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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Food security is a Real Issue
  • Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 07:52:34 -0600

http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm#article1

Food security is a Real Issue

KATHRYN QUACKENBUSH

The practice of "dumping" by the United States which, in simple terms,
means selling agriculture commodities on international markets at prices
below the cost of production, is putting farmers in America out of business
and is hurting farmers in other countries as well. Dumping is a policy by
agribusiness and governmental bureaucrats to drive down the price of
commodities so as to open new markets in foreign countries. Small family
farmers don't get a lot of governmental help to stay in business, the ones
you see selling at your local farmer's market or at roadside stands. On the
contrary, local county and city officials enforce regulations so severe
that farmers can't afford to comply. The results are that our small rural
farmers are forced to quit the work they love, sell their farms to
developers, and move on.

It is no secret that multinational agribusiness companies have their hand
in the government subsidy trough; they are able to make huge profits while
our small farms languish and die. Those huge farms in the United States
have freedoms that small farmers simply do not have and, if the going gets
tough, they are able to move to other countries for cheaper labor and fewer
restrictions. Cheaper production costs and higher profits for agribusiness
giants can be the result of a simple move to Brazil, China or a number of
other foreign countries.

It is with sincere gratitude to T. W. Smestead that this article is being
written. I feel that a challenge was placed before the readers of
COUNTRYSIDE to brainstorm some solutions to the "Food security as part of
our national defense" situation as described in the Jan/Feb. 2004 issue.
Basically, what I heard was that the article described the problem but
nothing was suggested to fix it. At the end of the article a few things
were suggested such as relaxing rules, regulate and inspect home kitchens,
allow private testing, and basically, help farmers to survive in a changing
world. How can we make these things happen?

Before I go into that, let me explain some of the problems that exist in
the state of Washington because they may not exist elsewhere in the
country; our ideas may not work everywhere. The first thing to consider is
that I live on an island, which has, in the past, been the home of mainly
farmers and fishermen. Their way of life is dying and the island is turning
into a mecca for the rich and famous with tourism turning into the major
industry. The few farmers left on the island are fighting for their lives
and there doesn't seem to be much to stop their exodus.

A recent event became the impetus for the food security article referred to
by T. W. Smestead in the July/Aug. 2004 issue "Joining the ranks of small
property owners", page 115). A ferry landing was put out of service when a
ferry accident hit it causing huge delays by grocery trucks that deliver
dairy, meat, vegetables, the kids' breakfast cereal and all the other
commodities necessary for island living. Did anyone starve? Of course no
one went hungry but there might have been a riot if the beer trucks sat on
the mainland much longer. Fortunately there was enough stock in the local
island stores and watering holes to last. Although speedy repairs staved
off starvation, it emphasized the notion that people are at terrible risk
from major disasters.

For a closer look at how regulations are putting our local farmers of out
business, I want to cite a case about our local goat cheese maker. With
only eight goats that she calls by name she is kept busy with her daily
milking. She is a woman of great integrity who has made and sold her cheese
for almost a decade, but because she does not have a $10,000 stainless
steel stand stanchions for her goats to stand on while they are milked, she
can no longer sell her magnificent cheese which routinely passed all
laboratory test parameters; tests that she had done at her own expense.
Yet, brought over from the mainland and placed on the shelves of the local
grocery store for wealthy patrons is imported cheese from France, cheese
that local regulators haven't a clue as to what kind of milking stands the
French goats stand on. You might tell the goat cheese maker to get with the
program and get a small business loan. She already did that to purchase
elaborate milking and cheese making equipment to comply with regulations, a
loan she may never be able to pay off because she is out of business. The
Health Department says she has to do more but now she can't afford to. They
say she is stubborn and just doesn't want to comply but she rents the farm
she is living on. She can't afford to buy a farm nor invest large sums in a
rented farm. The public can personally check out her facilities, the white
glove inspection that they'd never travel all the way to France to do, but
it would do no good. Her goats stand on pristine, freshly painted and
sanitized wooden stands while they are being milked, instead of stainless
steel. What a pity if she has to leave this island because she can't make a
living.

