Wendell Berry Chooses Jail Over NAIS

Following is an excerpt of his public comment at a recent USDA listening session on the National Animal Identification System held in KY - Wendell Berry will be appearing at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison, WI on Oct. 3rd - stay tuned for details...

The need to trace animals was made by the confined animal industry -- which are, essentially, disease breeding operations. The health issue was invented right there. The remedy is to put animals back on pasture, where they belong. The USDA is scapegoating the small producers to distract attention from the real cause of the trouble. Presumably these animal factories are, in a too familiar phrase, "too big to fail".

This is the first agricultural meeting I've ever been to in my life that was attended by the police. I asked one of them why he was there and he said: "Rural Kentucky". So thank you for your vote of confidence in the people you are supposed to be representing. (applause) I think the rural people of Kentucky are as civilized as anybody else.

But the police are here prematurely. If you impose this program on the small farmers, who are already overburdened, you're going to have to send the police for me. I'm 75 years old. I've about completed my responsibilities to my family. I'll lose very little in going to jail in opposition to your program -- and I'll have to do it. Because I will be, in every way that I can conceive of, a non-cooperator.

I understand the principles of civil disobedience, from Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King. And I'm willing to go to jail to defend the young people who, I hope, will still have a possibility of becoming farmers on a small scale in this supposedly free country. Thank you very much.

Stop Field Trials of GE Eucalyptus in the U.S.!

Public Comment Due by July 6th

Hinesburg, VT, U.S.--The U.S. government is set to approve [1] a request from ArborGen, the genetically engineered (GE) tree research and development giant, for permission to plant 260,000 GE cold tolerant eucalyptus trees in 29 "field trials" across seven southern U.S. states. Approval of such a large-scale planting of these dangerous flowering GE forest trees in the U.S. is completely unprecedented. The GE eucalyptus, to be planted in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, would be allowed to flower and produce seeds, enabling them to potentially escape into native ecosystems and forests. The STOP GE Trees Campaign, an international alliance of organizations that has banded together with the goal of globally banning the open-air release of genetically engineered trees, this week issued an "Urgent Action Alert" about ArborGen's potentially disastrous plans, with information about how the public can make comments to the government to help stop this large-scale release of GE trees. Read more click here

Iowa Farm Rally Speakers Call For Fair Dairy Prices

June 2nd, 2009 Wisconsin State Farmer

By: Zena McFadden

Photo: WI dairy farmer and FFD member, Jennifer Bailey, speaks at the rally

Dairy farmers from five states rallied in Manchester, Iowa, Saturday (May 30) asking that the government set a floor on milk prices to cover their cost of production. More than 150 farmers and their organizations, families and supporters spoke from noon until after 3 p.m. about the dire straits that farms and families are in as a result of the 50 percent drop in milk prices paid to producers since last year. “This has reached a crisis point in rural America. It is impossible for dairy farmers to pay their bills and many face losing their farms if something isn’t done,” Jerry Harvey, a dairy farmer from Promise City, Iowa, who helped organize the rally, said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the average cost of producing 100 pounds of milk this year was well over $16 while the base price paid for Class I milk produced was $10.97. Read more click here

Consumers Farmers Make Themselves Heard as USDA's National Animal Identification System Listening Tour Continues

May 21, 2009

By: Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

More consumers are stepping up to complain about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues its national listening tour. During today's stop in Birmingham, Alabama, the USDA's listening tour on animal identification heard from 30 people, 28 of whom spoke out against NAIS with only two speaking in favor of it. It was much the same in Austin, Texas yesterday where the USDA tour heard from some 64 people, 58 of whom spoke against any NAIS or advocated for a voluntary, market-driven program only. The results were similar during the listening tour in Pasco, Washington, on Monday where 26 out of 31 speakers voiced opposition to the program. Read more click here

We Need Food and Farming Regulation Now!

By Will Allen

Organic farmer, Cedar Circle Farm in VT, and author of the War on Bugs

Straight to the Source, Chelsea Green, April 30, 2009

Taxpayers are demanding that government enforce existing regulations and create more stringent rules to limit the excess and greed in banking, insurance, housing, and on Wall Street. But, in the rush to regulate, we can't forget to oversee industrial agriculture. It is one of our most polluting and dangerous industries. Like the financial sectors, its practices have not been well regulated for the last thirty years. Let me run down a few of the major problems that have developed because of our poorly regulated U.S. agriculture. Read more click here

Family Farm Defenders Welcomes Brazilian Activist with the Landless Workers Movement (MST) -

Hosts Family Farm Tour of South Central Wisconsin Wed. May 6th, 2009

Contact info: John Peck #608-260-0900 or #608-345-3918

8:00 am tour departs Just Coffee - 1129 E. Wilson in Madison 1:00 pm Lunch and press event at the Deli Bean Cafe, 266 E Main St. in Reedsburg (608) 524-3373 5:30 pm tour returns to Just Coffee - 1129 E. Wilson in Madison 7:00 pm Hard Times: Brazil's Landless Movement Faces the Economic Crisis - a presentation and discussion with Débora Nunes da Silva of the MST at Rainbow Bookstore - 426 W. Gilman in Madison

Join members of Family Farm Defenders and Débora Nunes da Silva, an organizer with the MST Brazil's Landless Workers Movement for a tour of sustainable family farm operations in south central Wisconsin!

Tour stops include: Troy Community Garden on Madison's northside; Cedar Grove Cheese with its innovative "living machine" waste water treatment system (5904 E Valley View Rd, Plain (608) 546-5284); John Kinsman's organic dairy and forestry operation (2940 E. Hwy K., La Valle, WI (608) 986-3815), Tylka's Hidden Valley Mushroom Farm (S270 Birchwood Road, Wisconsin Dells (608) 253-6804), as well as several Amish operations.

Débora Nunes da Silva lives in Alagoas, in Brazil's Northeastern region. She is a sociologist and key leader in the movement's Sector of Production, Cooperation, and Environment. In Alagoas, a poor state dependent on extensive sugar cane monoculture, Ms. da Silva has organized landless workers for over ten years. She has been involved in the mobilization of families to occupy land, and in the management of encampments and settlements. Ms. da Silva is also active in the political education and training of the movement¹s leaders and organizers, particularly women and youth.

In Praise of Peasants

By: Jim Goodman organic dairy farmer and activist from Wonewoc, WI and a WK Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow

Published April 17, 2009 by www.commondreams.org

On April 17, 1996 1,500 members of Brazil's MST, the Landless Peasants Movement, having been evicted from their farms two years earlier, marched to the state capitol in Para to demand a return of their land so they could again feed their families. Instead of meeting with government officials they were surrounded by police, who, using machine guns, killed 19 and seriously wounded 69. Farmers, peasants, the indigenous and the landless are entitled to land only until the government or the corporate interests find a better use for it. Read more click here

U.S. Family Farmers Mark International Day of Peasant Struggles, April 17th, With A Protest Against Commodity Speculation

Join Other Activists to Expose Corporate Manipulation of Global Food Prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)

To view photos from the CME protest, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32696750@N08/sets/72157617189750424/

For Immediate Release 4/17/09

Contact: John E. Peck, Family Farm Defenders #608-260-0900 Kathy Ozer, National Family Farm Coalition #202-543-5675

Fri. April 17th 11:30 am Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), 30 S. Wacker Dr.

Family farmers and other food justice activists will mark April 17, the International Day of Peasant’s Struggle, with a protest against corporate speculation on agricultural commodities which is behind the global food crisis now threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers. This action is in solidarity with La Via Campesina, the world’s largest umbrella movement of family farmers, rural workers and indigenous peoples.

Specific demands include:

- Ending unregulated speculation on commodities at the CME, which contributed to the 83% hike in global food prices between 2005 and 2008, adding 75 million more people to the ranks of the world’s hungry We need to invest in sustainable family farmers who actually feed people and conserve fertility and not in financial derivatives that only feed the growth of unstable bubbles of unfounded wealth,” says Stephen Bartlett, a small scale KY farmer and staff member of Agricultural Missions.

-Investigate and punish corruption and manipulation at the CME. The new Obama Administration needs to aggressively pursue existing anti-trust and price fixing class action suits. “The recent $12 million fine levied by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission against Dairy Farmers of America for price fixing at the CME is just the tip of the iceberg. Even the U.S. Dept. of Justice has admitted that collusion among the dairy giants is worse than Enron.” warns Joel Greeno, WI dairy farmer and vice president of Family Farm Defenders. “Family farmers are now receiving half of what they got a year ago for their milk, but U.S. consumers have seen hardly any change in the store. The situation is worse than during the Great Depression, and if this illegal activity doesn’t stop we’ll have no farmers left and end up importing all of our milk.”

-Implement and promote federal economic policies that support family farmers, end hunger, and provide healthy locally produced food, rather than continuing to subsidize corporate agribusiness expansion and commodity dumping. “From climate change to the economic crisis to the food crisis, agriculture should be the basis of the stimulus package,” noted Ben Burkett, president of National Family Farm Coalition and state coordinator of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives.

For more on the power of the CME and how you can help restore democratic control over this corporate commodity casino, click here.

