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[Market-farming] Update on the Food for Folk Project
- From: "Ploughshare" <gjbrever AT midwestinfo.net>
- To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Market-farming] Update on the Food for Folk Project
- Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:47:31 -0600
I wanted to update this list about the
investigation on our local RCD (Resource Conservation and Development--a project
of the USDA) office. Below is an update and below this letter is an email I sent
out to the list earlier on which gives background information about the
case. I hope at least one good thing can come out of this whole ordeal and
that is that other farmers will be more cautious even if(or
expecially if) that organzition has ties to the federal
government.
The MN Attorney General's office has finshed up
with their investigation. Last week they met with the board of
RCD as well as folks from NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Sevice-- a
USDA agency) and as they say, "The Fit hit the Sham!!" The
attorney from the AG's office said their agency has never seen a case
where someone has made so much up. The executive
director of this RCD fabricated documents, emails, and even made people
up. When the AG's office presented the case, the board and NRCS
were absolutely shocked. (Which is crazy to me since I provided them with clear
documents months ago showing them these facts).
The AG's office told me that the executive
director has been fired..
The next step is going to be to work out a
resolution with RCD and find restitution for myself and other
organizations. Included in this will be an apology made to
me. According to the AG's office, this resolution could take up to
two months. When this resolution is filed through the court, it will then
be made public. It will be big news in our community and probably even our
state since this organization has so many county commisioners and other
folks with ties to other agencies in our
community.
This is all good news. It has been such a
wierd and stressful experience... I knew all along that this executive
director was making up total lies and had many documents to prove it, yet
the reaction from the board and NRCS was to fall into denial. Not only
that, but they also threatened me with a lawsuit. When this
does go public you will be sure that I will be vocal about the board members and
federal agencies that I feel that failed in their duty to provide
oversight. (I had an interesting conversation yesterday with the
head of the national RCD program in DC. She was very apologetic over the
whole ordeal that our family went through. She also admitted that one of the
main reasons that NRCS refused to investigate is because they thought I was
"just a radical organic farmer.")
I will also be vocal on how very thankful
that we have an attorney general's office in this state to pursue justice for
someone like me.
I want
to thank all of you for your support and your "reality checks" through this
all. I know it is not finished, but I do feel some sense of
vindication.
I do
still have many questions.. especially, "Why would someone do this." These
questions have not been thoroughly answered yet. The investigation now
will look into other projects that this RCD was sponsoring as well as the
financial matters. Perhaps, more answers will be revealed. Who
knows?
--Gary Brever
As I said, below is a letter I sent out earlier
which gives some background to our ordeal.. Last fall I emailed the list with much excitement regarding our Food For
Folk Project--an initiative that gets food from sustainable farms to organizations that work with low income folks. Our Excitement has now turned to devistation. Last year we were approach by a local RCD (Resource, Conservation and Development) that wanted to take on the project and write grants, etc. Since March of this year we have suspected that the local RCD (this nonprofit works initimately with the NRCS) was fabricating various grants, including a $150k grant from Otto Bremer Foundation, a grant from "OMRI" that was supposed to go to purchase all our organic seeds for this next season, as well as a $50k grant from Paul Newman Foundation that was to go to pay for the over $45k+ worth of vegetables that we sent through the organization last year. I have lots of documentation, and these are just 3 of the 15 or so grants that the director of this RCD said were either APPROVED or she was pursuing. . |
-
[Market-farming] Update on the Food for Folk Project,
Ploughshare, 12/23/2006
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Market-farming] Update on the Food for Folk Project, Bill Shoemaker, 12/23/2006
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