|
WORD COUNT
692
MAY 21, 2008
FARM BILL 2008 A
WASTED CHANCE FOR CHANGE – by Ben Burkett
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.
With commodity prices
skyrocketing around the world and hunger on the rise here in the U.S.,
Congress chose to ignore the crisis by refusing to consider implementing
Strategic Grain Reserves and reviving Farmer-Owned Reserves. While China
and India build up their buffer stocks and the European Union considers
establishing reserves, the United States continues its policy to allow
our food security to be at the mercy of speculative global markets.
Under the radical deregulation of the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act,
government reserves were eliminated and control of grain stocks handed
to corporate agribusiness giants. With nothing left in the cupboard, we
are just one drought away from $10 corn or $20 wheat (per bushel) with
no backup plan in place. Meanwhile, agribusiness companies have seen
their profits explode as they take advantage of market speculation. In
April 2008, Cargill reported a $1 billion profit, up 86% from a year
ago.
These same
agribusinesses profited handsomely from commodity price collapses due to
the deregulation effects of the 1996 Farm Bill. From 1997-2005, factory
farm operators such as Cargill saved $35 billion due to feed corn prices
that dipped as low as $1.50 per bushel, the same price farmers received
in the 1970s! Grain reserves, by stabilizing prices, ensure that farmers
do not have to rely on taxpayer subsidy payments by setting a floor on
commodity prices so agribusiness can’t underpay farmers. Reserves also
help food processors and consumers crying out for relief.
During the years of
cheap grain, factory farms escalated their expansion in rural America,
wiping out family farmers and causing enormous environmental
destruction. The Farm Bill for the first time offers some protections to
independent ranchers and farmers who raise poultry and hogs under
contracts with corporations such as Cargill and Smithfield. However, a
decade-long battle to stop meatpackers from owning livestock was
stripped out in the final bill as Congress failed to stand up for
America’s family farmers devastated by price manipulation. Such
corporate control has sucked the lifeblood out of many rural
communities.
A Brazilian meat
company, JBS, has announced plans to acquire Smithfield Beef (which owns
Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, the largest feedlot in the U.S.) and
National Beef. This would mean three companies in the U.S. would control
90% of all slaughtered livestock, further consolidating the industry and
driving out America’s remaining independent livestock operations.
Congress again chose to side with corporate agribusiness, even as two
new reports from the Pew Commission and the Union of Concerned
Scientists raised alarms over the public health, environmental and
economic consequences of industrial factory farms. Without the packer
ban and adequate antitrust measures to stop this merger, our domestic
cattle industry is in jeopardy.
Recent food
scares—from poisoned Chinese pet food to e.coli-tainted meat and spinach
recalls—have caused consumers to take a heightened awareness about their
food. While the Farm Bill includes significant increases in funding and
program participation to help minority farmers such as myself, as well
as for organic crops, farmers markets, and funding for innovative
Community Food Projects, the bill represents a wasted opportunity to
fundamentally alter our broken food system away from favoring the
interests of corporate agribusiness towards sustainable family farmers.
It continues to place our food sovereignty in jeopardy by neglecting
Strategic Grain Reserves and livestock market reform and will not stop
the continued hollowing out of rural America. With the global food
crisis upon us, Congress has shirked its responsibility to ensure access
for all to affordable food in an era of unprecedented risk.
--
Ben Burkett is the
president of the National Family Farm Coalition and Director of the
Mississippi Association of Cooperatives. He raises collard greens, okra,
squash, cabbage and watermelons. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC)
was founded in 1986 to serve as a national link for grassroots
organizations working on family farm issues.
www.nffc.net
# # # # #
|
