Since NAFTA’s start in 1994, “free trade” schemes have put hundreds of thousands of U.S. family farms out of business, while dramatically increasing corporate agribusiness’ profits, market control and the monopolization of our farm and food industry.
A transition to agroecology is necessary to ensure an environmentally sustainable and prosperous future, and we urge the US government to support this process within the CFS.
To learn how 2020 presidential candidates are thinking about this socio-economic-environmental crisis, a group of non-profit organizations in and near New Hampshire representing food providers, small businesses, eaters, and educators spent several months planning a candidates’ forum.
A letter denouncing the United States delegation to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) for repeated obstruction on agroecology was delivered today in Rome. Iowa farmer Patti Naylor, member of the National Family Farm Coalition, presented the letter to US Ambassador Kip Tom, the US government’s representative during the CFS annual meeting. The letter was signed by nearly 50 family farmer, social justice, and rural advocacy organizations.
The Tester-Grassley bill is a necessary first step to address the emotional distress caused by financial precarity, but the farm sector needs additional action from the federal government to stabilize farm income, address corporate consolidation, and ensure financial security for farmers and farm workers.
I would strongly urge the Secretary to support reasonable dairy programs that would give all dairy farmers a chance to survive, and not force many more of them out of business.
The National Family Farm Coalition announces the launch of its “Fair Farm Prices Now!” campaign at Farm Aid 2019 on September 21 at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin. The first demand of the campaign is emergency economic relief for dairy farmers to compensate for the unjustifiably low prices they have been paid for their milk for years. Core to NFFC’s mission is ensuring vibrant rural economies through fair prices and living wages for all in the food system.
North America LVC organizations ask their respective legislatures to vote against USMCA in its current form to advance our ongoing struggle for food sovereignty.
To revitalize independent family farm agriculture, we need the federal government to restore competition to agriculture and ensure a level playing field for all farmers and ranchers.
In these times of low farm prices, devastating floods, massive soil loss, wildfires and people demanding an ethical, healthy diet, the time could be ripe to end our system of industrial farming and replace it with agroecology.
As Japan and the United States embark on negotiations over agricultural markets, potentially paving the way for a free-trade agreement, we urge the complete halt of these negotiations that undermine the livelihoods of family farmers and the sovereignty of rural communities in our two countries.