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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Nation's Food System Nearly Broke
  • Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:14:40 -0700


Published on Friday, February 27, 2009 by The Capital Times (Wisconsin)
Nation's Food System Nearly Broke
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/27-5
by John Kinsman

As our government enacts a stimulus package and President Barack Obama
announces bold initiatives to stem home mortgage foreclosures, disaster
threatens family farmers and their communities.

The government's response to plummeting commodity prices and tightening
credit markets leads to the basic question: Who will produce our food? This
is a worldwide crisis. U.S. policy and the demand for deregulation at all
levels -- from food production to financial markets -- contribute greatly
to the global collapse. The solution must be grounded in food sovereignty
so that all farmers and their communities can regain control over their
food supply. This response makes sense here in Wisconsin and was the global
message from the 500+ farmer leaders at the Via Campesina conference in
Mozambique in October.

Many U.S. farmers are going out of business because they receive prices
equal to about one half their cost to produce our food. How long could any
enterprise receiving half the amount of its input costs stay in business?
As an example, dairy farmers in the Northeast and Midwest must be paid
between 30 and 35 cents per pound for their milk to pay production costs
and provide basic living expenses. Until 1980, farmers received a price
equal to 80 percent of parity, meaning that farmers' purchasing power kept
up with the rest of the economy. Unfortunately, a 1981 political decision
discontinued parity, and today the dairy farmers' share is below 40
percent.

"Free trade" and other regressive agricultural policies have decimated
farms. We are now a food deficit nation dependent on food imports, often of
questionable quality.

Our food system is nearly broke, which is almost as serious as our
country's financial meltdown. With fair farm policies, farmers would get
fair prices that would not require higher consumers prices. The Canadian
dairy pricing system is the best example that proves fair farmer prices can
and often do bring lower consumer prices and a healthier rural economy. In
addition, excessive middleman profits are taking advantage of both
consumers and producers.

As more farmers face bankruptcy, we all face a food emergency. European
farmers speak from thousands of years of experience on the importance of
family farms when they warn us, "Any time a country neglects its family
farm base and allows it to become financially bankrupt, the entire economy
of that country will soon collapse. It may take generations to rebuild the
farm economy and that of the country."

Despite the magnitude of this food emergency, the "farm crisis" does not
appear in headlines, so politicians are not compelled to provide political
or financial assistance to something that would likely fail to bring votes.
As farmers, we are now only about 1 percent of the U.S. population, and
have little power to expose and prevent our demise. However, our urban and
rural friends could be vital voices and advocates.

Bailing out the financial giants will not solve the financial crisis in the
country, but the right policies and stimulus dollars could prevent a severe
food crisis by saving farmers and workers. Furthermore, farm income dollars
remain in and multiply at least two to four times in the local economy.

Family farmers have proposed fair food and farm policies that can be
implemented at a fraction of the present multibillion-dollar policies
destroying us. As the Treasury Department develops plans to distribute the
bailout funds, the National Family Farm Coalition and others urge it to
require banks receiving funds to treat their borrowers fairly by providing
debt restructuring as an alternate to home or farm foreclosure or
bankruptcy.

Concerned citizens can call the White House, 202-456-1111, or your members
of Congress, 202-224-3121, to urge them to support policies that enable
farmers to earn a fair market price; request an emergency milk price at
$17.50 per hundred weight; provide price stability through government grain
reserves and effective supply management; support the TRADE Act to be
reintroduced in Congress; increase direct and guaranteed loans to family
farmers; and ensure that the food we raise can be marketed to local schools
and institutions, providing a better food supply at a fair price. We need
these immediate changes in our food and farm policy.
© 2009 The Capital Times
John Kinsman, a dairy farmer from La Valle, is president of Family Farm
Defenders, based in Madison.





  • [Livingontheland] Nation's Food System Nearly Broke, Tradingpost, 02/28/2009

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