Via Campesina Statement to the UN General Assembly on The Global Food Crisis and the Right to Food - 4/6/09 in New York City

By Mr. Henry Saragih, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina

Dear Mr. Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr.President of the United Nations General Assembly, Chair of the High-Level Task Force on Food Security, Mr. Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Distinguished Delegates, and Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome this Interactive Thematic Dialogue in our global effort in responding to the food crisis. Our dialogue in this chamber is of particular importance for those of us who believe that humankind has the courage and ability to make global governance work for all. Indeed, the food crisis gives us all an opportunity to do something without delay. The food crisis poses a massive threat to humankind. Everyday, significant parts of society around the world suffer directly or indirectly because of the food crisis. La Via Campesina, an international peasant movement, has been working to address the situation globally, with our members in 70 countries—this figure includes over 200 million members worldwide. Given the nature of our movement, undoubtedly the situation of peasants was put high on our agenda. The role of the United Nations in making human rights mechanisms work is particularly important in this respect. I follow carefully how UN Special Rapporteur has progressively shifted the focus of the food crisis from a development-centered model to a rights based concept: a global food crisis is a threat to the right to adequate food. It was thus a historic moment when Mr. Olivier De Schutter emphasized this in the UN Human Rights Council’s session on the food crisis on May 22, 2008. To read more, click here.

Family Farm Defenders Welcomes, Rafael Enrique Colmenárez, Organic Coffee Farmer and Co-op Leader from Venezuela!

Hosts 3/30/09 Family Farm Tour of South Central Wisconsin

On Mon. March 30th, eighteen folks joined Venezuelan organic coffee farmer and co-op leader, Rafael Enrique Colmenárez, for a daylong family farm tour in south central Wisconsin. Mr. Colmenárez comes from Andres Eloy Blanco Municipality, a rural area in midwestern Venezuela also known by the name of its capital, Sanare. This area is considered the birthplace of the Venezuelan agrarian cooperative movement. As president of FONCASA (Sanare Coffee Fund) a community organization that defends the economic and social rights of small coffee farmers, Mr. Colmenárez has been also very active promoting people to people exchanges and fair trade between co-ops in Venezuela and the US. In July 2008 his home town in Venezuela and Dane County formalized a sister relationship. As part of its ongoing work to promote food sovereignty, fair trade, and global solidarity, Family Farm Defenders was proud to welcome Enrique to Wisconsin and to share some successful local examples of sustainable agriculture. Tour stops included: Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain with an explanation of cheese making and tour of living machine waste water treatment system; FFD president John Kinsman's grass-based organic dairy and forestry operation near Lime Ridge; tour (and tasting!) of organic shitake and oyster ear at the Tylka's Hidden Valley Mushroom Farm near Wisconsin Dells, press conference and presentation at the Deli Bean Coffeeshop in Reedsburg, as well as a visit to Brickner's grass-based sheep operation near Wonewoc.

For some photos of the farm tour, taken by Marc Becker visit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/marcbecker2/EnriqueColmenarez

Marc Becker has also posted a short 10 min. video of the farm tour with Mr. Colmenárez.

To watch it, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-6kqj09feQ

The Family Farm Defenders (FFD) 2009 Annual Meeting held in Westby, WI from March 13-15th was a great success!

Close to 100 people attended from throughout the Midwest. Thanks to Valley Stewardship Network (VSN)and Crawford Stewardship Project for their cosponsorship, as well as the Driftless Speakers for bringing our keynote speaker, Prof. John Ikerd, and Via Campesina North America for their support in facilitating the participation by our special visitor from Saskatchewan, Glenn Tait, livestock and grain farmer with NFU-Canada..

A big thank you, as well, to FFD board member, Lori Harms for her excellent on-site coordination, our hosts at Living Waters Bible Camp, Mary White of Honeybee Bakery in Madison who provided delicious local food, as well as Robert Wolf and David Rhodes for their literary contributions.

For a copy of John Ikerd's excellent talk, titled CAFOs, Self-Determination, and Grassroots Democracy click here.

For more on current local struggles against factory farms in the Midwest, check out these resource links:

Judge Upholds Water Quality Restrictions on Rock County Farm, for 12/16/08 press release click here

For a background factsheet on Town of Magnolia and Green-Rock Citizens for Clean Water fight, click here

Part of the discussion at the meeting also concerned the use of federal stimulus money. Many FFD members are justly concerned that these funds will be misdirected towards "development" that only makes the situation worse in many rural areas (for ex. factory farm expansion, methane digesters and agrofuel facilities, biotech incubators, etc.) Here is the website with information on the how Wisconsin will handle federal stimulus money: http://www.recovery.wisconsin.gov/

Dairy Farmers File Class Action Lawsuit

Allege Corrupt Processors Have Stolen Millions Through Filing False Non Fat Dry Milk Prices With USDA

For Immediate Release 3/23/09

Contact: Paul Rozwadowski #715-644-5079 John E. Peck #608-260-0900

Four farmers, including Paul Rozwadowski from Stanley, WI, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of dairy producers in twenty five states, charging that they were bilked of millions be corrupt processors due to false reporting of nonfat dry milk (NFDM) prices. Other farmer plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Gerald Carlin from Meshopen, PA; Bryan Wolfe from Rome, Ohio; and John Rahm from Versailles, OH. Three out of the four dairy producers are also members of Family Farm Defenders, based in Madison, WI. To read more, click here.

NFFC Letter to USDA Sec. Vilsack on Current Dairy Crisis

March 2, 2009

The Honorable Tom Vilsack Secretary of Agriculture United States Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

Dairy farmers across America are confronting the most serious economic crisis they have experienced in their lifetimes. The farm gate price for milk has collapsed by more than 50% from one year ago and dropped an unprecedented $5 in one month for February. Farmers now confront $9-$11 per hundredweight (cwt) milk prices while costs of production hover between $20 and $30. Dairy farmers request your urgent attention and action. If nothing is done to halt the current crash in prices, up to 80% of the nation’s dairy farms may be out of business by the end of the year, jeopardizing domestic production and making us more vulnerable to dependence on foreign imports. The National Family Farm Coalition urges you to use your authority to implement the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 (7 U.S. Code) 608c (18) relative to the current farm milk price to ensure a viable domestic dairy infrastructure. Section 608c (18) requires the Secretary of Agriculture to adjust farm milk price within all Federal Orders to “reflect the price of feeds, the available supplies of feeds, and other economic conditions which affect market supply and demand for milk or its products.” If prices are found to be “not reasonable” in reflecting the price of feeds and other factors, the Secretary can explicitly “fix such prices” to reflect these factors. To read more, click here.

Nation's Food System Nearly Broke

By: John Kinsman, dairy farmer from La Valle, WI and president of Family Farm Defenders

Published on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009 by The Capital Times (Wisconsin)

www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/440669

As our government enacts a stimulus package and President Barack Obama announces bold initiatives to stem home mortgage foreclosures, disaster threatens family farmers and their communities.

The government's response to plummeting commodity prices and tightening credit markets leads to the basic question: Who will produce our food? This is a worldwide crisis. U.S. policy and the demand for deregulation at all levels -- from food production to financial markets -- contribute greatly to the global collapse. The solution must be grounded in food sovereignty so that all farmers and their communities can regain control over their food supply. This response makes sense here in Wisconsin and was the global message from the 500+ farmer leaders at the Via Campesina conference in Mozambique in October.

Many U.S. farmers are going out of business because they receive prices equal to about one half their cost to produce our food. How long could any enterprise receiving half the amount of its input costs stay in business? As an example, dairy farmers in the Northeast and Midwest must be paid between 30 and 35 cents per pound for their milk to pay production costs and provide basic living expenses. Until 1980, farmers received a price equal to 80 percent of parity, meaning that farmers' purchasing power kept up with the rest of the economy. Unfortunately, a 1981 political decision discontinued parity, and today the dairy farmers' share is below 40 percent.

"Free trade" and other regressive agricultural policies have decimated farms. We are now a food deficit nation dependent on food imports, often of questionable quality.

Our food system is nearly broke, which is almost as serious as our country's financial meltdown. With fair farm policies, farmers would get fair prices that would not require higher consumers prices. The Canadian dairy pricing system is the best example that proves fair farmer prices can and often do bring lower consumer prices and a healthier rural economy. In addition, excessive middleman profits are taking advantage of both consumers and producers.

As more farmers face bankruptcy, we all face a food emergency. European farmers speak from thousands of years of experience on the importance of family farms when they warn us, "Any time a country neglects its family farm base and allows it to become financially bankrupt, the entire economy of that country will soon collapse. It may take generations to rebuild the farm economy and that of the country."

Despite the magnitude of this food emergency, the "farm crisis" does not appear in headlines, so politicians are not compelled to provide political or financial assistance to something that would likely fail to bring votes. As farmers, we are now only about 1 percent of the U.S. population, and have little power to expose and prevent our demise. However, our urban and rural friends could be vital voices and advocates.

Bailing out the financial giants will not solve the financial crisis in the country, but the right policies and stimulus dollars could prevent a severe food crisis by saving farmers and workers. Furthermore, farm income dollars remain in and multiply at least two to four times in the local economy.

Family farmers have proposed fair food and farm policies that can be implemented at a fraction of the present multibillion-dollar policies destroying us. As the Treasury Department develops plans to distribute the bailout funds, the National Family Farm Coalition and others urge it to require banks receiving funds to treat their borrowers fairly by providing debt restructuring as an alternate to home or farm foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Concerned citizens can call the White House, 202-456-1111, or your members of Congress, 202-224-3121, to urge them to support policies that enable farmers to earn a fair market price; request an emergency milk price at $17.50 per hundred weight; provide price stability through government grain reserves and effective supply management; support the TRADE Act to be reintroduced in Congress; increase direct and guaranteed loans to family farmers; and ensure that the food we raise can be marketed to local schools and institutions, providing a better food supply at a fair price. We need these immediate changes in our food and farm policy.

