By JOE ORSO / La Crosse Tribune  (www.lacrosstribune.com)
Published - Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Coalition meets on food sovereignty

TOMAH, Wis. "A rancher came from Montana. From Texas came an organizer for migrant farm workers. A woman from a church in St. Louis came to learn about developing an urban community garden.

They and about 50 others gathered this weekend at Cranberry Country   Lodge in Tomah for the summer meeting of the National Family Farm Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based umbrella group for grassroots organizations that work on family farm issues.

Bill Christison, a former president of the Coalition, raises corn, soybeans, wheat and cattle on 2,000 acres in Missouri. "We are here to try to make better the lot of family farmers," said Christison, president of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. "We should not rely on corporations to produce food."

Sunday, much of the discussion focused on food   sovereignty, which seeks to give local farmers and communities "as opposed to agribusinesses ” control over pricing and farming decisions.

Azalia Mitchell, education and outreach coordinator for Grassroots International, asked during a brainstorming session that people close their eyes and ponder the concept of food sovereignty.

Among the images offered were a farmers market, farm children playing with farm animals, small gardens and roadside stands, and young people harvesting crops.

"Each community should have the right to decide what they eat and grow and how land is treated," said John Peck of Family Farm Defenders.

Peck said when people spend their food dollars, they are voting on the type of agriculture they want. "We don't even really hardly celebrate food anymore," he said. "People are surprised when they eat food that tastes good."

John Kinsman, president of Family Farm Defenders and secretary of the National Family Farm Coalition, said 20 years ago he could see eight herds of  cattle from his home in Lime Ridge, Wis. Now, only a single herd remains.

Kinsman was initiated into the movement 20 years ago, when he heard universities were experimenting with bovine growth hormone.

"Hundreds of genetically engineered products are the result of cross-species and bizarre things that could never happen in   nature," said Kinsman, 80, who has farmed organically for 40 years.  "It's all based on the profits of these companies. It has very little to do with what's good for the world, what's good for humans, animals and the environment."

Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis, said in a morning lecture that the average distance food travels to get to a consumer is 1,500 miles, citing a study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

"You have urban consumers who think milk comes from cartons," Meter said during lunch.

"If you have a community that doesn't know where its food comes from, no capacity to feed themselves, they're weaker people," he said. "If  I'm dependent on someone else in giving me boxes of food I eat three times a day, I've lost a lot of my political and social clout."

He said consumers play a key role in food sovereignty, and need to start thinking of themselves as investors instead of just buyers.

Discussions also centered on developing the Food from Family Farms Act, a proposal for the 2007 federal farm bill.

Instead of a farm bill, Meter said the U.S. needs a food or rural development bill, in which people invest in communities instead of commodities.

"Consumers need to help set food policy," Meter said.   "We have lost track of our food wisdom."

Joe Orso can be reached at (608) 791-8429 or jorso@lacrossetribune.com.
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