2008
Family Farmers Respond to the Food Crisis
posted by John Nichols on The Online Beat (The Nation)-- April 28, 2008
Dairy Farmers Release Letter to Congress on Farm Bill Failures. NFFC's Dairy Subcommittee sent this letter outlining the Farm Bill's failure to take into account cost of production issues as well as cracking down on corruption in the dairy sector. Click here to read the letter.--April 15, 2008
2007
Farm Groups Urge Senate to Reject Expanding Farm Credit System (FCS) Lending Authority. In a letter to the Senate, farm groups said FCS had failed to adequately lend to small, mid-size, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Congress should step back and examine credit in rural America and address the clear needs of these farmers and ranchers, in particular those that are 34 years of age and younger. As part of that review it is important to examine the role that FCS lending is playing in the overall access to credit for independent diversified family farm operations. Click here to read the letter.--November 16, 2007
NFFC Condemns House Vote to Pass Peru Free Trade Agreement. Despite the failures of NAFTA, the House voted to continue the same failed free trade model for farmers both here and in Peru. NFFC had sent a letter to the House outlining the flaws of the Peru FTA and demanded that trade policy be based on principles of food sovereignty. Click here to read the letter.--November 7, 2007
Op-Ed: Farm Bill Debate Distracts from Corporate Subsidies: As the Senate Agriculture Committee considers a new farm
bill, agricultural subsidies to farmers continue to dominate the
debate.
Unfortunately, this oversimplified discussion ignores the
biggest recipients of hidden subsidies: Multi-national
meatpacking companies like Tyson-IBP, ConAgra, Cargill and
Smithfield.--October 30, 2007
Diverse Groups Urge Senate to Make Strategic Reserves a Priority: The lack of a strategic grain reserve has become an even more urgent priority in the wake of global media concern on food prices and as USDA is predicting the lowest level of world carryover socks on record since 1947. Click here to read the letter.--October 23, 2007
Op-Ed: Farm Bill Ignores Dire Need for Grain Reserve: NFFC President George Naylor writes that, "You wouldn't even know there was an emerging global food crisis if you listened to the United States Congress.
As the Senate finally considers the Farm Bill, virtually absent from the discussion is the need to
have strategic food reserves, akin to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."--October 19, 2007
Farm Bill Showdown: "Harkin should embrace the proposal of three dozen farm and rural groups led by the National Family Farm Coalition... to replace subsidies with a federally defined price floor that would in effect be a minimum wage for farmers and to reinstate strategic grain reserves to stabilize crop prices.--The Nation, August 27, 2007
GE Alfalfa Hotline: The USDA published in the Federal Register a toll free telephone number,
(866) 724-6408, that will inform alfalfa producers if Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa had been planted in close proximity to their farms.--August 6, 2007
Farmers Ask the Senate to Cut Subsidies and Establish Price Stability: We urge the Senate to produce a Farm Bill that will benefit family farmers by giving them a fair price for what they produce, instead of continuing with ineffective subsidies that have failed rural America
.--July 30, 2007
Family Farmers Disappointed in Both House Farm Bill and Reform Proposal: NFFC believes a middle ground can be found in supporting policies that would reinstate strategic grain reserves to stabilize volatile crop prices, and would reduce controversial government subsidies by replacing the current loan deficiency payment with a price floor that would provide farmers with a safety net in the marketplace.--July 25, 2007
Call for Commodity Program Reform: Over 30 farm, environmental, faith and labor groups are calling for new Farm Bill commodity programs to set fair prices, reduce subsidies and manage supply.--July 13, 2007 Click here to see the letter.