National Family Farm Coalition Demands That Congress Address the Dairy Crisis as Part of President Obama's Stimulus Package

January 29, 2009

Dear Member of Congress/Senate:

The Dairy Subcommittee of the National Family Farm Coalition, representing dairy farmers from across the country, has warned for over a year about the coming crisis in the dairy industry that is threatening the livelihoods of America’s 60,000 remaining dairy farmers. With Class I milk prices collapsing by $5.02 for February down to $13.97 per hundredweight (cwt) for the Boston market and as low as $12.52 in Chicago, the dairy industry faces its most dire situation since the Great Depression. Already, stories of farmer suicides are being heard as a result of the looming catastrophe in many parts of farm country. California dairy farmers are looking at possibly $9 cwt milk prices when cost of production is at least $20 cwt in California and closer to $30 cwt in many parts of the East. Contrary to popular belief, milk prices have little to do with supply and demand or overproduction. The milk pricing system is based on the deeply flawed Chicago Mercantile Exchange which NFFC has exposed as highly prone to corruption and manipulation. NFFC urges both emergency action to be taken in the economic stimulus package as a way to stabilize milk prices and rural economies while also pressing again for a long-term solution that will finally give farmers a cost of production for their milk. To read more, click here.

Agriculture Does Not Need Business as Usual

Chicago Tribune, 1/20/09, Letter to the Editor

By: George Naylor, soybean farmer in Churdan, IA and former president of the National Family Farm Coalition

I'm sorely disappointed in George McGovern and Marshall Matz's disturbing commentary piece, "Agriculture's next big challenge" (Jan. 4), which makes a failed argument to continue with business as usual for industrial agriculture. Our current fossil-fuel based system has led to severe degradation of the land, while encouraging giant livestock feedlots and factory farms that severely degrade air and water quality. Industrial agriculture has also given us diets loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and cheap fast food. No wonder obesity, particularly among low-income Americans, is now an epidemic. How can McGovern and Matz ignore the broken social system throughout American farm communities and not perceive the human tragedy industrial, Green Revolution agriculture will bring to Asia, Africa, and Latin America? As a corn farmer from a family farm tradition, I would hope that my country through the new Obama administration would champion a vision of family farm agriculture based on food sovereignty principles, where everyone has access to economic opportunity in rural areas and to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. To read more, click here.

Next Generation Biofuels”: Bursting The New “Green” Bubble

Jan. 15, 2009 Open Letter to Pres. Elect Obama Letter Challenges Unrealistic Promises From an Unsustainable Industry

United States--A diverse alliance of organizations published an open letter [1] today in the U.S. and internationally warning of the dangers of industrially produced biofuels (called agrofuels by critics). The letter explains why large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and other energy from plants such as corn, sugar cane, oilseeds, trees, grasses, or so-called agricultural and woodland waste threatens forests, biodiversity, food sovereignty, community-based land rights and will worsen climate change. With the new Obama Administration slated to take office Tuesday, the letter’s originators warn that if Obama’s “New Green Economy” runs on agrofuels it may trap the U.S. in a dangerous “Green Bubble” of unrealistic promises from an unsustainable industry. To read more, click here.

Project Tractor - Part Two!

Family Farm Defenders is looking for working second hand tractors and other farm equipment for a Spring 2009 solidarity shipment to the Point Coupee Farmers Association in Louisiana! Donations to help cover diesel for trucking to the Gulf are also needed!

A highly motivated group of African American family farmers is hoping to have equipment in time for the 2009 planting season, and Family Farm Defenders is seeking help to make this happen. In 2006 following the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Family Farm Defenders successfully delivered nine donated tractors, plus a disc, rotary hoe, field cultivator, and chisel plow to the Indian Springs Farmers Assoc. in Sheeplo, MS.

Word of this solidarity effort, dubbed Project Tractor, has since reached Lester Williams of Batchelor, LA and Wilbert Walker Sr. of Lettsworth, LA, founding members of the Point Coupee Farmers Association. These vegetable farmers started their careers with nothing but hoes and shovels, but thanks to the strength of their new co-op are ready to expand production and pool their fresh produce to supply local supermarkets and restaurants. Unfortunately, they were hit not only by Hurricane Katrina in Sept. 2005, but also by Hurricane Gustav in Sept. 2008.

What they now lack are small tractors and related implements. Their wish list includes: 110 hp tractors, 50-60 hp tractors, 10-14 disks, bush hogs, rolling cultivators, 1-2 row vegetable planter, 7-8' dirt blade, among other items (for a full list - please contact the FFD office #608-260-0900).

Donations to help defray the cost of diesel and related expenses for delivery from WI to LA are also most welcome (a FFD member has already volunteered to drive the semi-load). Any gift, whether working used tractors/implements or monetary contributions are tax deductible since FFD is a federally recognized 501 c(3) charitable organization.

Checks can be sent to: Family Farm Defenders, P.O. Box 1772, Madison, WI 53703

For more information on Project Tractor Two, please contact:

John Kinsman, FFD President #608-986-3815

Tom Nelson, Madison Diocese Rural Life Office #608-821-3093

John E. Peck, FFD Executive Director #608-260-0900

An article about Project Tractor Two appeared in the Dec. 25th, 2008 issue of the Madison Diocese Catholic Herald, as well as the Jan. 14th, 2009 issue of Country Today.

Thanks for your support of farmer to farmer solidarity!

Family Farm Defenders Reaffirms Opposition to the National Animal ID System (NAIS) -

Urges the State of Wisconsin to Drop Charges Against Amish Farmer Being Targeted for Refusing to Register on Religious Grounds

Critics of Livestock Registration Fear Mandatory ID Chips

By Gil Halsted, WI Public Radio 12/22/2008

(STATEWIDE) An Amish dairy farmer in Clark County is the first person in the state to be prosecuted for not complying with the state's mandatory farm livestock registration rules. But a family farm group says many other farmers have also refused to register because they don't want to implant radio frequency chips in their animals so they can tracked for disease. read more

Legal Update!

Mr. Miller was assigned an attorney by the state at his initial court appearance on 12/17/08 - next step is a lawyer teleconference call on 3/20/09 to negotiate the start of the formal criminal proceeding on 3/29/09. Stay tuned for more details.

For Immediate Release Dec. 16, 2008

Contact: John Kinsman, president #608-986-3815

John E. Peck, executive director #608-260-0900

Family Farm Defenders is encouraging food sovereignty advocates to appear in Clark County Court at 3:00 pm on Wed. Dec. 17th in Neillsville to express their solidarity with the Amish farmer being targeted by the State of Wisconsin in its first effort to enforce mandatory premises registration, stage one of the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS). At the request of DATCP, Clark County District Attorney, Darwin Zweig, filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Emmanuel Miller on Oct. 2nd, 2008. If found guilty, Mr. Miller could be subject to a fine of up to $5000.

"This case being pursued against Mr. Miller would set a dangerous legal precedent and only serves to foster an atmosphere of hostility and discrimination against certain rural communities who should be welcomed as part of the future of sustainable agriculture in Wisconsin," noted John E. Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders. "While literally thousands of farmers have refused to comply with the state's mandatory premises registration for many valid reasons, it is painfully obvious that the state has chosen to go after Mr. Miller as a scapegoat in hopes of intimidating others into compliance."

On Aug. 6th, 2008 Mr. Miller and another Amish elder traveled to Milwaukee to speak out against NAIS before the DATCP board meeting, gaining media attention and drawing the ire of government officials. Since 2003 Wisconsin has received millions in federal taxpayer dollars to aggressively implement statewide premises registration for all those who own livestock. Those who have refuses to "voluntarily" comply, including many Amish, have since received threatening government letters, been denied milk licenses, and/or found themselves registered against their will by the state. Under NAIS, the next steps after premises registration will be mandatory RFID chipping and government tracking of all livestock movements.

Family Farm Defenders will be watching this case closely and intends to work with legal counsel to appeal any court decision that would punish any livestock owner, Amish or otherwise, for exercising their religious freedom and food sovereignty in opposition to further implementation of NAIS in Wisconsin.

Family Farm Defenders Responds to 2008 Flood Disaster in Wisconsin -

Distributes over $18,000 in Recovery Grants to 31 Affected Family Farmers Prior to the Holidays

In early June 2008 a series of record rainfalls triggered massive flooding across the Midwest including many parts of Wisconsin. Statewide losses were estimated at $470+ million and in Dane County alone farmers reported nearly $65 million in crop damage. Worse yet, many family farmers and rural communities in southwestern Wisconsin that suffered from floods in 2007 were struck again in 2008. While larger conventional farms often have access to taxpayer subsidized crop insurance programs, this is not true for most smallscale, organic, and sustainable farmers. Family farmers are also not eligible for most federal flood relief programs administered through FEMA.

In light of such potentially crippling disasters, Family Farm Defenders has sought to get relief funds directly into the hands of family farmers as quickly as possible. In the wake of the 2007 flood, FFD was able to raise and distribute over $5,000 to 10 WI family farmers and farmworkers adversely affected. In 2008 FFD greatly expanded its flood recovery effort by distributing over $18,000 to a total of 31 family farmers, CSAs, and market gardeners who suffered serious flood damage (a complete listing of these WI recipients is available upon request).

