ALERT OF THE WEEK:
SENATE PREPARES TO RUBBER STAMP “BUSINESS AS USUAL” FARM BILL The Senate Agriculture Committee approved its draft of the $300 billion 2007-2012 Farm Bill last week. The 1300-page bill, now headed to the main Senate floor, includes, as usual, billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies for chemical and energy-intensive crops, factory farms, and junk food purveyors, while “nickle and dime-ing” organic agriculture, conservation, nutrition, and alternative energy programs. Let your Senators know you want to eliminate all taxpayer subsidies, other than those designed to make our food and farming system healthier and more sustainable, and specifically you want a “Fair Share” for organics commensurate with our current 3% market share. Besides billions in corporate subsidies, this version of the Farm Bill includes implementation of the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS). NAIS would require that all farmers, even those with just one cow, horse, or chicken, to implant their animals with an electronic tracking device and permanently report their movements to the USDA. This expensive Big Brother procedure, which lobbyists crafted so as to exempt factory farms, could put many small family farms out of business. Please contact your Senators to cut corporate subsidies, eliminate NAIS, and support increases in funding in the Farm Bill for for conservation, organic agriculture, healthy food and beginning farmer programs.
Take Action: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_7765.cfm
RELATED DUMB QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
CONGRESS AGRICULTURE CHAIR COLLIN PETERSON: PAYING MORE FOR ORGANIC OR LOCAL FOOD IS “DUMB”
From an MSNBC.com Financial Times Oct. 17, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21349573/
Collin Peterson, chairman of the House of Representatives agricultural committee, says the farm sector that raises organic produce and grass-fed beef for local consumers needs little federal help. “It is growing, and it has nothing to do with the government, and that is good,” he told the FT. “For whatever reason, people are willing to pay two or three times as much for something that says ‘organic’ or ‘local’. Far be it from me to understand what that’s about, but that’s reality. And if people are dumb enough to pay that much then hallelujah.”
To send a message to Collin Peterson (Democrat, MN) congratulating him for getting the Organic Consumers Association award for the dumbest quote of the week: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_8104.cfm
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Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, Ecology, Food, Organics
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