Or take another farmer and his family. He raises a wide variety of lettuce
on his small well-managed farm, trying to make a decent living. He has no
trouble selling a head of lettuce at the local farmer's market, but the
restaurants around town that cater to the tourists like his mixed greens
better, for ease of salad preparation. As soon as he mixed his lettuce he
was out of business. It did no good to label his packages with the
cautionary statement "wash before using" which the local chefs were more
than willing to do. It didn't matter that the lettuce was fresher and that
the farmer used few, if any, pesticides in his operation. It didn't matter
if he washed off the produce himself before putting the label on. He lost
his most lucrative customers and the wealthy patrons are now fed lettuce
that is less than fresh shipped on the ferry from the mainland.

This is a good one. Local island farmer makes USDA inspected sausage and he
flavors it with his locally grown herbs. It was so good that his sausage
established a grand reputation that gained mainland attention until the
local health inspector told him that he couldn't use the herbs out of his
own garden to flavor the sausage. Instead, he had to buy herbs from a
California herb farm, which wholesaled in $600 packages. Mind you, the
local farmer's annual run of sausage gained him only $400, so buying the
California herbs would lose money.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, and we aren't talking iceberg lettuce
here; we're talking about the iceberg that took down the Titanic! Can we
staunch the holes in our leaking vessel? The answer remains to be seen.
U.S. farmers are sinking fast. Information was just received regarding a
local island sheep farmer who can no longer run enough sheep to feed his
family because grazing land is being gobbled up by developers. He has
indicated that he might have to sell and move.

Another dedicated farmer is working hard with his pasture-raised chickens.
He uses certified organic feed and has been successfully butchering these
chickens in a USDA certified processing facility on his property. For five
years his chickens have been sold and enjoyed by islanders. Even though he
is allowed to sell his chickens with no encumbrances placed by the health
department, he is not allowed to butcher chickens raised on any other farm.
In other words, he cannot provide a cooperative use of his expensive
processing facility and the other chicken farmers are unable to afford
their own separate facility. These are a few of the arcane rules that make
no sense. Furthermore, the local health department wants the farmer to get
a license and pay for inspections when neither are necessary in the state
of Washington when there are less than a thousand birds. We are talking
about very small farms.

If that doesn't touch a nerve, try this. A farmer was actually arrested for
selling his daffodils on public property when there is an RCW (Revised Code
of Washington) that clearly states:

"It shall be lawful for any farmer, gardener, or other person, without a
license, to sell, deliver, or peddle fruits, vegetables, berries, eggs, or
any farm produce or edibles raised, gathered, produced, or manufactured by
such a person and no city or town shall pass or enforce any ordinance
prohibiting the sale by or requiring license from producers and
manufacturers of farm produce and edibles as defined in this section."

There are some exceptions but this certainly covers the daffodil farmer who
was arrested. The police and judge ignored the RCW. I believe the farmer is
still fighting this in court and in the meantime he has lost the money his
daffodils would have brought because they wilted away just like our farmers
are going to do if something isn't done to correct the situation.

The irony of all this is that the developers and Realtors are quick to
point out to potential buyers the pristine beauty of our farm lands and
pastures. People want to move to the island because they love the rural
countryside, the sheep, goats and llamas out grazing in pastures; trees,
birds and deer. As farmers leave, will these new people continue to love
the islandwhen it is built up with nothing but condos and big expensive
homes? How will it be if a national disaster upsets ferry service, cruise
or cargo ships and airplanes? Millions of dollars go into national defense
and not much is going into food security. In reality it wouldn't take a lot
of money to fix the problem if the food regulations were modified to help
farmers and ranchers instead of putting up barriers. Value-added is an
important issue and for most small farms it is a necessity if they want to
make a living. Being able to butcher and sell chickens, mixing lettuce for
restaurant sales, making jams and jellies from farm grown fruit, etc., is
where they can make enough money to live on and stay with farming. Selling
their products with as low an overhead as possible is a necessity. Home
kitchens should come back so that a farm doesn't have to spend thousands of
dollars for a separate kitchen lined with stainless steel. Home kitchens
can be as easily inspected as one sitting alongside of and separated from
the house. So here goes, with some thoughts on solutions:

It didn't take a whole lot of digging in the RCW before I found chapter
24.28 on Granges. If it is in the RCW, it is Washington law.

