Gretchen Maine, a New York dairy farmer, wrote a letter to Congress outlining the basic problems faced by dairy producers today – prices received for their do not cover the costs for producing it.
Petition to Agriculture Secretary Vilsack
Dairy Farmers urge all supporters to submit this petition to Agriculture Secretary Vilsack calling for Dairy Hearings. Print and fax or mail this petition.
Coalition Letter to Congress supporting GIPSA regulations
Coalition Letter to Congress supporting GIPSA regulations.
Peasants of the world mobilize against green capitalism in Rio
About 3000 people from around the world will mobilize to say NO to the commodification of life and nature at the Peoples Summit for Social and Environmental Justice and in Defense of the Commons. Read the full press release here.
2011
This fall was particularly busy with extensive travel. At the beginning of November, I attended the Community Food Security Coalition Conference in Oakland, CA, where I participated in two workshops. In one, Alicia Harvie (Farm Aid), Steve Schwartz, Kathy Ozer (NFFC) and I discussed credit access and its impacts. In another, Joel Greeno (ARMPPA), John Peck (Family Farm Defenders), Mike Hudson (Hudson Fish Company) and I discussed farmer and fisher cooperatives. George Naylor, past NFFC president, Florida farm workers and I joined the Coalition for Immokalee Workers on their march to Trader Joe’s Supermarket.
Organization Oppose Pending Free Trade Agreements
Fair Trade, Not Free Trade, Should Be Basis of Food and Agriculture System. The National Family Farm Coalition and 56 allied organizations representing family farmers, ranchers, fishermen and advocates signed a letter to Congress condemning the pending free trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. As the letter states, more FTAs will only accelerate the economic disasters in agriculture already at hand, including industrial farms dependent on massive amounts of petroleum-based inputs, low-paying, exploitative jobs in processing and packing plants, and increased consolidation throughout the agricultural supply chain.
Joint Letter to USDA Requesting Captive Supply Rulemaking – February 1, 2011
Based on testimonies and information gathered during the 2010 competition workshops, 85 organizations confirm the urgent need for USDA-GIPSA to exercise its preexisting authority under the Packers and Stockyards Act to address a disastrous loss of competition.
Joint Letter to House Agriculture Committee Supporting USDA-GIPSA Proposed Rule – July 23, 2010
We urge all Members of the House Agriculture Committee and the Congress as a whole to protect a just, transparent, and robustly competitive marketplace for livestock and poultry producers and the rural communities they support. The USDA-GIPSA rulemaking process is critical to the achievement of that goal.
Dairy Farmers Press for Emergency Action
America’s dairy farmers confront economic ruin as they face another year of 1970s prices for their milk. In the past year alone, thousands of dairy farmers have gone out of business and thousands more are on the brink of economic collapse as projections for 2010 show continued low prices. These losses hurt not just dairy farmers and their families but the thousands of farm-related jobs, including feed mills, fuel suppliers, and veterinarians along with the tax base of our communities.
Concentration in Seed Industry – Less Choice, Higher Prices
American farmers are feeling the effects of a concentrated seed industry. Seed options are diminishing while prices increase at historic rates. A new report, Out of hand: Farmers face the consequences of a consolidated seed industry, examines these troubling trends, substantiating the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into alleged anticompetitive conduct in the seed industry.
2009 Newsletters
From the President by Ben Burkett: I was one of 130 guests invited by President Obama to participate in the forum on jobs and economic growth at the White House on December 3. Along with Rhonda Perry from Missouri Rural Crisis Center, I represented NFFC and the Rural Coalition. We broke up into session groups of 25 and I was the only person representing agriculture in the entrepreneurial business session. On the issue of credit we discussed banks not lending to small businesses and farmers despite the millions of dollars in stimulus funds dispersed, something noted by everyone in the room. President Obama called on Rhonda to speak during the Q&A, and she said, “Many times and many places around this country, in rural communities, independent family farmers are the biggest bang for our buck in terms of creating jobs, with independent businesses that depend on farmers, from the people we buy our seed from, to the people we use to process
our meat, to the transportation system to haul our grain.” I presented to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
a report by Jerry Pennick (Land Assistance Fund) on credit issues describing how credit unions can support rural economies; Secretary Geithner promised to follow up with us later. Despite the fact that there
were only two of us there on behalf of family farmers I felt we did a good job representing our organizations and the agricultural community.