Such solidarity would not have been possible without the support of many individuals and organizations. In particular, FFD would like to recognize the generous financial contributions from Operation USA, Willy St. Co-op, Farm Aid, National Family Farm Coalition, Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast, Community Pharmacy, Stony Acres Farm, and Saint Bede Monastery, among others. Hopefully, we will not witness another round of flooding next year, but if some disaster does occur, FFD will do its best to respond.

Some 2008 flood relief funds are still available, so if you know of other family farmers adversely affected in WI please refer them to FFD as soon as possible: #608-260-0900

Dairy Farmers Across the Country Condemn National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jerry Kozak for Failure of Vision and Leadership

Dairy Farmers Send Letter to NMPF and Congress Decrying Kozak's Radical Deregulation Agenda that Threatens Farmers' Livelihoods.

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12/9/08

Contact: Irene Lin (202) 543-5675 Cell: (202) 421-4544

Washington D.C. (December 9, 2008) - The Dairy Subcommittee of the National Family Farm Coalition sent a letter today to National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jerry Kozak and the House and Senate Agriculture Committees criticizing Kozak’s October 2008 speech. The speech advocated for radical deregulation policies that would eliminate all government dairy programs, allow markets to consolidate and concentrate even more than they are currently and could prove fatal for America’s remaining 60,000 dairy farmers. NFFC Dairy Subcommittee Chairman Paul Rozwadowski, a Wisconsin dairy farmer, said, “The recent meltdown on Wall Street and within our banking industry should have exposed the dangerous fallacy of deregulation and markets running amok, especially when only three or four corporations and cooperatives control the entire dairy market. NMPF has ceased speaking on behalf of the dairy farmer for a very long time now with their pro-globalization, free-trade market extremism that fails to address the roots of the current dairy crisis. Jerry Kozak’s latest disastrous ideas would destroy what is left of our dairy farmers at a time when consumers are demanding local, fresh milk and wary of foreign dairy products from the likes of China.” read more

Food is Different

By Jim Goodman, organic dairy farmer, Wonewoc, WI

Food is an important part of most Holiday celebrations, not just because we need food to live, but, food connects us to our culture, our past and whether we know it or not, our future. Food Is Different: Why the WTO Should Get Out of Agriculture, a great book by Peter Rosset a book everyone who cares about food should read. The book is dedicated to Lee Kyung Hae, the Korean farmer who took his life in protest against the World Trade Organization (WTO) on September 16, 2003 at the WTO protest march in Cancun Mexico. read more

Local Food Can Help End Hunger

By Tim Damos

Baraboo News Republic (Baraboo, WI) 11/11/08

http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/news/313789

Americans hoping a new U.S. president can revamp a broken agricultural system shouldn't hold their breath, a Brazilian family farm and local food activist says. "It's not the nature of governments to spontaneously bring about change," Rodrigo Lopes told a group of about 30 during a conference Monday night at the Garden Party Cafe in Baraboo. "Their nature is to maintain the status quo. Governments are only susceptible to social forces." Lopes was the guest speaker at the conference, which focused on restoring local food economies. His 25-year-old organization, the Landless Workers Movement, advocates for rational land use and a just global agricultural system. It opposes a corporate model of agriculture. read more

Open Letter From Maputo, Mozambique and the Fifth International Conference of Via Campesina, October 19-22, 2008

Peasant Agriculture and Food Sovereignty are Solutions to the Global Crisis

The entire world is in crisis, a crisis with multiple dimensions. There is a food crisis, an energy crisis, a climate crisis and a financial crisis. The solutions put forth by Power – more free trade, more GM Os, etc. – purposefully ignore the fact that the crisis is a product of the capitalist system and of neoliberalism, and they will only worsen its impacts. To find real solutions we need to look toward Food Sovereignty as put forth by La Via Campesina. read more

To see Photos from the Fifth Congress of Via Campesina visit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cmsfoodsovereignty/5thIntLConferenceOfLaViaCampesinaMozambique#

Via Campesina Interviews from Mozambique now Online

The first of several interviews with farm activists from around the world who attended the Via Campesina meeting in Mozambique in late Oct. was aired last Sun. Nov. 16th on Madison, WI community radio, WORT FM 89.9 FM as part of the weekly Third World View program. This particular interview is 25 min. long and features Willy Marbella and Rhoda Gueta of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, or KMP – the largest peasant movement of the Philippines. Anyone is welcome to redistribute and rebroadcast this interview with attribution. Future interviews should be aired in the coming weeks on the same WORT program.

You can listen and/or download the interview through the WORT archive (scroll down to the Third World View 11/16 program): http://archive.wort-fm.org/

Will Jatropha Invade Mozambique?

Via Campesina Confronts the Global Agrofuel Industrial Complex

By: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

A version of this article appeared in the Jan. 2009 issue of Z Magazine.

On Oct. 19th 2008, at the opening ceremony of the Fifth International Via Campesina Conference in Maputo, Mozambique, over 600 representatives from 50+ countries were gathered to hear a welcome address by the President of the Republic of Mozambique, Armando Emilio Guebuza. While Pres. Guebuza had some encouraging remarks about the future potential of peasant agriculture, his suggestion that jatropha was a solution for Mozambique’s energy crisis was not well received by many in the audience. Jatropha is but one of a whole host of crops (including maize, soya, canola, sugarcane, cassava, sunflower, palm, coconut, and castor among others) now being aggressively promoted as feedstock for the global agrofuel industrial complex. Such crops, often genetically engineered, grown in monoculture plantations, and destined for export markets, hardly deserve to be called “biofuels” since they have no life affirming qualities and undermine all the basic principles of food sovereignty. read more

Irradiation and Vegetables Don’t Mix!

By: Food And Water Watch (www.foodandwaterwatch.org)

On Aug. 21, 2008 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it will allow fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce to be treated with ionizing radiation. Nearly two years after a major E. coli outbreak was linked to California spinach, which killed three people and sickened more than 200 others in 26 states, it is unbelievable that the FDA’s first action on is this issue is to turn to irradiation rather than focus on how to prevent contamination of these crops. This just illustrates once again how misplaced this agency’s priorities really are. Instead of beefing up its capacity to inspect food facilities or test food for contamination, all the FDA has to offer consumers is an impractical, ineffective and very expensive gimmick like irradiation. read more

Using modern laws to keep Amish ways

Computer chips in cattle violate their beliefs, they say in rare plea

By Tim Jones Chicago Tribune (September 20, 2008)

BLANCHARD, Mich. - It's not like Glen Mast to be confrontational or to draw attention to himself. He is Old Order Amish and is happy to tend his 35-acre farm, build furniture for his children and repair horse-drawn buggies for the Amish in his rural central Michigan community. "I just want to be left alone," Mast says. So it is extraordinary that Mast is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed this month seeking to stop the government from tagging the ears of cattle with computer chips, chips that Mast and others say violate their religious freedom and may represent the biblical "mark of the beast," condemning those who comply to eternal damnation. read more

You Are What You Eat:

The Food Sovereignty Struggle within the Larger Global Justice Movement

by: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

This article appeared in three parts in the Sustainable Times (July-Sept. 2008)

I have a button that says: If You Are What You Eat, Then I'm Fast, Cheap, and Easy. While this quip is somewhat sarcastic, for many people it is all too true. Whether due to marketing hype, or out of sheer convenience, lots of normally "smart" folks fall down when it comes to choosing what they put in their mouths. The personal is political and this is reflected each time someone votes for "business as usual" by giving their money to a fastfood chain or bigbox retailer. The result is a broken food/farm system that is now abusing animals, exploiting workers, perverting biodiversity, undermining democracy, jeopardizing health, and destroying the planet. If we believe another world is possible, then we need to radically transform our own daily behavior, and this means including food sovereignty as part of our thinking, organizing, and eating. read more

Congress Takes Another Potshot at Family Farmers -

Requiring Animal ID Has Nothing to Do With the Food Safety of School Lunches

by Jeff Pausma, grass-based dairy farmer, Fox Lake, WI

Printed in the Wisconsin State Farmer 8/1/08 and the Progressive Populist 8/15/08

Many parents were appalled when we saw on our television screens a video of workers abusing a downer cow with electric shocks because the cow was too sick to stand up. We were even more horrified to learn that meat from that cow had gone into lunches served by the federal School Lunch Program. The scandal at the Hallmark/Westland plant in Chino, Calif., has sparked interest in the current trend of securing local meat from sources that are grass-fed, organic and come from animals raised humanely. Our kids deserve the safest meat in their food. Sadly, Congress is now considering squashing such efforts to get local foods into the School Lunch Program. read more

Family Farm Defenders Joins Over 70 Other Organizations in Effort to Keep Animal ID Out of the Federal School Lunch Program

On June 25th a letter was sent by over 70 organizations to the House Appropriations Committee asking Congress not to connect the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) to the School Lunch Program. Among the signers is Family Farm Defenders which has been at the forefront of grassroots resistance to premises registration, RFID chipping, and animal tracking - the three stages of NAIS, the first of which is already mandated in Wisconsin.

