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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Call to "Bust Up Big Ag"
  • Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:22:40 -0600


Call to "Bust Up Big Ag"
http://iatp.typepad.com/thinkforward/

"It is a lie that we have a free market. It's a lie that we have an open
market. It's a market controlled by corporations." This remark from an Iowa
farmer last night captured the fiery sentiment at a townhall meeting of over
250 people, packed into a room at the Best Western in Ankeny, Iowa.

The townhall was held on the eve of the first ever U.S. government workshop
on competition in agriculture, that will start in a few minutes. The joint
USDA/Department of Justice workshop is the start of a series of similar
events to be held around the country this year. The room last night was full
of farmers from the region, local Iowans and the bright yellow shirts of
United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) members from surrounding
meatpacking areas.

Barb Kalbach, a fourth-generation farmer from Dexter, Iowa and part of Iowa
Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI), kicked off the meeting: "We’re
here today to make sure the voices of everyday people are heard loud and
clear. And that message is: 'bust up big ag.' A handful of multinationals
have run roughshod for too long. Antitrust laws have not been enforced. We
want action now and we expect the government to represent the people and the
common good.”

The concentration of the seed industry and excessive use of patents took
center stage with many of the comments - with Monsanto a common target. "The
only thing they haven’t done is put a patent on air and charge us for
breathing it," said one farmer from Iowa.

"This monopolistic system is rigged against family farmers," George Naylor, a
corn and soybean farmer from Churdan, Iowa and also part of ICCI, told the
crowd. "This casino economy is rigged so farmers don’t have much of a choice
of the seeds that they buy. Monsanto has intentionally bought up seed
companies to eliminate competition."

Todd Leake, a wheat and soybean farmer from North Dakota told the crowd, "If
anything belongs in the public domain, it’s the crops we grow for food."

Many also focused on the livestock and poultry industry. Rhonda Perry, a
livestock farmer from Armstrong, Missouri and part of the Missouri Rural
Crisis Center, said, "A handful of meatpackers and poultry companies
completely dominate the entire livestock industry.The big corporations say
that they are more efficient. The reality is that they don’t have to be more
efficient – they just have to control the market. It’s not good for farmers
or consumers."

UFCW's Mark Lauritsen talked about growing up in a meatpacking family in Iowa
during the farm crisis in the 1980s. " I saw the pain in the face of farmers
– and I saw the meatpacking plants closed, and wages lowered for those that
stayed open. Fewer and fewer corporations are controlling the food industry.
The Justice Department needs to be pushed to include the impact of
concentration on workers, family farmers and the communities we live in."

IATP's Alexandra Spieldoch talked about how farmers in the U.S., Mexico and
Canada all were facing a simlar squeeze from a few big companies that now
dominate the North American market. You can read our fact sheet we prepared
for the meeting, as well as watch a short video of Alexandra summarizing
IATP's comment to the USDA and DOJ.

Patty Lovera of Food and Water Watch, summarized the sense of people in the
room as they await Friday's workshop: "Games have rules, they have referees.
The government is our referee – it’s time for the referee to get back in the
game."




  • [Livingontheland] Call to "Bust Up Big Ag", Tradingpost, 04/04/2010

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