Butz, Earl Lauer

▪ 2009

      American economist and government official

born July 3, 1909, Albion, Ind.

died Feb. 2, 2008, Kensington, Md.

served (1971–76) as the forceful secretary of agriculture under U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford; he had also held (1954–57) the post of assistant secretary of agriculture under Pres. Dwight Eisenhower. Butz's insistence that consumers had been paying too little for food products made him an instant hit with farmers, despite some critics' claims that his policies favoured “agribusiness” over the family farm. While attempting to prop up farm incomes and produce cheaper food, the government provided massive subsidies to farms. As a result, corn production multiplied (resulting in a huge shipment of American grain in 1972 to the Soviet Union) along with high-fructose corn syrup, a far cheaper ingredient to sweeten foodstuffs than cane sugar. His influence in the Midwest farm belt was vital in helping Nixon gain reelection. Butz's crude humour and offensive racial jokes, however, eventually destroyed his career; when a racist comment he made on a commercial flight was reported in the press, Butz was forced to resign.

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