A copy of the letter to Congress can be found: http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/files/SignOnLetter080625.pdf

The misguided proposal in the 2009 Agriculture Appropriations Bill would require the School Lunch Program to buy only meat from farms that have been registered under NAIS. This proposal would discriminate against smallscale producers who have chosen not to participate in the largest invasive surveillance project in U.S. agricultural history. In Wisconsin alone over 10% of dairy farmers have refused to register, many for religious reasons such as among the Amish, the fastest growing segment of the state's dairy industry. If passed, this proposal would force many local farm to school lunch programs that have successfully introduced healthier grassfed meat into cafeterias to go back to factory farm suppliers and corporate meatpackers.

"This corporate-driven perversion of the school lunch program is masquerading as a food safety measure, despite the fact that USDA officials have repeatedly stated that NAIS is not a food safety program," noted John Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders. "School children will still be stuck eating dubious meat at taxpayer expense - whether it is from cloned animals, animals force-fed mad cow material or injected with synthetic hormones and antibiotics, or contaminated and irradiated after slaughter. In fact, it is highly debatable whether NAIS even helps keep animals healthier since the best disease prevention option is to keep livestock outside eating their natural foods on pasture."

“The provision favors the most vertically integrated farms that can easily prove that all their meat is from a NAIS-registered farm, as well as confinement operations (CAFOs) that will be able to use group identification under NAIS,” added Kathy Ozer, executive director of the National Family Farm Coalition.

Family Farm Defenders calls upon concerned citizens to contact their Congressional representatives (Congressional Switchboard #202-224-3121) to oppose any NAIS related requirement that would prohibit unregistered family farmers from supplying healthy local grassfed meat to the federal school lunch program.

Farm Bill 2008 - Wasted Opportunity For Change

By: Ben Burkett, President, National Family Farm Coalition

Global food crisis? Consumers demanding more local, sustainable food from family farmers? Public health and environmental concerns over factory farms? The recently passed Farm Bill is an abysmal disappointment for those seeking solutions to these urgent questions. Despite the global food crisis and consumer demands for a healthier food system, Congress chose to stay with the failed status quo that favors industrial factory farms and corporate agribusiness profits over the interests of family farmers and consumers. While some critics of our farm programs targeted their ire towards “millionaire farmers” receiving subsidies, the main beneficiaries of our farm programs were able to escape scrutiny: corporate agribusinesses. read more

Farm Bill Redux - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

The Good:

• $10 billion for nutrition programs over next ten years, including $1 billion to promote more fruits and vegetables in schools (a belated attempt to get school cafeteria menus in step with the USDA's revised food pyramid)
• Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) finally being implemented (passed in the last Farm Bill, but blocked by the Bush USDA at the request of corporate agribusiness and the mega retailers - this latest version, though, contains "flexibility" language...)
• Interstate meat sales allowed if the slaughterhouse is state inspected (USDA inspection no longer required)
• $100 million for organic programs, including up to $750 cost share per farm to help cover certification costs
• $75 million for beginning farmer/rancher programs over 4 years
• $33 million for promoting farmers’ markets over 5 years

The Bad:

• No farmer controlled strategic grain reserve
• No exemption allowed to grow fruits or vegetables on commodity base acreage
• No packer ban on livestock ownership
• $40 billion for continued commodity payments with a "cap" at $2.5 million per joint operation - ie. the wealthiest farmers will continue to receive the majority of farm subsidies
• $2.4 billion for continued EQIP payments with a “cap” at $300,000 over 6 years - i.e. more factory farm subsidies
• $34 million to promote U.S. agricultural exports through Foreign Market Development Program
• $70 million for biomass”second generation” agrofuel development, new $1.00 per gallon subsidy for cellulosic ethanol producers, plus sugar growers will get taxpayer subsidies along with corn and soybean growers as part of the agrofuel industrial complex

The Ugly:

• $1.7 billion in tax beaks for special interests to win over certain key politicians, including:
• $400 million in new tax breaks for timber industry ($100 million to Weyerhauser alone!)
• $170 million for salmon industry (mostly in CA)
• $126 million in tax breaks for race horse owners (mostly in KY)

Latin American Farmers Visit Sauk County

By Nathan Greenhalgh

Times-Press (Reedsburg, WI), May 16th, 2008

Jim Goodman (right), an organic beef and dairy farmer from the Hillpoint area, shakes the hand of Policarpio Ali Cruz, a representative of the FECAFAB coffee producer cooperative of Bolivia at the Deli Bean in Reedsburg (photo caption)

Although downing a cup of coffee in the morning is almost as common as showering in the morning, if you asked most people where their coffee comes from, they'll just say the store. Coffee is one of the most-traded commodities in the world, and the bean in your coffee machine may have traveled thousands of miles before appearing on the supermarket shelf. In an effort to raise awareness about the global implications of coffee choices, Just Coffee, a coffee roasting cooperative based in Madison, and Family Farm Defenders, a nonprofit political advocacy group, brought a delegation of Latin American coffee producers to Sauk County for a tour of farms, the Cedar Grove Cheese factory and meeting local organic farmers at The Deli Bean Cafe in downtown Reedsburg. Just Coffee is not just a company but also political activists for the Fair Trade movement, which advocates the payment of a fair price and implementing environmental and social standards for Third World agricultural producers. "It's definitely better than the alternative," Colleen Coy, a Just Coffee delegation coordinator, said. read more

For a few photos from their visit to WI, visit this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnpecknyeleniforum/sets/72157605221133049/

Oaxacan Political Prisoner, Flavio Sosa, Released!

Many thanks to all those who contacted their Congressional representatives and the Mexican government earlier this year demanding Flavio's release. Your efforts paid off!

Eighteen U.S. farm activists from three states - Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Maine - were in Oaxaca, Mexico from Jan. 10th - 17th, 2008 as part of a solidarity delegation organized by Family Farm Defenders. As you may recall, the FFD delegates, along with representatives of APPO and Via Campesina, attempted to visit Flavio in prison on Jan. 16th, but were denied access. In response, FFD delegates joined leaders of the popular resistance movement in Oaxaca for a well-attended press conference, demanding unconditional freedom for all political prisoners, respect for basic human rights, and renegotiation of NAFTA.

For a 1/18/08 article in Noticias, the major daily paper in Oaxaca, about FFD's failed attempt to visit Flavio Sosa in prison (in Spanish), click here

For a 4/20/08 report by Mexico Monitor on Flavio's release (in English), click here

Since the violent repression of the democratic movement by Oaxacan Gov. Ulises Ruiz, with support of federal troops in May 2006, over 500 people have been detained, many tortured while in custody, and over a dozen people have also been killed, including U.S. journalist and WI native, Brad Will on Oct. 27th, 2006. While Flavio Sosa is now free, there are still other Oaxacan activists in prison and government repression continues. FFD plans to continue our international solidarity campaign.

Gustavo Esteva, one of several Mexican activists who participated in the FFD annual meeting in Oaxaca, has provided an excellent background document: Oaxaca - The Path of Radical Democracy. You can read his analysis here

FFD board member, Stephen (Esteban) Bartlett, who was part of the Oaxaca solidarity delegation recorded interviews, as well as some music, during the trip. This 54 min. audio pogram can be heard at: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=26281&nav=prod

A collection of photos from the Jan. 2008 FFD solidarity delegation to Oaxaca can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnpecknyeleniforum/sets/72157603821180927/

Food Shortage Looming if Crop Focus Isn't Altered

By Jim Goodman, organic dairy farmer from Wonewoc, WI, and a 2008 Food and Society Policy Fellow

Originally printed in the Capital Times (Madison, WI) 4/16/08

As a child I was told to clean my plate because there were people starving in China. It seemed silly. How would getting sick help hungry Chinese? That was in the 1950s, the heart of the green revolution. After college I was ready to farm as one of the green revolutionaries. I was ready to feed the world and open the cornucopia to everyone. Now, 40 years later, I admit I was wrong — high-tech agriculture wasn’t the answer. There is still plenty of hunger in the world, and it looks like our daily bread could get a lot more expensive. read more

Speak Out Against NAIS

Letter to the Editor printed in WI State Farmer 3/21/2008

By: John Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

I was extremely disturbed by the recent article extolling the virtues of RFID chips in the WI State Farmer (3/14/08), especially when the sponsoring entities (WLIC, DATCP, UW) all have financial interests in creating demand for this expensive technology. The global RFID market is growing by an estimated 30% annually and will top $7 billion in 2008, so one can only imagine the bonanza once Wisconsin goes beyond premises ID to mandate animal ID. read more

Action Alert!

Stop Monsanto's RoundUp Ready (RR) Sugar Beet!

This coming spring Monsanto plans to unveil its RoundUp ready (RR) sugar beet, designed to withstand heavy doses of the herbicide, glyphosate. In preparation for this announcement, the EPA has already increased the acceptable limit of glyphosate residue in sugar beet roots by 5000%. “Basically, we have not run into resistance,” said David Berg, president of American Crystal Sugar, quoted in the 11/27/07 New York Times, “We really think that consumer attitudes have come to accept food from biotechnology.” read more

Want Milk, Forget Ethanol Tax Repeal

Newsday, Jan. 22, 2008, Letter to the Editor

By: Fred Matthews, FFD board member and dairy farmer (Lafargeville, NY)

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opleta5547193jan22,0,5071548.story?page=2

As a third-generation dairy farmer and one of the remaining 6,500 dairy farmers in New York State, I find ridiculous Sen. Charles Schumer's proposed legislation to help lower milk prices.

