Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Blog”
Several dairy farmers and staff of various farm organizations met on September 15, Thursday in Washington with officials of the USDA in meetings and events organized by Farm Aid. Introducing the events was the Farm Aid Executive Director, Carolyn Mugar.
And don’t be surprised, as American consumers increasingly reject GE technology, corporate agribusiness and our government will force GE crops on the rest of the world. That, it seems, is one more aspect of American Exceptionalism.
NFFC member organization RAFI-USA offers in-depth analysis of the situation in which many contract poultry growers find themselves today. Sally Lee’s recent blog states: “In 2015, people consumed 112,000,000 metric tons of chicken globally. That’s an unfathomable quantity. So here’s one way to visualize it: That amounts [to] the weight of two-thirds of all the cars on the road today in the United States—in chickens.”
The film got it, spot on. The big message, spelled out in interviews and footage of small farmers doing their thing contrasted with big farms and big feed lots doing their un-sustainable thing, –-we need to seriously reconsider what we eat, how it is grown, who grows it, if the food system should solely be an engine of profit for big agribusiness, if yield and profit should be the only measure of success, or if there are other things to consider.
Sixteen dairy farmers testified at last Tuesday’s milk hearing held at Perkins Restaurant in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. According to Arden Tewksbury, Manager, Pro-Ag, “The dairy farmers told it like it is down on the farm.” The hearing was attended by aides to Senator Bob Casey’s office, Senator Pat Toomey’s office, Rep. Lou Barletta’s office, and an aide was there from State Rep. Karen Boback’s office, and Wyoming County Commissioner Tom Henry attended the hearing.
Click to read Madrigal entire article, “Land and Water on Washington State’s Salish Coast.”
We stand with our members Rural Vermont, NOFA-VT and others that have passed legislation mandating GMOs to be labeled, and oppose legislation that would enable food processors to hide GM ingredients in their products, such as S. 2609, Senator Roberts’ DARK Act. GMO labels should be mandatory, not voluntary. Period.
NFFC joined Pesticide Action Network at their January 2016 international meeting in Hawai’i to discuss plans for ending the proliferation of GMOs worldwide and the long-term GMO research on the island of Maui. The collaboration included the following proclamation.
Hal Borland summarized Christmas by saying “What we celebrate is the birth of a child into a time of dissension and oppression and a world of cruelty and suspicion, one who grew up to teach peace and justice and love of fellow man. It was as simple as that”.
If GMO’s are so good and so safe, why do we need laws to hide them from scrutiny? But as Bill Maher points out, “When consumers know things, they tend to make informed choices, and that could affect corporate profits. I’m sorry, but your right to know is always going to be outweighed by their right to hide it from you.”
While the phrase “let them eat cake” may never have been uttered in reference to the starving French peasants of the 18th century, the pressure to “let them to eat GM” in the 21st century is alive and well in the lobby shops, corporate suites, press offices and political power centers of the world.
Trade is good, but but “free trade” doesn’t work for farmers or workers or most everyone else. Free trade does, however, work spectacularly well for corporations who have over 600 advisers to the TPP negotiations— we have no access to the negotiations, corporations have plenty.