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  • From: "Ericka & Rich Dana" <doodles AT netins.net>
  • To: Market Farming List <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>, sanet <sanet-mg AT ces.ncsu.edu>, ban-GEF AT lists.greenbuilder.com, orGaNicgrowing AT egroups.com, JCNews <jcnews AT yosemite.leepfrog.com>
  • Subject: Farm Bureau Investigation Petition
  • Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 17:32:24 -0800


>From: "Scotty Johnson" <sjohnson AT albq.defenders.org>
>To: "(Bt Crops - Moratorium for WTO)"
>Subject: SIGN ON FOR FARM BUREAU INVESTIGATION
>Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 14:56:05
>
>Folks,
>
>We all know that Farm Bureau Federation leadership has stood
>against just about everything good for the environment - from
>wildlife to wetlands, from climate change to clean water
>regulations. We have come to know Farm Bureau leadership does
>not even support their own family farmers and ranchers in creating
>supportive farm policy which would give family farmers an even
>chance against Big AG and corporate concentration. We know
>Farm Bureau lobbys against protections for farm workers, will not
>support precautionary principles involving GMO's, resists
>ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment for Women and even
>has a policy in their handbook calling for the repeal of the 1965
>Voters Rights Act!
>
>Why is the leadership of this multi-billion dollar insurance and
>agribusiness organization, which critics call the most elusive
>business shellgame in America today afforded a special” tax
>privilege as a "farm organization?"
>
>We don't know. We believe it is time for a change. Please
>consider signing the letter below calling for a federal investigation
>into the American Farm Bureau Leadership. Broadcast this
>information far and wide. Lets do something good for this country.
>
>To sign on reply to sjohnson AT albq.defenders.org
>
>Scotty Johnson
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>BACKGROUND
>
>Thirty years ago a Farm Bureau-dominated agricultural
>subcommittee “distanced” itself from an investigation into the Farm
>Bureau led by Congressman Joseph Resnick (D-NY). Following
>this incidence Resnick’s chief of staff Samuel “Sandy” Berger, the
>current Chief of the National Security Council wrote, “the Farm
>Bureau is far more than simply an organization of farmers, as it so
>often claims. The nation’s biggest farm organization has been
>quietly but systematically amassing one of the largest business
>networks in America, while turning its back on the deepening crisis
>of the farmers whom it supposedly represents.”
>
>Today, the Farm Bureau is more powerful than ever. The policies it
>advances and its myriad business operations are crippling the
>farmer, rural America and the environment. We believe it is time for
>another investigation. Moreover, we believe Farm Bureau leaders
>should welcome any and all opportunities to erase allegations they
>do not serve their membership or uphold their non-profit charter.
>
>Our Position
>
>WHEREAS, We the undersigned individuals and organizations
>represent millions of Americans whose homes, livelihoods,
>environments, freedoms, and well-being are jeopardized by current
>ill-advised farm policy,
>
>WHEREAS, we are family and independent farmers and ranchers,
>environmentalists, consumers, laborers, religious & minority
>leaders, taxpayers, hunters, fisherman and residents of America’s
>heartlands,
>
>WHEREAS, we believe many agricultural trade and commodity
>groups misrepresent their interests to Congress and policy makers
>by posing as the family farmer while advancing agribusiness policy
>harmful to family farmers and the environment,
>
>WHEREAS, we believe the farm policy advanced by these
>agribusiness groups promotes corporate consolidation, eliminates
>fair markets, and creates an un-level economic playing field for
>small, minority and independent family producers,
>
>WHEREAS, we believe this model of industrialized agricultural
>threatens rural families and cultures, public health and farm
>workers, watersheds and wildlife, top-soils, and wilderness,
>
>WHEREAS, we believe these groups advance policy that is fiscally
>irresponsible favoring agribusiness while costing taxpayers billions
>of dollars a year in continued farm aid bailouts,
>
>WHEREAS, we believe that a socially just, environmentally and
>fiscally responsible farm policy will never be created as long as
>these groups control the agricultural agenda,
>
>WHEREAS, we believe such groups, who receive substantial
>monetary benefits from the public sector should encourage and
>welcome scrutiny into their business operations,
>
>WHEREAS, the American Farm Bureau Federation leadership is
>the most outspoken and powerful of these groups claiming to
>represent Rural America,
>
>WHEREAS, American Farm Bureau Federation businesses have
>profited greatly from self-generated policies that afford them special
>tax privileges and advance national farm policies favoring
>agribusiness;
>
>WHEREAS, Farm Bureau claims 4.9 million “family” members and
>the USDA shows fewer than 1.9 million farmers remain--and not all
>of them are Farm Bureau members;
>
>WE THEREFORE, call for a congressional investigation into
>charges that American Farm Bureau Federation national leadership
>has harmed the American farmer and their own members by posing
>as an organization representing farmer interests when, in fact,
>Farm Bureau’s widespread commercial activities ­ which include
>the operation of businesses that sell to the farmer and buy from the
>farmer ­ puts them in a position of representing a point of view
>antagonistic to the interests of the farmer. We further call for
>investigation into charges that Farm Bureau leadership also
>misrepresents its motivations to Congress and the American
>taxpayer - exploiting the farmer image to win, from Congress, non-
>profit “privileges” that shield them from an estimated $61.75 million
>annually in federal income tax. We urge Congress to complete the
>process started a generation ago and protect rural American and
>its heritage.
>
>Reply to { GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ sjohnson AT albq.defenders.org}
>
>Scotty Johnson.
>Rural Community Outreach Coordinator
>GrassRoots Environmental Effectiveness Network (GREEN)
>Fax 529 623-0447
>520 623-9653 sjohnson AT albq.defenders.org
------------------------------------------



  • Farm Bureau Investigation Petition, Ericka & Rich Dana, 03/03/2000

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