• American Agriculture Movement
• American Corn Growers Association
• American Raw Milk Producers
Pricing Association
• Ashtabula Geauga Lake Counties
Farmers' Union
• Citizens Action Coalition
of Indiana
• Community Farm Alliance (KY)
• Dakota Resource Council (ND)
• Dakota Rural Action (SD)
• Family Farm Defenders
• Farm Crisis Center (OK)
• Federation of Southern Cooperatives
(multi-state)
• Idaho Rural Council
• Illinois Stewardship Alliance
• Iowa Citizens for Community
Improvement
• Land Loss Prevention Project
(NC)
• Missouri Rural Crisis Center
• National Contract Poultry
Growers Association
• Northern Plains Resource
Council (MT)
• Ohio Farmers Union
• Powder River Basin Resource
Council (WY)
• RAFI-USA (Rural Advancement
Foundation Int'l-USA)
• Rural Vermont
American
Agriculture Movement: The American Agriculture Movement
was born in the fall of 1977 out of desperation. Congress had
just enacted another farm bill that insured four more years of
prices paid to farmers below their cost of production. AAM farmers
have become directly involved in the political process pressing
politicians to take stands on agricultural issues and exposing
those who have not taken appropriate positions. AAM action has
directly caused existing farm groups to become more responsive
to the best interests of both farmers and consumers. Above all,
AAM has provided a farmer-created, farmer-built organization within
which farmers themselves have been the leaders, speakers and organizers.
In becoming involved with government and politics, farmers have
spoken for themselves, much more than in the past.
American
Corn Growers Association: The American Corn Growers Association
(ACGA) is America's leading progressive commodity association,
representing the interests of thousands of corn producers in 28
states. Since it's inception in 1987, the ACGA has worked tirelessly
to protect farm income and rural communities. The ACGA recognizes
that farmers need to have the opportunity to be rewarded for their
time, investment and risk. To serve you better, the ACGA works
to develop national legislation that protects the interests of
corn producers and the rural communities that depends on them.
Through the development of educational and promotion programs,
the ACGA is better able to represent the needs of corn growers
nationwide.
American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association
(WI): The American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association
is an organization of dairy farmers dedicated to establishing
a raw milk price which returns to dairy producers their cost of
production plus a profit. ARMPPA is a milk-marketing agency that
holds no allegiance to any existing milk handler, cooperative
or corporation. Through ARMPPA, small and moderate-sized dairy
producers can survive as independent businesses and avoid vertical
integration.
Ashtabula Geauga Lake Counties Farmers'
Union (OH): The Ashtabula Geauiga Lake Counties Farmers' Union
works to sustain economically viable family farms, sustainable
agriculture and fair trade. The organization represents farmers
in three counties of Northeast Ohio. These farmers advocate for
fair prices.
Citizens
Action Coalition of Indiana: Founded in 1974, Citizens
Action Coalition of Indiana (CAC) is a non-profit coalition of
organizations and over 300,000 individual members throughout Indiana.
CAC worked to empower citizens and promote economic and environmental
justice.
Community
Farm Alliance (KY): Community Farm Alliance (CFA) is a
statewide grassroots organization of persons committed to family-scale
farming as the most efficient and sustainable form of producing
the best quality food, while protecting the environment and strengthening
rural community life. CFA believes that family-scale farming and
people working together lay a foundation for community life. Current
economic and political conditions eroded family scale farming
so significantly that a new system of agriculture is needed-one
that keeps people on the land. CFA seeks to ensure the health
and well being of rural communities by advocating rural economic
development whose first priority is the protection of family-scale
farming.
Dakota
Resource Council: In 1978, founders formed the Dakota
Resource Council, a nonprofit, grassroots activist organization,
to protect North Dakota's land, air, water, rural communities
and agricultural economy. DRC's mission is to form enduring, democratic
local groups that empower people to influence decision-making
processes that affect their lives. DRC works for preservation
of family farms, enforcement of corporate farming laws, soil and
water conservation, regulation of coal mining and oil and gas
development, protection of groundwater and clean air, renewable
energy, and sound management of solid and toxic wastes.
Dakota
Rural Action: Dakota Rural Action (DRA) formed in 1987
to create a better future for South Dakota's rural communities,
family farms, ranches, and main street businesses while preserving
natural resources and a clean environment. DRA is working towards:
opening and freeing livestock markets, challenging the spread
of large scale corporate farming, protecting groundwater resources,
and creating new opportunities for family farmers.