Agriculture Policy at Root of U.S. Obesity Problem: Regulation (specifically, price supports that set a price floor above the cost of production) will help keep market prices at levels where farmers are less pressured to cover costs through overproduction. When paired with increased support for fruit and vegetable crops, a revised agricultural policy that includes price supports will make healthy calories more competitive.--San Jose Mercury News, July 13, 2007
Family Farmers Demand Real Subsidy Reform that Gives Farmers a Fair Price: The National Family Farm Coalition believes the new database by the Environmental Working Group misses the mark in its critique and analysis of the current broken farm subsidy system.--June 13, 2007
Set Price Floor for Crops; Boost Conservation Funds:
When it comes to the next farm bill, the solution is obvious: commodity reform.--Des Moines Register, June 11, 2007
Whose Subsidy Is It Anyway?:
Progressive farm experts and advocates say that the government should return to supply management and at the same time bring anti-trust lawsuits against corporate agribusiness. They want to expand measures to protect the environment, encourage better nutrition and help farm workers. Unfortunately, on Capitol Hill, corporate agribusiness lobbyists and campaign donations rule.--In These Times, June 4, 2007
Ethanol Booms, Farmers Bust:
If we as a nation care about family farmers as much as we claim to, we ought to take the NFFC's advice: scrap the subsidy system, which only perpetuates the vicious cycle of farm-level booms and busts, and replace it with a predictable system that growers can rely on--May 25, 2007
Outsourcing Food Security is Not Working:
The National Family Farm Coalition urges our elected representatives at tomorrow's House Agriculture Committee Hearing on recent food safety emergencies to address the state of our food supply as a critical national security issue through the lens of Food Sovereignty, the right of every society to regulate it's food supply and not become dependent on food sources from unknown points on the globe.--May 8, 2007
Iowan: Farm Program Works Against Growers, Environment: Interview with George Naylor: "We need a sustainable agriculture system, not just a few sustainable farmers." --Des Moines Register, April 29, 2007
What We Need in a Farm Bill: Large, multinational corporations count on the farm bill to ensure that they can buy U.S. farm products at the lowest cost possible. Their interest is not farmers' income or the consumer's health but rather turning farm products into high-profit processed food "items." --Pudget Consumer Co-op, April 2007
Farm Bill Plan Submitted to House Subcommittee: "We need farm policy that provides a price to farm families rather than subsidies, an adequate strategic reserve of storable food and feed commodities and a way to curb overproduction of crops traditionally in surplus so that we can plant new dedicated energy producing crops to help the nation move toward energy independence."--Newark Advocate, March 29, 2007
Implement COOL: The National Family Farm Coalition, along with more than 200 organizations representing a broad cross-section of groups including consumers, urged members of Congress to support mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL)--February 28, 2007
U.S. Farmers Link with Farmers Around the World on Farm Policy: The National Family Farm Coalition joined 60 organizations to launch a new food sovereignty platform for the farm bill: Building Sustainable Futures Globally--February 20, 2007
Federal Court Finds USDA Erred in Approving GE Alfalfa Without Full Environmental Review :
A Federal Court has ruled, for the first time ever, that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to abide by federal environmental laws when it approved a genetically engineered crop without conducting a full Environment Impact Statement (EIS)--February 14, 2007
NFFC President's Reponse to USDA 2007 Farm Bill Proposal:
Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Smithfield and the biofuels industry, the silent partners in the Administrations proposal, need to pay a fair price, while consumers are protected by grain reserves for food and energy security--February 1, 2007
State of the Farm : Four farmers share their views on the state of the union from the vantage points of their fields. The state of the union and our common future depends in no small measure on the state of the farm.--January 23, 2007
Fair Competition:
Over two hundred organizations urged Congress to ensure a fair marketplace for the nation's farmers, ranchers and consumers in a letter delivered to the Chairs and members of the congressional House and Senate Agriculture and Judiciary Committees.--January 18, 2007
Small Farms Save Soil, Cows, and Farmers: If the present industrial system of farming is so efficient and so good for our economy, why is the United States a food deficit nation? John Kinsman refutes the distorted idea that industrial monoculture production is efficient.--January 3, 2007
2006
Corporations Control Our Dinner : 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.--November 9, 2006
