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Posted July
29, 2005 Ames, Iowa: Future U.S. Farm Bills
and trade agreements must drastically change if consumers
and family farmers are to benefit, according to a group
of Iowa family farmers who met to discuss the upcoming
Farm Bill. The group meeting was held simultaneously
with the first of several USDA-sponsored public forum
discussions on the same topic. Speakers at the Ames
meeting said that the USDA meeting agenda clearly demonstrated
the Administration’s bias toward maintaining policies
which profit multinational corporations instead of the
public good.
“You can’t talk about the U.S. Farm Bill
without confronting head on the role of multinational
corporations and how they dominate farm and trade policy,”
said George Naylor, Churdan farmer, National Family
Farm Coalition President and Iowa Citizens for Community
Improvement (Iowa CCI) member. “It is ludicrous
for Secretary Johanns to claim he’s holding a
meaningful discussion on farm policy when he excludes
the impact of the WTO and other trade agreements that
pit family farmers around the world against each other
for the benefit of multinational corporations.”
“We are losing our quality of life because of
corporate monopolies and concentration,” added
Chris Petersen, President of the Iowa Farmers Union,
who farms near Clear Lake. “The new Farm Bill
could be a golden opportunity to change directions,
and we have specific policy proposals that would return
profitability to the family farm sector of agriculture.
The current policies, which promote more production
using fewer farmers, are destroying our rural communities.”
Dennis Olson, Trade Director of the Institute for Agriculture
and Trade Policy gave a presentation showing the dismal
ten-year track record of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) and recent export-oriented U.S. Farm
Bills. “The U.S. is projected to become a net
importer of agricultural products for the first time
since 1959,” Olson said. “Obviously the
promises made a decade ago that U.S. farmers would export
their way to prosperity have proven false. It’s
time to rethink and consider viable alternatives as
we begin the debate over the next farm bill.”
Olson also presented highlights of two recently published
reports from his institute that document threats posed
by the recently adopted Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA) to U.S. sugar and ethanol production.
Olson said CAFTA would expand the failed NAFTA model
to Central America.
“Look at the winners of the current system: Cargill,
ADM, and Smithfield,” said Larry Ginter, a farmer
from Rhodes, and a member of Iowa CCI. “The people
with power who negotiate these farm bills and trade
agreements should look out for the public interest,
not just corporate interests. That’s why there
must be a place at the policy table for grassroots organizations
that truly represent family farmers, workers, and others
who have a stake in healthy, sustainable agriculture
and communities.”
The Ames farm and trade policy meeting was sponsored
by the Iowa Farmers Union; Iowa Citizens for Community
Improvement; Women, Food, and Agriculture Network; Sierra
Club, Iowa Chapter; and the National Family Farm Coalition.
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