Family
Farm Defenders (WI): Family Farm Defenders (FFD) incorporated
as a non-profit organization in 1994 and was granted permanent
501(c)(3) status by the IRS in 1999. FFD began as an outgrowth
of two national grass-roots campaigns: demanding a national referendum
to end the mandatory check-off on raw milk that funds the lobby
and propaganda efforts of the corporate dairy industry; and to
defend consumer "right to know" in response to the stealth introduction
of recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) into the nation's
milk supply. Our mission is to create a farmer-controlled and
consumer-oriented food and fiber system, based upon democratically
controlled institutions that empower farmers to speak for and
respect themselves in their quest for social and economic justice.
FFD has worked to create opportunities for farmers to join together
in new cooperative endeavors, form a mutual marketing agency,
and forge alliances with consumers through providing high quality
food products while returning a fair price to farmers. Family
Farm Defenders (FFD) is committed to building a farmer-controlled
and consumer-oriented food system. FFD developed its own cheese
label: Family Farmer Cheese. Milk for its cheese comes from small
dairy farms in South-central Wisconsin that use no artificial
hormones. Cedar Grove Cheese Co. makes this cheese and pays farmers
"the cost-of-production plus profit price."
Farm Crisis Center (OK): The Farm Crisis
Center is a group of farm advocates volunteer staffing a farm
credit hotline that responds to emergency credit and rural mental
health issues. Although based in Oklahoma, the Farm Crisis Center
serves farmers' needs throughout the Southern region of the United
States.
Federation
of Southern Cooperatives: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives
is the only organization in the Southeast that has as its primary
objectives the retention of black owned land and the use of cooperatives
for land-based economic development. Its thirty-five year history
has successfully provided self-help economic opportunities and
hope for many low-income communities across the South. In fact,
the Federation is the only organization in the Cooperatives of
businesses that is locally controlled to build wealth through
the participation of people. The Federations assists in the development
of cooperatives and credit unions as a collective strategy to
create economic self-sufficiency. The Federation strives toward
developing self-supporting communities with programs that increase
income and enhance other opportunities, focusing on assistance
in land retention and development, especially for African Americans,
but essentially for all family farmers.
Idaho
Rural Council: Idaho Rural Council (IRC) is committed
to preserving the economic well-being of Idaho's family farms
and rural communities; to building a more sustainable society
which will guarantee positive economic and social choices for
present and future generations; to achieving good stewardship
of humanity, land, air and water. IRC endeavors to educate, organize,
and empower farmers and the general public to develop community
and state leadership, to build coalitions and to employ only legal
and ethical means, consistent with democratic principles to achieve
this mission.
Illinois
Stewardship Alliance: Unfettered strip coal mining threatened
the economic life of many Illinois counties in 1974, inspiring
the concept of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance (formerly the
Illinois South Project) to protect prime farmland. During the
1970s, thousands of prime farmland acreage turned into sterile
mine leavings, draining the earnings from the land's mineral riches
out of the area.
Iowa
Citizens for Community Improvement: Iowa Citizens for
Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) is a 27-year old membership-based
organization whose mission is to empower and unite grassroots
people of all ethnic backgrounds to take control of their communities;
involve them in identifying problems and needs and in taking action
to address them; and be a vehicle for social, economic, and environmental
justice. Iowa CCI began organizing family farmers and rural residents
in 1981 to fight for fair farm prices and address problems associated
with high interest rates and rapidly increasing farm foreclosures.
Since then, Iowa CCI has focused on a variety of economic and
environmental issues, including sustainable agriculture, credit
and lending policies, conservation, and corporate concentration
in agriculture. It works with farmers and other rural residents
on a variety of local, statewide and national issues. Some of
the main issues it is currently working on include federal farm
policy, promoting family farms, stopping factory farms, protecting
the environment, and working for healthy rural communities.
Land
Loss Prevention Project (NC): The Land Loss Prevention
Project (LLPP) is a non-profit, public interest law firm created
by the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers in 1983 to
respond to the unprecedented decline in the number of family farmers
and low income and minority landowners. LLPP's mission is to use
legal expertise, community education, and advocacy skills to help
landowners who face legal, economic, and environmental challenges
to their land ownership. The overarching mission of the organization
is to re-enter African-American farmers into the food system.
Missouri
Rural Crisis Center: The Missouri Rural Crisis Center
is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985. It is a progressive,
statewide membership organization that works to empower farmers
and other rural people. The mission of MRCC is to preserve family
farms, promote stewardship of the land and environmental integrity,
and strive for economic and social justice by building unity and
mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban.
MRCC's membership includes over 4,000 farm families. Most recently,
MRCC led the fight to end the Pork check off.
