favor.
"They ran him off his ranch, confiscated his cattle, and tried to make him look like a felon. After 15 years, he finally prevailed. The court has ruled that a `takings' has occurred, for which the government must pay `just compensation.' They're waiting for a settlement now. He is married to Helen Chenoweth, a former congresswoman from Nevada. They go around giving lectures and talks about private property rights all around the country," said Murphey.
The Hage decision has sent ranchers across the West rushing to courthouses, searching for and documenting the "chain of title," to the land, grazing and water rights.
"The key is to get it into 'takings' court instead of `regulatory' court," said Murphey. "That's what we recommend to farmers and ranchers, is go into `takings' court immediately. Say, 'Okay, go ahead and take it, but here is what it's worth.'"
For example, said Murphey, make the government prove that a national park would be a better economic use of the property than ranching.
In May 2004, Murphey held a benefit concert to raise money for the legal defense of Kit Laney, owner of the Diamond Bar Ranch near the Gila Wilderness, in New Mexico. Murphey felt that Laney had been bullied by the U.S. Forest Service.
"Due process of law was not used down there. It's sad that the deeds of a few bad actors can shut down the whole region, because we need good land management. But it's possible that this case may knock that division of the BLM out," Murphey reported.
The 180,000-acre Diamond Bar Ranch lies directly in the path of a key wilderness corridor—part of the Wildlands Project, which envisions at least half of the land area of North America restored to "core wilderness areas," off-limits to humans.
Laney's ancestors, who began the Laney Cattle company there in 1883, when the area was still a territory, acquired the water rights and the attendant grazing rights on the land now claimed by the federal government.
Laney insists the land in question belongs to him; the Forest Service says it belongs to the federal government.
So far, the federal court is on the side of the Forest Service. But Murphey said Laney is not willing to concede and give up his family's land.
Murphey said the Hage decision, and the determination of Kit Laney, has inspired thousands of ranchers to resist the government's squeezing and to push back.
"I don't want people out there to give up. I think this is eventually going to be overturned. There may even be a constitutional amendment. Imagine, it might take a constitutional amendment to restore what's already in the constitution!" Murphey suggested.
Murphey sings theme song for new ag show
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
Michael Martin Murphey's strong commitment to the land made him the perfect choice to sing the theme song for American Farm Bureau Federation's new weekly public television series, America's Heartland. Hosted by Paul Ryan, this celebration of the nation's agriculture will profile the people, places, and processes of agriculture. The PBS series will tap in to—and strengthen—the ties that bind people together: the love of the land and the respect for the people who live on and from it, a national fascination with food, curiosity about unfamiliar places and ways of life, and the bedrock American values of family, hard work and the spirit of independence.
Murphey sees the program as an effective outreach tool for bridging the gap between agriculturalists and their city neighbors.
"A lot of city folks don't understand agriculture and the issues that impact us. The challenge is to go in and try to pull the urban people more on our side," said Murphey. "I think this new television program, America's Heartland, is going to be a tremendous service to that concept, getting the word out to the urban people. The people who really matter, who are decision makers, tend to watch more PBS instead of the shows that dumb us all down. America's Heartland is going to educate the urban people about what's going on out there in the Heartland for 20 weeks starting in September. "
Heartland crews have traveled to nearly 30 states, and the stories are as varied as you can imagine: process stories from Louisiana shrimp to Vermont maple syrup to Texas sugar cane. Crop stories that feature Iowa soybeans, Maine potatoes, Washington cherries, Arizona lettuce and sweet Georgia carrots. Places like the world's largest Aloe Vera farm, an underground mushroom farm, and a historic Texas cattle ranch that once employed an entire town. The series celebrates the diversity of cultures that tended our agrarian roots, and are still producing today, ranging from Basque sheepherders in the far West, the German "Schmeckfest in South Dakota, Creoles in Louisiana and the Pennsylvania Amish. Features include organic farms, seven generations of homesteaders, and an African-American pig farmer raising a new breed of hog while providing leadership for a new generation of farmers. Popcorn, peanuts, Limburger cheese, rainbow trout, and old Kentucky bourbon will be featured.
In one segment, Murphey will be giving a tour of his own farm and some of the dairies and horse farms in Wisconsin.
Although Murphey did not write the theme song, he inserted some words that really identify it more with agriculture, bring it "close to home," if you will, and a CD will be produced from it.
"We want to take country music back to being from the country. I think this music series will be a way to do that. We'll have a series of CDs featuring local polka bands, bluegrass, and old-fashioned stuff. The people who make this music are also the people who drive tractors, grow vegetables, and graze animals. So there is a country connection," he said.
America's Heartland is a magazine-style, half-hour series produced by KVIE, Sacramento, in digital widescreen format. Sponsors are the Monsanto Company and the American Farm Bureau Federation. The series is a national evolution of California Heartland, a popular and critically acclaimed series KVIE produced for eight years.
