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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] The Agribusiness Assault On Our Health And Rights
  • Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:09:30 -0700


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.





  • [Livingontheland] The Agribusiness Assault On Our Health And Rights, Tradingpost, 10/26/2009

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