Welfare farms and Church Holdings - Jaime Hansen

The welfare program has always existed, throughout the history of the world. In ancient times, people left part of their crops for the poor and widows to glean. In joseph Smith’s time, as new saints arrived, they were given land so they could plant and provide for themselves. Brigham Young taught the saints to plant as they crossed the plains so that those who came later would have food. The ones who did all the hard work did not get the benefit. They sacrificed and served for the benefit of others.

In 1929 when the stock market crashed and brought about the depression, within a few months ¼ of the men in Utah had no jobs so the Church started a program to give them purpose, meaning and a way to provide for their families.  This was the beginning of the Welfare program of the Church. Now there are 60 farms in North America and the farms are bigger and produce more than ever before.

Farms for income:

Also in 1929 Heber J Grant received a revelation saying they were unwise stewards to keep cash in the banks. It was all lost in the depression. They decided to invest in things that would give a minimum of 5% return so the Church began buying hotels, apartments, banks, etc., to maintain stability.

Now the Church is the largest farming entity in the world; we produce more than anyone else except communist China. The Church buys more John Deer tractors than anyone else. If you compare the welfare farms to the farms for income, the welfare farms would be a grain of sand and the farms for income would be a truckload of sand.

The Church contracted with the University of Oklahoma because they had the best computer programs for analyzing crop production – to know where the best place to grow each kind of crop was. They found that east Washington is best for wheat. The Church owns 10s of thousands of acres and the largest silos in the world. The crop that rotates with the wheat is potatoes. The Church owns the largest potato sheds in the world and is part of a coop of potato producers. In this coop, the Church contributes 40% of what the coop has and is the coop that provides the potatoes for McDonald’s.

They found that California Central Valley is the best place for growing rice. There is a 5,000 acre rice farm in Sacramento and produces the highest quality of rice in the world.

The Church owns a 5,000 acre farm of peanuts in Texas. There is a high quality and a low quality of peanuts. The high quality takes 180 days to grow; the low quality requires 90 days. Our peanut butter in Houstin is the high quality and produces the best peanut butter in the world. Most peanut butter companies combine high and low quality peanuts to make their peanut butter.  

In Africa peanuts are the main part of their diet. The Red Cross talked to the Church when there was a world-wide shortage of peanuts and Africans were dying from lack of peanuts. The Red Cross asked the Church for a very large quantity, which happened to be the amount that the Church had leftover after filling all their needs. The person who runs the farm wasn’t sure if they should give it all away, since the leftover was usually kept for emergencies, so he talked to the Prophet. The Prophet told him to give it all to the Red Cross. He promised that we would have enough and that the next crop would be plenty to make up the difference. When the next harvest came, they had two times as much as usual.

When the Africans received the shipment, they were amazed that these were the best peanuts they had ever had. Jaime bore his testimony that we are guided by a prophet of God. He said he sees it when working in the vineyard. He said that the main reason for the vineyard, even more important than getting raisins to people in need is for the hearts of the workers, so we can give service to others.

Welfare Farms:

President Boswell (who was Stake President when we lived in Fresno West Stake and is now in the temple presidency) was called as mission president in Latvia. One time he attended a Mission President Seminar for all of the mission presidents in Europe, held in St Petersburg Russia. A Russian official gave a talk to instruct the mission presidents on what they can and cannot do in Russia and what the consequences would be if they did not obey the rules. President Boswell described the man as stern and “scary”, like Russian mafia. After the meeting the man walked up to President Boswell, who got very worried and nervous seeing him approach.

The man walked up to President Boswell and pointed at him and said, “You are the man in the movie about the raisins in California.” And then the man began to sob.

(A number of years ago, the Church came to Madera to do a video about the raisin farm. Our ward, Madera 3^rd, a Spanish ward) was asked to be in the movie, showing how they always served in the vineyard on Christmas morning as their gift to Baby Jesus. President Boswell was part of the movie.)

His name was Oleg. President Boswell said, “I can see you are emotional about this, tell me your story.”

The man said that some years ago he was without work; there were many without work. There were bread lines where he would stand for hours and many times by the time he got to the bread, it was all gone. He was literally starving to death. He knew he had choices – he could steal or sell drugs or something, decided he would rather starve to death than do things he knew were wrong.

He met the missionaries, was taught the gospel. He was intrigued that there is a living prophet. He got baptized but was still starving.  When the Church heard of their plight, they sent food. On the Sunday that food was handed out, he was late because he had to walk because he couldn’t afford gas and the only thing left when he got there was 2 cans of raisins. For the next weeks he lived only on raisins. He would eat one small handful a day and that was all he had to eat, but after eating the raisins, he would feel satisfied, as if he had eaten a full meal.  And the cans of raisins never seemed to run out. He lived more than a month on 2 cans of raisins until he finally got work.

He told President Boswell this and gave him a hug. He said, “Please tell the saints thank you for saving my life.”

Jaime said when he was young, he didn’t want to work in the vineyard. Now, after hearing this story, he feels that every minute he spends there is sacred. How many Olegs are there in the world that we help with our raisins?

Jaime then bore his testimony in Spanish and cried as he testified of how God loves us and watches out for us in very specific ways on a daily basis.