Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

The Agribusiness Assault On Our Health And Rights
By Cliff Schecter Monday Oct 26, 2009 5:00pm
http://crooksandliars.com/cliff-schecter/agribusiness-assault-our-health-and

On November 3rd, there will be a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in 
Ohio. This is no ordinary ballot initiative. Its very existence and marketing 
has been bought and paid for --to the tune of millions--by national and 
international agri-business corporations, such as Pioneer Hi-Bred 
International (owned by DuPont, a "developer and supplier of advanced plant 
genetics"--healthy!--and grantee of 100K to the effort),the National Pork 
Producers Council (113K), and the United Egg Producers (200K!).

(Join our Facebook Group and help us stop this travesty!)

Now why, you ask, would these Big Agra players get involved in a state issue, 
and to support a campaign that is for touchy feely things like "food safety" 
and "local control?" I'm not sure, but it might be that this corruption of 
Ohio's Constitution will provide "food safety" much like George W. Bush 
provided "healthy forests," "clear skies" and a "mission accomplished." In 
other words--and I know this will shock you--they're lying. And they're lying 
with millions of dollars they've acquired, by being, like their "products," 
pigs at a trough.

So what is Issue 2, what will it do, and why should you care about it if 
you're not a resident of the Buckeye State? It's simple: Issue 2 was put on 
the ballot overnight by state legislators bought off by Big Agri-Business and 
their mouthpiece here, the Ohio Farm Bureau. Why? So that they can corrupt 
Ohio's Constitution to give the Governor the power to appoint a board of 
unaccountable agri-business cronies to make decisions in smoke-filled rooms 
about all farming practices in Ohio.

I know what you're thinking. Unaccountable, corporate-influenced governing 
has worked out so well with TARP money and preemptive war, we might as well 
try it with farm policy.

With Issue 2's passage, those only interested in their bottom line can (and 
you can bet will) stuff millions more animals into smaller and smaller crates 
together, increasing the likelhood of H1N1 and E. Coli outbreaks and 
mutations and their capacity for animal cruelty. They can ignore the waste 
caused by big factory farms that contaminates the water we drink. They can 
allow workers to be exploited and placed in situations that endanger their 
health, while putting family farms--held for generations--out of business.

And why should you care if this passes in Ohio? For all the reasons above, 
but also...because you're next. This amendment was a reaction to successful 
efforts to rein in their greedy, dangerous and abusive practices in 
California (Prop 2), Arizona and Florida, among others. If they can use the 
camouflage of bought off Democratic and Republican Establishments, millions 
of dollars in lies, and an off-year low-turnout election to enshrine their 
corporate malpractice into state constitutions, they can fly under the radar 
while endangering our health, undermining the people's right to petition 
(another amendment would be needed to overturn it if passed, as the new 
board's decisions would supersede ballot initiatives, legislative decisions 
and opinions by the State Department of Agriculture) and spiking their 
profits.

How can you help? Well, we only have 10% of their budget. But we have the 
grassroots energy. We have you.