Getting rid of the ethanol tariff will neither address the dire crisis of the New York dairy industry nor help consumers. The end of cheap oil has contributed far more to the end of "cheap" milk than higher feed prices associated with ethanol. Fuel costs for processing, manufacturing and shipping milk have spiraled upward for processors, while my farm's cost for a gallon of diesel has gone from $1.68 to $3.40.

Feed costs are just one small aspect of what goes into the price of milk and are not even part of the official formula that determines what price farmers receive for milk. Before the recent boom in milk prices, 2006 was the worst year for New York dairy farmers since the Great Depression. More than 500 went out of business. Though prices paid to farmers collapsed, consumers were still facing rising milk prices as the middlemen-milk processors, handlers and supermarkets-reaped the profits.

If we want to truly address rising food prices, we need a comprehensive energy policy that moves us away from a petroleum-based economy. And we need antitrust enforcement to ensure farmers a fair price to cover their costs of production while protecting consumers from price-gouging.

Schumer should look at the oil companies making record profits and the market power of supermarket chains and agribusiness processors who hold the real sway over retail milk prices.

The Threat of Agrofuels –

Industrialized GMO Monocultures Will Only Hurt Farmers, Undermine Food Sovereignty, and Make Global Warming Worse

By: John E. Peck Executive Director, Family Farm Defenders

As concerns about peak oil mount, many people are declaring agrofuels to be the latest panacea for saving civilization from its impending collapse. Propelling this bandwagon is a whole gaggle of venture capitalists, free trade advocates, farm commodity groups, agribusiness giants, biotech outfits, and – yes – the oil giants and car makers. As detailed in the July 2007 issue of Seedling (available online at www.grain.org), many of the biggest agrofuel boosters are familiar opponents to those now struggling for global justice, food sovereignty, and land reform. read more

Along with several other organizations, Family Farm Defenders recently issued a call for a moratorium on agrofuel development in the U.S. For more info, click here

For a more detailed background document on the need for an agrofuel moratorium, click here

Wisconsin Family Farmers Celebrate Fair Trade Month by Hosting Cocoa Farmers From Ghana!

On Wed. Oct. 11th, 2007 Family Farm Defenders helped welcome two women farmer leaders of Kuapa Kokoo, the largest fair trade cocoa co-op in West Africa with 45,000 members. In the photo to the left John Kiefer shows Cecilia Appianim his dairy farm near Sauk City, while in the photo to the right Cecilia gets to see Cedar Grove Cheese with Camy Matthay and John Peck.

Divine Chocolate USA (http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/) facilitated the Midwest tour of the Ghanaian cocoa farmers, along with our friends at Just Coffee (http://www.justcoffee.coop/), SERRV (http://www.serrv.org/), A Greater Gift (http://www.agreatergift.org/), and the Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance (MadFTAA). You'll find Kuapa Kokoo's fair trade Divine chocolate in our FFD holiday gift boxes, but you can also ask for it at your local store or grocery co-op!

Farmers and Consumers are Both Getting Milked by the Dairy Giants

By: Joel Greeno

Grass-based dairy farmer (Kendall, WI) and vice president of Family Farm Defenders

An edited version of this op ed appeared in the Capital Times (Madison, WI) on 8/2/07 and in the Topeka Capital-Journal (Topeka, KS) on 8/17/07

Despite recent media hype, farmers are not getting rich off record prices in the dairy case. The cost of milk has gone up 50-60 cents in the last few months, with consumers paying close to $4 per gallon in Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans. But dairy farmers are still getting less than half of that money - about $1.60 per gallon. Rising fuel costs and ethanol corn demands are partly to blame. Intense drought has also meant wilting pastures and hay crops. For the first time ever the creek that normally waters my cows has dried up, and as a result my milk production has dropped 50% this summer. But the real culprit behind the current dairy crisis remains corporate greed. read more

Joel Greeno (left) and other farmers protest dairy price fixing outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in Chicago

Pet Food, Human Food – Both Easy Prey for Global Food Giants

By: John E. Peck executive director, Family Farm Defenders

A version of this article was printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) on Sat. 5/12/07, in the Contra Costa Times (CA) on Sun. 5/13/07, and in the St. Cloud Times (MN) on Fri. 8/3/07

Back in early March when it was first revealed that pet food across the U.S. contained Chinese wheat and rice gluten laced with melamine, many expected the Bush White House to take swift action, recalling the deadly products and tracking down the source of the contamination for prosecution. Instead, the FDA deferred to industry and its dubious self-policing capacity. The upshot was the death nationwide of thousands of dogs and cats, and the dumping of recalled pet food into livestock rations destined for human mouths. By late April federal officials were doing a second round of damage control, contacting pork and poultry producers in nine states about melamine tainted feedstocks and culling suspected animals. Unfortunately, some livestock could not be recalled since they were already on their way to market and people’s plates.read more

Farmers, Cows, Bees Win Legal Victory Against Monsanto’s Introduction of GE Alfalfa

By: John E. Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders

Back in April 2004 Monsanto submitted a federal petition for commercial introduction of “Round-Up Ready” (RR) alfalfa in the U.S, and after a sixty day public comment period the USDA determined that this herbicide resistant alfalfa variety would have no significant environmental impact, formally approving its commercial introduction in June 2005. By fall 2005 Monsanto had obtained approval for export of RR alfalfa into Mexico, and was working to obtain the same from a host of other countries including Canada, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. On March 12, 2007, though, federal judge, Charles Breyer, of the northern CA district ordered an immediate injunction against U.S. sale of RR alfalfa, having earlier ruled back on Feb. 13th, 2007 that the USDA failed to conduct a full environmental impact study. read more...

On Aug. 6th, 2007 the USDA established a tollfree hotline for farmers to call to find out whether or not GE alfalfa is still being grown in their vicinity, so they can avoid possible contamination. That number is 866-724-6408 and is staffed from 9 am - 5 pm Eastern Standard Time, Monday thorugh Friday (except holidays).

Press Coverage of the Nyélení Food Sovereignty Forum 2007 in Sélingué, Mali, West Africa

Posted 3/8/07 on Madison Indymedia: http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display/55643/index.php

Wajid Jenkins interviews Anna Lappe for WORT's Compost Pile 3/8/07 http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=download&program_id=22131&file_id=38386&nav=&session=anonymous

JoAnne Pow!ers interviews John Peck for WORT's Eight O'Clock Buzz 3/5/07 http://lists.wort-fm.org/parchive/mp3/wort_070305_080001buzzmon.mp3

Mali, A Country in Search of Food Sovereignty

Dafne Melo, Special Brasil de Fato Reporter interviews Mamadou Goita, one of the Malian organizers of the Nyeleni Forum and member of the Institute for Research and Promotion of Development Alternatives (IRPAD).read more...

Unconventional Gathering

Supara Janchitfa reports for the Bangkok Post (3/18/07) that the Nyeleni 2007 Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali was not your usual global conference of diplomats and policy makers; the six-day programme initiated by and for the underprivileged worldwide was marked by a spirit of international solidarity read more...

Real World Radio coverage: http://www.radiomundoreal.fm/rmr/?q=en/taxonomy/term/178

Some mainstream media coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6387975.stm http://www.bangkokpost.com/180307_Perspective/18Mar2007_pers009.php http://www.bangkokpost.com/180307_Perspective/18Mar2007_pers010.php

For related news, commentaries and photos on Nyeleni, visit:

Nyeleni 2007: http://www.nyeleni2007.org/

John Peck's photos from the forum: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnpecknyeleniforum/

Getcha Grub On: http://grubbook.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

Anna Lappe's photos from the forum: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annalappe/sets/72157594553730855/show/

World Hunger Year: http://www.worldhungeryear.org/international/nyeleni_2007.asp

Christina Schiavoni's photos from the forum: http://picasaweb.google.com/maureenkel/MaliAlbum

Grassroots International: http://www.grassrootsonline.org/weblog/labels/Ny=C3=A9l=C3=A9ni.html

Food First http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1652

Report Back from Nyélení Food Sovereignty Forum 2007 – Sélingué, Mali, West Africa

by: John E. Peck

March 5th, 2007

From Feb. 23rd – Feb. 28th I had the exciting opportunity to participate in the Nyélení Food Sovereignty Forum near Sélingué, Mali, in West Africa. I was chosen as one of about 20 invited participants from the U.S. and ended up serving as one of the staff liaisons for the North American delegation (50 people total from the U.S., Canada, Mexico). I think I was mostly chosen for this role because of my African experience and the fact that I could speak French and Portuguese, and understand Spanish.

Thankfully, all the formal sessions were simultaneously translated into English, French, Spanish, and Bambara (the local language) and many of the delegations brought their own translators for other languages (Nepalese, Indonesian, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, etc.) Alltold, there were over 600 participants from 80+ countries that converged near Sélingué, Mali about a two hour drive from the capital, Bamako, near the border with Guinea. Named after a farmer heroine from West African folklore in order to celebrate the critical role women still play in agriculture today, the Nyélení forum was organized by several international grassroots organizations, including Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth, World Forum of Fisher Peoples, le Reseau des Organisations Paysannes et de Producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (ROPPA – Network of Farmers and Producers Organization of West Africa) and the World March for Women, to name a few read more...

20 Ways to Promote Local Food Sovereignty

For a list of things you can do at the community level, read more...

Food Sovereignty or Food Dependence?

