Washington D.C. (November 8, 2007) - The National Family Farm Coalition, representing family farmers and ranchers across the country, expressed bitter disappointment on the passage of the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the House of Representatives. NFFC had sent a letter to the House outlining the flaws of the Peru FTA for U.S. and Peruvian farmers and demanded that trade policy be based on principles of food sovereignty. U.S. consumers are greatly worried by the tide of unregulated and poisonous imported food products. NFFC calls for policy based on principles of food sovereignty that emphasizes local, sustainable farm systems instead of the free trade model that pits farmers around the world in a race-to-the-bottom.

Despite the clear failures of free trade to benefit farmers here in the U.S. and in Mexico after NAFTA, the House chose to pass another severely flawed trade agreement that will cause extreme harm to Peruvian farmers and subject them to dumping of below-cost commodities by U.S. agribusiness companies. Under NAFTA, over 1 million Mexican corn farmers have been driven off the land thanks to the dumping of cheap U.S. corn. George Naylor, an Iowa corn and soybean farmer and president of the National Family Farm Coalition, said, "There is no excuse for Congress to support one more free trade agreement given the very apparent record of free trade displacing rural people and farmers from their communities. Meanwhile the benefits only go to multinational corporations that export and process cheap agricultural commodities."

Meanwhile, U.S. fruit and vegetable farmers already suffering from the flood of cheap Peruvian imports, will likely be further driven out of business. U.S. ranchers may have to compete with exports from Peru, which has had outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. The U.S. already has a $400 million agriculture trade deficit with Peru. NFFC Executive Director Kathy Ozer said, "In light of recent foreign food scares, consumers are demanding more regional and safe food products. These efforts will be directly undermined by the Peru FTA."