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WORD COUNT
679
AUGUST 12, 2009
WHO REALLY
SPEAKS FOR FAMILY FARMERS? – by Rhonda Perry
My family
has farmed in Missouri for over a century and I currently raise
livestock and grain on 800 acres in Howard County, Mo. But folks like me
always seem to get drowned out in Washington, D.C, by commodity groups
purporting to represent my interests. The American Farm Bureau bills
itself as the “voice of agriculture.” A seemingly innocent-sounding
group called the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) calls itself
“the only nationwide expression of dairy farmers.” These organizations
spend millions in lobbying and donating money to politicians. In the
halls of Congress, in the federal agencies, and in presidential
administrations, representatives from these groups exert undue control
over the agenda for food and agriculture policy.
It is near
impossible to convince D.C. politicians that these corporate interests
do not represent the interests of family farmers. Until now. The United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently concluded 13 listening
sessions to hear farmers’ input on the despised National Animal
Identification System (NAIS) that calls for us to electronically tag and
track the movements of every one of our animals. Factory farms, however,
are allowed one group lot ID for their thousands of animals. Over $130
million of taxpayer money has been wasted on this radical,
corporate-driven bureaucracy that originated from the National Institute
for Animal Agriculture, a group comprised of – surprise, surprise – the
Farm Bureau, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), NMPF and
agribusinesses such as Cargill. Only a gigantic outcry from farmers has
stopped NAIS from becoming mandatory by its proposed 2009 date.
At
listening sessions across the country, including one in Missouri
attended by over 300 people, nearly 80 percent to 90 percent of
producers were united in their adamant disapproval of NAIS and how it
would do nothing to address animal disease or food safety. The few folks
in the crowd willing to go on record for their support of NAIS were
uniformly from the likes of NPPC, Farm Bureau and NMPF allies. That
should tell the media, Congress, USDA and the Obama administration to
quit listening to these interest groups and think of them as
representing family farmers!
Why do we
have such a broken food system that allows for deadly E. coli in our
meat and now peanut butter? Why have factory farms been allowed to
proliferate like viruses in rural America? Because these interest groups
have been allowed to use their false façade representing America’s
“farmers” to con politicians into buying their disastrous policies,
while simultaneously conning the media into thinking that they speak on
behalf of those farmers. Now they have conned USDA, President Obama and
members of Congress into thinking we need a mandatory NAIS program.
These same
corporate farm groups have opposed more testing for mad cow disease,
opposed increased inspection of meat processing plants where most food
borne illnesses start and continue to thwart any efforts to address
antibiotic abuses on factory farms. Meanwhile they advocate for free
trade agreements that bring in foreign animals from countries with known
disease outbreaks like foot-and-mouth. Thus, the folks most responsible
for breeding animal disease are now trying to shift responsibility from
corporate meatpackers and factory farms onto the backs of America’s
independent family farmers through NAIS.
Since
2006, NPPC has donated over $350,000 to federal politicians and spent
over $3 million in lobbying. NMPF has spent $2.2 million in lobbying,
including for a mandatory NAIS, even while dairy farmers suffer their
worst crisis since the Great Depression.
We are
thankful that USDA took the time to listen to the voices of family
farmers instead of relying on the same old corporate interest groups.
Given the shocking chasm between our corporate farm groups and real
family farmers, NAIS is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bad
farm policy that emanates from of Washington. So the next time you hear
that “farm groups” oppose cracking down on antibiotics, or that they
want to water down environmental regulations over factory farms or that
we need another free trade agreement the likes of the one with Colombia,
just remember whose interests these folks really represent—and it’s not
rural America.
--
Rhonda
Perry is a livestock and grain farmer from Howard County, Mo. She serves
as Program Director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, a member of the
National Family Farm Coalition. 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
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