By: Jim Goodman, organic dairy farmer, Wonewoc, WI

Posted on Feb. 8, 2007 on Madison Indymedia (www.madisonindymedia.org)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) documents 852 million people world-wide as being food insecure, with approximately 25,000 deaths due to starvation daily. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that 11% of US households are food insecure. The FAO states that “food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active, healthy life”. USDA defines food security as “access by all people at all times to enough nutritious food for an active healthy life”. What happened to “safe” food meeting peoples “food preferences”? Not important according to USDA. Not surprising either, in this society, profits are more important than people. read more...

Second Annual Wisconsin Fair Trade & Local Food Directory is now available!

Family Farm Defenders (FFD), in conjunction with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ) has just released an expanded 2007 second edition of Wisconsin's first ever statewide fair trade and local food directory.

The nearly 100 page directory includes listings of family farms, locally owned retailers, coffeeshops, restaurants, bakeries, sweat-free apparel stores, as well as bioregional recipes, nutritional information, and educational sidebars.

Spiral bound copies are available for $10.00 each (+$2.00 for postage) from either FFD (1019 Williamson St. #B, Madison, WI, 53703 #608-260-0900) or WNPJ (122 State St. #402, Madison, WI 53703 #608-250-9240).

An online version of the directory is also available for free at: http://www.wnpj.org/

This is a work in progress, so we welcome your feedback! Any suggested additions and corrections to listings for future editions, as well as other comments, can be directed to the FFD office or sent via email to: familyfarmdefenders@yahoo.com

Wisconsin Farmers Add Voice to Call for Peace in Washington DC

Family Farm Defenders and Farms not Arms Demand End to Senseless War

For Immediate Release

Fri. Jan. 26, 2007

Contacts: Randy Jasper Family Farm Defenders #608-553-0596 or #608-475-1534 John Kiefer Family Farm Defenders and Farms Not Arms #608-393-7076 John Kinsman National Family Farm Coalition #608-986-3815 Douglas Stevenson Farms Not Arms #931-626-4035

On Sat. Jan. 27th Wisconsin family farmers will be lending their voice to hundreds of thousands of others in demanding an end to war. Some are making the long trip to Washington DC, while others will be participating in solidarity rallies in Wisconsin, such as the one scheduled for Noon in Madison at the State Capitol.

Family Farm Defenders was among the first groups to join Farm not Arms when it was launched last year at Farm Aid. The mission of Farms not Arms is to oppose the dangerous cycle of war and terror that now threatens our world, and to urge all countries to refocus their resources on ending hunger, fighting disease, stewarding the environment and protecting our farmland.

One member of Family Farm Defenders from Muscoda who is going to DC is no stranger to such solidarity. Last year Randy Jasper helped drive nine donated tractors down to Mississippi in support of black farmers struggling to recover after Hurricane Katrina. “Somehow we need to stop this stupidity,” noted Jasper. “I have friends and neighbors who are now in the military in Iraq and they tell me they have to drive around and basically provoke people to shoot at them so then the military can respond indiscriminately. This is just a waste of our young people.”

John Kiefer, a dairy farmer from near Sauk City and co-chair of Farms not Arms, is also going to DC to lend his voice. “It is a citizen’s and a farmer’s civic duty,” Kiefer explained, “to seek justice when he sees none. It is especially important to get folks in agriculture more engaged in the worldwide peace movement, since there can be no real peace without access to good food.”

Another dairy farmer from La Valle, WWII veteran, and secretary of the National Family Farm Coalition, John Kinsman will be attending the peace rally in Madison. According to Kinsman, "We, the people, do have a choice. Violence only begets more killing. Many of the victims of war are innocent farmers, elders, women and children and by destroying their livelihoods and their land we only make hunger worse and create fresh conflict. We have an obligation to speak out, and foster friendship instead. If people only understood what is really happening, they would join groups like Farms not Arms and bring about a better world.”

Globalization Needs To Have Rules

by Jim Goodman, dairy farmer (Wonewoc, WI)

Posted on Jan. 8th, 2007 on Madison Indymedia (www.madisonindymedia.org)

Perhaps you have noticed? Lots of US auto workers lost their jobs in 2006, lots of workers in other industries as well, farmers, well we don't expect much anymore and even high-tech workers are feeling the pinch. The minimum wage hasn't gone up since 1997 and according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 6.8 million unemployed (over 8 million if you count those who have given up trying to find a job). Am I missing something here? I thought that globalization and the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 was supposed to raise everyones ship. Instead it seems most of us are losing ground. read more...

Bringing Fair Trade Home to the U.S.

by: John E. Peck

Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007 issue of the Sustainable Times (www.sustainabletimes.net)

Ever wondered why the fair trade label only applies to products from outside the U.S.? Why are all the fair trade certifies located thousands of miles away from the producers? How can corporations that are so unfair towards workers, farmers, and consumers in the U.S. get away with selling and promoting themselves as fair trade? What ever happened to the idea of applying fair trade principles in our own backyard?

read more...

So, What's the Big Deal if Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake?

by Jim Goodman

Madison Indymedia (www.madison.indymedia.org) Posted 12/4/06

That was the question asked by the host on a recent Public Radio call-in show. Her question to her guest from the Cornucopia Institute was in regard to recent charges that Wal-Mart was passing conventional grocery items off as USDA certified organic. A mistake? I doubt it. Seriously, think about it, you start a big push in marketing a new line of high profit products and one of the first things you do is mislabel your products, “accidentally”? As Jim Hightower would say “Do they think we were born with sucker wrappers around our heads?” read more...

Celebrate Food Sovereignty This Holiday Season!

By: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

The holidays are when many people happily rediscover that there is still culture left in agriculture. A delicious homemade meal of traditional bioregional fare in a relaxed “slow food” atmosphere is often the highlight of any gathering among friends and family this time of year. In fact, it is almost hard to imagine Thanksgiving without turkey, wild rice, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie – all foods that have become a proud part of the culinary heritage of the Americas. What is sadly missing from many of our holiday celebrations, though, is a hearty affirmation of food sovereignty. read more...

In 2006 the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and Grassroots International collaborated to produce a brochure on food sovereignty featuring farmers' voices, including members of Family Farm Defenders.

To download the English version of this brochure visit: http://grassrootsonline.org/foodsovereignty.pdf

If you would rather have a copy mailed to you, please call our office #608-260-0900.

Don’t Play With Our Food!

By: Debra Eschmeyer, project director, National Family Farm Coalition

Most everyone has been told to not play with his or her food, yet somehow agribusiness is playing Monopoly with the nation’s food supply. When pouring your next glass of milk, consider who decided what the cow ate and who controls the distribution of profits. One would think the farmer and consumer take the lead roles in managing the supply of safe and healthy food. The farmer should control his or her business while mainly battling unpredictable weather—expecting the price they receive for a quality product to be set by a fair and honest marketplace. However, in today’s market, the lack of competition is wielding just as much force as Mother Nature as witnessed by the recent proposed acquisition of the Chicago Board of Trade by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to become the CME Group Inc.—combining the two largest U.S. futures exchanges. read more...

Industrial Agriculture is Leading Us Down the Wrong Road

By: Jim Goodman, organic dairy farmer, Wonewoc, WI

Printed in the Capital Times (Madison, WI) on Mon. Nov. 20th, 2006

Also posted 11/15/06 on Madison Indymedia: http://www.madison.indymedia.org/

Self reliance is not a bad thing. While Emerson's thoughts on “Self Reliance” were controversial enough to get him banned from Harvard University, it seems that most Americans have willingly ceded their own self reliance and therefore their right of choice into the hands of corporate America. They have given up choice in media, health care and even food. Granted, not everyone can or wants to raise their own food. I guess as a farmer, that's good for my business, but I do want them to to care, to take part in the decision of what they eat and how it is grown. Just as it is wrong for the corporate media to only offer part of the news, it is also wrong for the corporate food industry to basically say “shut up and eat”. read more...

Tainted Spinach is Just Another Sign of a Sick Food Farm System

By: John E. Peck

Printed in the Capital Times (Madison, WI) on 10/2/06

A longer updated version was also printed in the Oct. 2006 issue of the Sustainable Times: http://www.sustainabletimes.net/

After a decade of repeated outbreaks and warnings, vegetable growers in the Salinas Valley of CA are now reaping a deadly harvest. Over 170 people nationwide have fallen victim to the deadly O157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria, with one death confirmed in WI, and a voluntary recall of bagged spinach is now underway. While distant DC officials say it is still OK to eat suspect spinach after cooking at 160 degrees for 15 seconds, those CA health experts on the ground are telling consumers to throw it all out. Recent budget and staff cuts at the federal level have left the majority of food safety inspection and enforcement in the hands of city, county, and state agencies. Ironically enough, the Bush administration is now trying to railroad through Congress the "National Uniformity for Food Act” that would take away this local control over food safety and labeling. read more...

Family Farm Defenders Endorses Farms Not Arms!

Pictured are Family Farm Defender members, Kat Becker and Tony Schultz, outside their newly decorated barn near Athens, WI!

On Sun. Oct. 1st, Farms Not Arms held its first national gathering in conjunction with the Farm Aid event the day before in Camden, NJ.

Speaking at the kickoff event were: Farms Not Arms co-chair, Will Allen, and Kate Deustenberg of Cedar Circle Farm in East Thetford, VT; Farms Not Arms co-chair Michael O'Gorman of Agroproductos Del Cabo, Ensenada, Mexico.; National Family Farm Coalition President and Iowa soybean farmer, George Naylor.; President of Organic Consumers Association. Ronnie Cummins and Wisconsin dairy farmer, John Keifer, representing Family Farm Defenders!

