Recession. Depression. Layoffs. Bailouts. It’s no way to start a New Year, but the doom-and-gloom headlines are only part of the story, a glimpse of a dismal economic forecast that paints an ugly picture nobody wants on their 2009 wall calendar.But as America tightens its collective belt and braces for the worst, Lawrence County row crop farmer Larkin Martin says it’s also a time when farmers must make their voices heard — loudly, clearly and convincingly — by a nation largely unaware of agriculture’s role in providing its most basic needs.”We’ve all got to do a better job of presenting the arguments of why and how the government should provide the safety nets as a collective national interest and not some sort of get-rich farming program,” Martin said. “Every needy organization — most of them extraordinarily worthwhile, government programs — is being strained. It’s a shrinking pie from which there are lots of demands for funds. Farming is just one of them.”Martin should know.As familiar with high finance as with high cotton, the 45-year-old mother just stepped down as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, with the Board of Governors, make up the nation’s central bank. It’s a position that mirrored her role as managing partner of Martin Farm, a sprawling row crop operation spread over more than 5,000 acres.Officially, Martin’s Federal Reserve duties ended Dec. 31, 2008, amid economic chaos, predictions from a president-elect that “it’ll get worse before it gets better” and a nation still addicted to foreign oil. Not even the Federal Reserve is immune, recently laying off scores of its own workers.”It is my assumption, by watching the news like everybody else, that we are in an era of intervention and government assistance that is almost unprecedented,” said Martin, stressing that her opinion isn’t shaped by inside knowledge. “The only thing close might be the Great Depression, and it might be less or more than that. Now, you’ve got to change teams in the middle of the game!”As for herself, Martin is no stranger to a switch in game plans. She was a single, 27-year-old European history major working in the real estate industry when her father’s cancer diagnosis required her return to the family farm.”Somebody had to sign the checks,” she now recalls. “I came back and enjoyed it and I stayed. It wasn’t planned, but it happened. There was no grand plan for me to come back and be the farmer.”Nevertheless, Martin quickly displayed the kind of business acumen that earned her an appointment to the Federal Reserve Bank’s Small Business Labor & Agriculture Advisory Council. That was followed by six years as a Federal Reserve branch director in Birmingham, and six more years on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta — the last two as chairman.All along the way, it was Martin who was known as “the farmer in the room.” Surrounded by corporate CEOs of The Home Depot and United Parcel Service and other business professionals, she contributed an agricultural perspective for the Fed’s Beige Book report, a collection of anecdotal information that goes toward creating a snapshot of current economic conditions.”Hopefully, I’ve been able to bring a perspective to those meetings that they would not have otherwise had,” she says. “A lot of people could have done it, but I happened to be the farmer in the room. … I’d go to these meetings in Washington or Atlanta or somewhere like that, and you wouldn’t believe the comments I’d get: ‘You don’t LOOK like a farmer!’ Or ‘You don’t ACT or SOUND like a farmer.’ I’d say, ‘Well, you haven’t met a lot of farmers recently.'”As further evidence of the prejudices and stereotypes farmers face, Martin points to current farm bill discussions. “It’s frustrating when you hear how they’re trying to define a farmer, that you have to drive a tractor to be a farmer,” she said. “That would indicate to me that the people at USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) haven’t been on a real farm in awhile.”That’s why, particularly in today’s economic and political climates when budgets take a beating, Martin says farmers must be willing to explain the importance of agriculture and programs that help support it.”The responsibility is on us to articulate why and how we think farm policy should be made,” she says. “It’s a big, big challenge, given our few numbers and the lack of exposure the majority of people have to farming … If we want subsidies, we’ve got to be able to defend that use of the money versus many of the other competing needs. To say, ‘It’s always been that way; therefore, taking it away from me is wrong.’ … Well, that’s not a compelling argument.”Martin notes that in her Fed role, a “very smart” team of economists sit in on board meetings, taking notes and making observations that help shape the direction of America’s economic future.Even so, she said, they often failed to understand the dynamics of agriculture because they lacked a farming perspective. “So one of the things I tried to do is present an ag point of view in forums where ag is not always debated and where farm programs are not always thought to be good economic policy.”Case in point: When food prices soared along with fuel prices last summer, Martin notes, the outcry was immediate. “They were all blaming ethanol for making food so expensive,” Martin recalls. “Now how expensive would that food have been without those subsidies all those years? But I never heard that next leap of logic.”But with a new administration assuming command amid economic chaos, Martin says the competition for tax dollars will be fierce in the coming months. And how farmers state their case may matter as much as what they say.No more preaching to the choir, she says. No more arms-crossed attitudes. No more criticizing the non-farming population just because they don’t understand.”It’s not that they don’t ‘get it,’ it’s that they don’t understand it like we do. Therefore, it’s our burden — if we want their tax money — to convince them it’s a good idea because they’re paying for it,” says Martin. “We’ve got to get our story to them in a way that makes them believe that this is a good idea. That’s our burden, not theirs.”