24.28.10: Any grange of the patrons of husbandry desiring hereafter to
incorporate may incorporate and become bodies politic in this state.

28.28.020: Said grange may engage in any industrial pursuit, manufacturing,
mining, milling, warfing, docking, commercial, mechanical, mercantile,
building, farming, equipping, running railroads, or generally engage in any
species of trade or industry...
Alayne Sundberg vsits one of her goats on San Juan Island. A profitable
home-based goat cheese business has been shut down by regulations that
islanders believe are burdensome for small enterprises such as hers.

There is more written in the RCW about Granges, but the idea was planted in
my mind to go further. In my research I found that the Washington State
Grange has many Granges throughout the state and about a 60-70,000
membership. They have their own newspaper, a Legislative Director who
lobbies in Olympia, and an impressive office building across from the state
capitol building. The National Grange in Washington D.C. boasts a similar
structure, which is also located close to our country's capitol.

Some solutions that are the most apparent include talking about the
problems, writing articles, cite examples of poor regulations made by
people who may never have stepped on a farm. We need to gather all small
farmers together to work on common goals and have a power base to change
damaging regulations. Old Grange Halls in many communities have
deteriorated, or, like ours, has simply turned into a local meeting place
for everything from real estates seminars, theater groups, craft or rummage
sales venues, and the inevitable potluck dinner once in a while. There is
nothing there for farmers in this scenario. That is changing in our small
community.

When it became apparent that farmers were having a difficult time, the idea
of looking at the Grange and its potential to lobby in our state capitol
became a focus. Many resolutions were written and passed at our local
Grange. From there they went to communities at the Washington State Grange
Convention in Pullman, WA where one of the finest agricultural colleges is
located. Our Grange wrote seven resolutions; they all passed the nearly 300
delegates at that convention. From there they will be sent via our
Legislative Director to the politicians in Olympia where they, hopefully,
will write bills and pass them. The discovery that Granges have a focus,
excellent reputation, strength and political acumen to change history,
quite literally, was easily recognized through reading about its history.
Witness the establishment of rural route delivery, cooperatives, upsetting
the stranglehold of the railroad barons, bringing in rural electricity and
many other battles of survival for rural people. Some of the resolutions
our Grange wrote included, "Small Farms, a Homeland Security Issue,"
"Independent Testing of Food Products," "Uphold the Revised code of
Washington's RCW 36.71091" which allows farmers to sell their products
without a vendor's license on public property; all of these went through
the State Grange Agriculture Standing committee. "Residential Kitchens," a
resolution that would allow for licensing a kitchen in a residence, passed
the Health, Health Care and Safety Committee and was adopted by delegates.

If we can make our leaders in Washington State see that the Health
Department Regulations are completely unrealistic and unfair, we will have
done a great service for our small farms, and hopefully, they will stay on
our island. If they all pack up and leave, we will be lost if we have a
huge national disaster. Interestingly enough is the fact that all the
encumbrances placed on farmers does not save us completely, because there
are still outbreaks of e-coli, Mad Cow Disease, avian flu, SARS, and other
illnesses.

I'll take my food from my small local farmer, someone I know, who lives and
farms close to my home. I can witness my farmer neighbor at work and know
how he manages his vegetables, fruits and animals whereas I will never be
able to view the produce or animals raised in foreign countries that may or
may not be regulated. How can I really know?






  • [Livingontheland] Food security is a Real Issue, Tradingpost, 10/19/2004

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