A Vision of Food Sovereignty: Farmers Speak Out: At the Community Food Security Conference in Vancouver, Canada, family farmers from Montana, Texas, Mexico, and Canada defined food sovereignty as the future of food and agriculture.--October 10, 2006
A Sustainable Farm Bill: As Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews perform at Farm Aid 2006 in Camden, New Jersey, George Naylor sings a tune that is pleasant to family farmers' ears as he announces the National Family Farm Coalition's Farm Bill Policy Statement--September 30, 2006
USDA Should Revise Avian Flu Plan: A broad coalition of stakeholder groups issued a statement criticizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plan for responding to a U.S. outbreak of bird flu and called for revisions to adequately protect the public and poultry farmers--September 25, 2006 Read the Statement
GATES/ROCKEFELLER AFRICA PLAN vs. FOOD SOVEREIGNTY:
This article contrasts the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations' approach to hunger in Africa with the Food Sovereignty approach to be debated in a world forum sponsored by the Via Campesina and others in Mali in February 2007 (http:// www.nyeleni2007.org)--September 25, 2006
A Forkful of Protection: In the modern industrial food system, are we vulnerable to attack through the oil we eat? At the fifth anniversary of the tragic attacks on September 11, 2001, Debra Eschmeyer reflects on the security of our food system --September 11, 2006
Who Are the Real Farm Organizations? George Naylor responds to a Des Moines Register highlighting the Farm Bureau's support of industrial livestock production--September 3, 2006
Dairymen Call for a New Pricing System: the Dairy Subcommittee's letter to the President is brought to the forefront by Bryan Wolfe in Farm and Dairy--August 24, 2006
Voting on the Type of Food Supply and Agriculture We Need: NFFC's summer meeting in Tomah, WI focused on food sovereignty and fair prices for farmers--August 1, 2006
Family Farmer Response to Doha Suspension: A Food Sovereignty Solution: The collapse of the World Trade Organization talks in Geneva on Monday is welcome news for the National Family Farm Coalition--July 24, 2006
The Elephant in the Corner: The government's Get-Big-Or-Get-Out chorus may be singing different lyrics, but the tune is all too familiar by Adam Stolorow, NFFC Law Intern--July 21, 2006
Administration Fails to Support Family Dairy Farmers: The Dairy Subcommittee of NFFC delivered a letter to President George W. Bush today requesting an official response as to why the Administration continues to do nothing to address the rampant corruption in the dairy industry
--July 19, 2006
Lack of Credit + (Flooding + Drought) = Disaster: Legislators are failing to meet farmers' disaster-related needs and the credit issues that follow. By Kathy Ozer, Executive Director of NFFC--July 12, 2006
Family Farmer Response to the Washington Post Subsidy article by American Corn Growers Association--July 5, 2006
The Doha Round: A Disaster for Farmers Around the World by Via Campesina--June 29, 2006
Tune in to Food Chains: Workers and Farmers v. Free Trade and Agribusiness. George Naylor speaks at the Cornell Global Labor Institute--June 19, 2006
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due Access to credit is the #2 problem facing small farmers behind low commodity prices. The Farm Service Agency is becoming known for pushing smaller farms out of business instead of keeping them on their land. FLAG testified on behalf of NFFC at the Senate Agriculture Committee Oversight Hearing on the USDA Farm Loan Programs--June 13, 2006
Continuing the Ethanol Debate Cash corn prices vary across the country, but at Farmers Coop in Farnhamville, Iowa, they are bidding $1.97.
Today's consumer price index stands at 300% of 1978, so a bushel of corn would have to be $6.75 to have the same buying power as it did in 1978.
George Naylor provides a friendly response to Keith Mudd --June 9, 2006
Ethanol as Panacea? Without sound energy and agricultural policies that ensure that farmers get a fair price for their products, ethanol may be the illusory pot of gold at the end of the agribusiness rainbow. George Naylor responds to a Washington Post article --May 29, 2006
Low Price is Bankrupting Dairy Farmers Arden Tewksbury, Manager of Progressive Agriculture, exposes the dairy system for what it is in the Topeka Capital Journal -May 25, 2006
Listen to George Naylor and Michael Pollan on Open Source discussing corn's affect on society from immigration to obesity to the Farm Bill--May 10, 2006
How Low Can the Price of Corn Go? George Naylor creates a litmus test for farm policy in the Iowa Farmer Today-May 1, 2006
How to Fix Agriculture George Naylor discusses what ails farming and what we need to do about it in Mother Jones -April 28, 2006
Dairy Farmers Cry Foul Protesting low milk prices outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, NFFC farmer leaders demonstrated what was necessary for a fair price as reported in Reuters-April 11, 2006
Iowa's people: To invest or not to invest, that is not the question!