National
Contract Poultry Growers Association: The National Contract
Poultry Growers Association (NCPGA) is the major organization
representing America's 72,000 poultry growers. Headquartered in
Sanford, North Carolina, the NCPGA helps growers speak as one
voice, and is becoming a powerful voice in our nation's capital.
NCPGA's mission is to improve the social and economic well being
of contract poultry producers and their families. Rural communities
and poultry producer families will be strengthened by sustainable
farming enterprises assisted through association programs that
reduce farm costs and increase farm income.
Northern
Plains Resource Council (MT): Northern Plains Resource
Council organizes Montana citizens to protect our water quality,
family farms and ranches, and unique quality of life. We are a
grassroots conservation and family agriculture group that gets
the job done - protecting the Northern Plains and the people who
make their home here. Other issues the NPRC supports include:
fighting for reforms to stop price-fixing and other monopolistic
practices by the meatpacking industry; exposing schemes to locate
unsafe waste disposal facilities in Montana communities; standing
up to the use of eminent domain by the Tongue River Railroad to
seize control of private property for private gain; finding solutions
to out-of-control growth and seeking ways for farmers and ranchers
to stay on the land; working for trade policies that allow American
agriculture to compete fairly; and defending the interests of
citizens in the face of corporate political pressure.
Ohio Farmers Union : The Ohio Farmers Union has been serving Ohio farmers since 1934 with its goal of sustaining and strengthening the family farm structure of agriculture for the benefit of farmers, rural residents, and consumers. OFU encourages value-added marketing, and growing new markets and new opportunities for Ohio farm families. Other issues OFU works for include: estate tax fairness; mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) of food products; federal funding for farmer-owned cooperative renewable fuels plants; legislation to allow farmers the right to save and replant patented seed; fair production contracts for farmers; and other farm policies benefiting the family farmer first.
Powder
River Basin Resource Council (WY): The Powder River Basin
Resource Council formed in 1973 in response to unplanned rapid
energy development and supports the conservation of Wyoming's
land, minerals, water and clean air consistent with responsible
use of those resources. Powder River Basin Resource Council is
committed to: the preservation and enrichment of Wyoming's agricultural
heritage and rural lifestyle; the conservation of Wyoming's unique
land, mineral, water, and clean air resources consistent with
responsible use of those resources to sustain the livelihood of
present and future generations; and the education and empowerment
of Wyoming's citizens to raise a coherent voice in the decisions
that will impact their environment and lifestyle. Powder River
Basin Resource Council is committed to the empowerment of people
through community organizing. More than ever, it is crucial that
Wyoming's voice for responsible development, PRBRC, be a part
of the debate that will determine Wyoming's future.
Rural
Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA): RAFI-USA
is dedicated to community, equity and diversity in agriculture.
While focusing on North Carolina and the southeastern United States,
RAFI-USA also works nationally and internationally. In a world
where government farm programs are being phased out, RAFI-USA
is playing a leadership role in responding to major agricultural
trends and creating something new: a movement to create unity
among environmental, consumer farm groups in order to foster balanced
agriculture. Our aims include: promoting sustainable agriculture--that
is, systems of agriculture that strengthen the environment, family
farms and rural communities; promoting crop genetic diversity
and responsible use of new technologies; and reforming contract
agriculture. RAFI-USA's programs address the trends and changes
in agriculture that affect us from the local to the global levels.
Working with a variety of farm, community, university and government
groups, RAFI-USA promotes sustainability, equity and diversity
in agriculture through policy changes, practical assistance, market
opportunities, and access to financial and technical resources.
RAFI-USA's goals include maintaining a reliable supply of safe,
healthy food that depends on: strong family farms and rural communities;
close connections between consumers and food producers; and environmentally
sound farming and safeguarding agricultural biodiversity.
Rural Vermont: At the heart of Vermont's
future, Rural Vermont is a statewide grassroots organization dedicated
to building a prosperous rural life. Rural Vermont supports a
rural economic policy for Vermont that recognizes the importance
of agriculture and natural resource based industries, support
for small rural businesses, along with jobs, fair wages, and decent
health care, housing and transportation for all rural citizens.
We are committed to a broad-based sustainable agriculture in harmony
with the needs of the family, community, and the environment for
future generations. Our work includes promoting the Northeast
Dairy Compact, fighting the use of rBGH, and adopting the rBGH
labeling law. Today Rural Vermont is leading the fight against
corporate farm proliferation. Last year, Rural Vermont led the
Town-to-Town Campaign to restrict GE crops in the state. This
campaign effort resulted in over 70 Vermont towns passing resolutions
to restrict GE crops in the state. Now the Campaign is pushing
for a state moratorium against planting GE seeds in Vermont.