For more info on how you can get involved

in Farms Not Arms visit:

http://www.farmsnotarms.org/

Sen. Feingold and Others Call for a GAO Investigation of Dairy Price Fixing at the CME

July 14, 2006

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is calling on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study if cheese trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is susceptible to price manipulation and suggest improvements that may be needed. Feingold, along with Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), took the lead in writing GAO Comptroller General David Walker requesting the study nearly ten years after price manipulation was uncovered in cheese trading on the old National Cheese Exchange based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. read more...

The Fall of the WTO!

by: Carlos Marentes

Border Agricultural Workers Project (El Paso, TX) Aug. 1st, 2006

On Monday July 24, 2006, the General Secretary of the World Trade organization, Pascal Lamy, officially announced the suspension of the Doha Round talks. Outside the somber WTO headquarters in Geneva, a large group of La Via Campesina, Fisher Folk Federation, and members of other social movement celebrated the failure of the negotiations and WTO. The organizations publicly stated: “The Doha Round cycle is over, now is the time for food sovereignty.” read more...

Katrina Solidarity Continues As Four More Donated WI Tractors Depart for MS Farmer Co-op

For Immediate Release:

June 5th, 2006

Contact: Randy Jasper – Project Tractor #608-553-0596
Joel Greeno – Project Tractor #608-463-7634
Ben Burkett - Mississippi Association of Cooperatives #601-870-4114
John Peck - Family Farm Defenders #608-260-0900

On Mon. June 5th four more tractors from Wisconsin will be heading south to Mississippi to further strengthen grassroots farmer to farmer relationships which grew out of the devastating aftermath of last year’s hurricanes. Two Olivers, a Case, and an International – along with a chisel plow, disc, field cultivator, and rotary hoe – are destined for the Indian Springs Farmers Association in Sheeplo, MS where they will be redistributed to those co-op members desperately in need of working equipment.

Another load of five WI tractors arrived in Hattiesburg, MS on March 31st, 2006 in conjunction with the annual meeting of Family Farm Defenders hosted by the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives. Over fifty activists from across the nation were on hand to celebrate the tractors’ arrival and the ongoing solidarity they represent. Family Farm Defenders was one of the first family farm groups to respond to Hurricane Katrina last year by sending two biodiesel buses with seven volunteers and over 10,000 pounds of food, medicine, and other relief supplies down to communities in MS, AL, and LA.

Project Tractor as it has been called was the brainchild of Joel Greeno, a dairy farmer near Kendall, WI who drove his Allis Chalmers tractor in Farm Aid’s 20th Anniversary parade through downtown Chicago last September and overheard a MS farmer saying he wished he had one of those so he would no longer have to hoe so many rows by hand.

“Family farmers in the south have been struggling for years – first against slavery and racism and now against unfair policies and unjust prices,” said Randy Jasper, a farmer near Muscoda, WI who volunteered to drive down the second load of tractors on his flatbed semitruck. “Hurricane Katrina just added insult to centuries of injury. We can’t depend upon government assistance any more. The real answer lies in coalition building and farmers working together to save each other.”

Tax deductible donations for Project Tractor and other post-hurricane solidarity work can be sent to: Family Farm Defenders, P.O. Box 1772, Madison, WI 53701

Donated tractors bring cheer to farmers hit hard by Katrina

Hattiesburg American Sat. April 1st, 2006
By Rachel Leifer

SHEEPLO - With a halting first belch from its exhaust pipe, a Wisconsin tractor prepared to take its first ride through Mississippi soil.

The McCormick Farmall was one of five dusty but working tractors unloaded Friday afternoon in front of the Indian Springs Farmers Cooperative in the Sheeplo community near Petal. Representatives of the national Family Farm Defenders had hauled them from southwestern Wisconsin to donate to the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, a coalition of independent farming cooperatives in 11 counties- many of whose members lost equipment and crops to Hurricane Katrina.

At least two of the tractors are expected to stay at Indian Springs - where farmers like Donnie Pen-Travis said they are sorely needed.

"They might be worth $4,000 or $5,000 to you, but to me they're worth a million bucks," said Pen-Travis, 53, who works a plot of land he said has been in his family for five generations. He beamed as fellow farmers from Wisconsin backed the red and orange vehicles off the back of an 18-wheeler before a crowd of about 50 farmers and pro-organic farming activists.

Photo - Darnelle Burkett with John Peck, John Kinsman and Daisy Garrett

"(Katrina) beat my sugar cane to death," he said, adding that he also lost a tractor and three-and-a-half acres' worth of bell peppers and sugar peas to the Aug. 29 storm's winds and rain.

Family Farm Defenders was in the Pine Belt for its annual conference, which is promoting small farmer solidarity against the pressures of agribusiness and the global marketplace.

"We've all been so excited we could do something that was a way of gaining solidarity with all the farmers in the hurricane area," said John Kinsman, 80, president of FFD and a dairy and tree farmer from Sauk County, Wisc.

The group sent two truckloads of food to the Gulf Coast in Katrina's aftermath, and several supporters on hand had spent the winter volunteering in New Orleans.

Farmer Darnella Burkett said the donation and support will help independent Mississippi farmers maintain economically viable, high quality operations even in the face of hurricane damage and pressure to sell their land.

"It's tough, but we've got to try to hold on to this land," said Burkett, 25, who works on her father's Sheeplo farm and sustained significant storm damage to her fields and equipment.

"My daddy always says, hold on to the land I give you - they're not growing any more."

For an online version of this story, visit: http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060401/NEWS01/604010308/1002/NEWS17

Not Charity, But Solidarity!

The 2nd Relief Trip of Family Farm Defenders to the Gulf Coast

by Camy Matthay
organic berry farmer, Brooklyn, WI (4/7/06)

Last week, I traveled south to Mississippi and Louisiana with other members of Family Farm Defenders, a national activist organization made up of farmers and consumers concerned with building a safe and sustainable food system. This was the second relief caravan sponsored by Family Farm Defenders to make the trip to the Gulf Coast. Shortly after the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, Family Farm Defenders had organized the first shipment of 10,000 lbs of food and medical aid from their headquarters in Madison, WI. read more...

The Peoples’ Relief Caravan: Family Farm Defenders to the Rescue!

An Account of Grassroots Relief at Work in the Gulf Coast

Harvest season in the Midwest is hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico. Late August is a busy time in our gardens, with tomatoes to process, corn to pick, and compost to turn. Alongside dedicated friends and family, I help run an organic farm on the city limits of Madison, Wisconsin. This August, 2005, our small collective was working beautifully, canning sauce and husking ears into the night. Satisfied and exhausted by each day’s labor, I was almost oblivious to the rest of the world; but on August 29, the radio in the greenhouse announced that Hurricane Katrina had made landfall 60 miles east of New Orleans, Louisiana. On Thurs. Sept 15th, 2005 seven farmers and other community activists left Madison, WI in two buses loaded down with emergency food, medicine, and other supplies. Their destination - the Southern Federation of Cooperative's relief warehouse in Epes, AL followed by subsequent stops at the Organic Valley "Kickapoo Kitchen" in Waveland, MS and the Veterans for Peace encampment in Covington, LA. read more...

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Corporate Agribusiness Exposes

Welcome to Whole Foods – The “Walmart” of Organic

Whole Foods is the largest retail giant in the natural food sector in the U.S. with 168 stores nationwide (plus in Canada and Britain) and annual gross sales now exceeding $4.6 billion. In fact, Whole Foods has grown twice as fast the leading corporate grocer, Walmart, over the last four years. Started in a humble storefront at the corner of 8th and Rio Grande in Austin, TX back in 1978 by self-described “free market” libertarian and current CEO, John Mackay, Whole Foods grew parasitically throughout the 1990s.read more

Know Your Dairy Giants - Dean Foods

Dean Foods has been dubbed the “Microsoft” of the dairy industry for its aggressive expansion and leveraged buyout of competitors. The unprecedented merger with Suiza in 2001 was made possible by Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), which had already sold off its Southern Foods Group fluid milk outfit to Suiza in 2000. In exchange, DFA acquired a third stake in Dean’s fluid milk business and was able to place DFA representatives on Dean’s board of directors. Farmers and consumers all pay the price, though, when the nation’s largest dairy processor is in bed with the nation’s largest dairy producer. read more

Wal-Mart: the Quintessential Suburban Nightmare!

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer – with 1489 mega-stores, 1397 Super Centers, 532 Sam's Clubs, and 56 neigborhood markets in the U.S alone as of 2003, and close to a tousand more abroad from Argentina to Germany. In fact, Wal-Mart is now the single largest private employer in the U.S. with 1.1 million "associates" and higher earnings than the gross national product (GNP) of 150 countries! In 2003 Wal-mart sold 19% of all groceries in the U.S. and recorded $9 billion in profits. Of the top fifteen richest people in the world, five are Wal-Mart heirs. The Walton family with its $90 billion is ranked among the richest in the world – along with Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Saudi Royal Prince, Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud. read more...

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Policy Papers

State of Agriculture in Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s reknowned natural heritage, economic vitality and quality of life are now under attack by the corporatization of agriculture. Increasing vertical integration and horizontal consolidation in the food sector means the loss of a competitive market and food sovereignty. Whereas a century ago farmers received 38 cents of every consumer food dollar, now it is down to just 19 cents. Family farmers have been reduced to “price takers” at the mercy of food cartels. read more...