An op-ed by George Naylor for the Des Moines Register in response to a two-page editorial saying that Iowa will lack a labor force needed for economic growth, so we must invest in "people." -March 9, 2006
The Making of an Activist: How a Dakota Resource Council leader zeroes in on GM issues in AgWeek by Mikkel Pates-February 27, 2006
Bush Team Squeezes Farmers, Stifles Dissent in the Capitol Times by Jim Goodman -February 26, 2006
Dairy Farmers' Testimonies at the USDA National Public Hearing on Proposed Amendments to All Federal Milk Orders--January 25, 2006
NFFC Dairy Subcommittee Members Travel to D.C. to Discuss Agriculture Credit and a Mechanism of Oversight for the CME--January 19, 2006
WTO Perspectives from Iowa in the Des Moines Register --January 8, 2006
2005
Stalemate in Agweek--December 19, 2005
Not-So-Great Expectation in Doha in Agweek--December 12, 2005
NFFC President and Activists on the Ground in Hong Kong in Grassroots Journal --December 12-21, 2005
July 28, 2005 - Washington, D.C.-Family farm and ranch leaders
belonging to National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) member organizations
expressed dismay after the U.S. House voted in favor of the Central
American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
read
on...
Across the midwest, rural radio stations
are airing ads that feature a famous quote from President Dwight
D. Eisenhower: "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow
is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield." The ads are sponsored by the National Farmers Union, a group representing
family farms, and it's no secret that the Washington pencil-pusher
being targeted is American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob
Stallman.
read on...
March 12, 2005 - Former president Carter commends CIW's "principled
leadership in this very important campaign." Rally in Louisville
on 3/12 to celebrate!... After nearly four years of a national
boycott, the CIW and Taco Bell have reached a historic agreement!
Click here for details
on this precedent-setting agreement.
Click here to read
the statement by Lucas Benitez of CIW.
Click here to read
the statement from the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights.
read on...
February, 2005 - Year after year, we see punishing weather in
different regions of the country with devastating effects on agricultural
production. A group of federal programs can provide some relief
to family farmers after a disaster. This page includes disaster
assistance information available from FLAG and other organizations.
While the available resources do not make up for the physical,
economic, and emotional distress incurred by farmers, hopefully
these resources can begin to put farmers back on a path to recovery.
• visit
FLAG website for more info and 'Farmers Guide'
NFFC OPPOSES CENTRAL AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
(CAFTA)
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2004 – The National Family Farm Coalition
(NFFC) joined with U.S. and Central American groups Thursday to
oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
“CAFTA dismantles a nation’s food sovereignty,”
said Dena Hoff, a Montana farmer and NFFC’s Trade Task Force
Chair. “Corporate driven industrialized agriculture will
force thousands of Central American families off the land, increasing
migration to urban areas in Central America and the U.S.”
• Read the press release
52 ORGANIZATIONS CRITICIZE ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION
PROPOSAL
Washington, D.C. April 14, 2004--Fifty-two farm, ranch, rural,
environmental, faith, and consumer advocacy organizations sent
a letter to the U.S. Congress and USDA Secretary Ann Veneman outlining
concerns about legislative and regulatory proposals which would
fast-track a national animal identification system. The letter
cites critical problems found in the U.S. Animal Identification
Plan (USAIP), an agribusiness industry proposal to trace livestock
from birth to slaughter.
• Read the press release
NFFC FILES PETITION WITH FDA: REQUESTS MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE
MEET SAFETY REGULATIONS
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2004 – The National Family Farm Coalition
(NFFC) filed a Citizens Petition with the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) Tuesday, requesting FDA to notify all Federal and State
regulators of the necessity to meet Generally Regarded As Safe
(GRAS) requirements for all uses of Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC)
in all food, including non-standardized food.
• Read the press release
