We Are Fighting Back #73
U.S. Farm Subsidies Come Under Fire
Farm subsidies are under closer scrutiny as the 2007 Farm Bill talks begin. The multi-billion dollar subsidies have been controversial for years. Though they are intended to help farmers in difficult years, subsidies are more often allotted to large agribusiness corporations, savvy farmers who can afford to wait to sell to optimize their subsidy earnings, and even landowners with no intention to ever farm.
Farm subsidies consist of several types of aid, from direct payments for simply owning land once used for farming to cash payments allotted if certain crops fall below a government-established floor. Subsidies of some form have been around since the New Deal era. However, after a drastic restructuring of the program in the 1980s, the subsidies now increasingly benefit large-scale landowners, and even those who do not farm. Texas rice farmers now have no incentive to farm, because they are eligible for government subsidy, regardless of how their fields are used. In 2005 alone, subsidies cost taxpayers over $25 billion dollars.
Among those hurt by these policies are sharecroppers. Smaller-scale tenant farmers are able to collect government payments for the acres they work. The landowners subsequently raise the rent, thus collecting the government money. Some landowners, once realizing they can collect more from the government for leaving the land fallow, will evict tenants altogether and collect on unfarmed land.
With the renewal of the Farm Bill in 2007, critics are hopeful that changes to this inefficient and abused program are forthcoming. Farm subsidies in the US and other industrialized nations have been lambasted by developing countries for years and have stalled WTO trade talks. These external pressures, along with domestic condemnation, are causing US leaders to rethink their official stances on subsidies. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns has criticized the payments for hindering trade and benefiting only large-scale farmers. He has expressed support for restructuring subsidies to divert funds to research and marketing instead of to individual farmers. Fruit, nut, and vegetable growers, who receive no government subsidies, are the main proponents of this proposed change.
For more information regarding the 2007 Farm Bill, including how it will impact food stamp programs, conservation areas, alternative energy development, and food labeling, look for Food First’s upcoming News and Views and Backgrounder.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/02/AR200607...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR200607...
http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14276070p-15085537c.html
http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/286517300091748
Also in the News:
Displaced Guatemalan Farmers Killed in an Attempted Occupation
At least five, and as many as nine, evicted farmers were killed in a clash with armed peasants at the Finca Mocca Estate in Guatemala. In 2002, the Finca Mocca was converted from a coffee plantation to a tree farm, leaving hundreds of indigenous farmers without homes or work. Since then, the 200 families have demanded land and unpaid wages. Because the talks have been unsuccessful, these families invaded the farm, where they were met by armed peasants who attacked the families. Although the plantation owner denies it, the Human Rights Office asserts that the armed peasants are workers at the Finca Mocca.
In a country plagued by violence where 75% of the mostly indigenous population lives in poverty, land invasions have been a common tool by landless farmers for the past several decades. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has continually evicted these groups, leading to more stress between the peasants and the landowning elites. The evicted farmers who entered the Finca Mocca had already invaded and been evicted from the Finca Mocca in April 2005, but they still have not received their wages or any promise of land.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs10.3jul10,1,61...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2170644
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gt.html
Uruguayan Community Works to Accomplish Millennium Development Goals
While the international community debates how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs), local communities are acting to improve their living conditions. The MGDs, adopted by the UN in 1990, are eight development objectives the world hopes to meet by 2015. They include eradicating hunger and poverty, reducing child mortality, combating AIDS/HIV, and promoting gender equality. Las Láminas, a slum of about 180 families in Uruguay, has tirelessly worked to achieve these goals on their own.
After a hepatitis outbreak, national support for Las Láminas, from schools, families, and unions flooded in. Using theses donations, the community was able to cut infant mortality from 55 to 17 deaths for every 1000 live births. Las Láminas has also addressed the MDG ensuring all children receive a primary education. With donations raised from a television fundraiser, the community has opened a children’s center to provide food and medicine to the most undernourished children. Thanks to the center, the children are now able to attend classes and concentrate on their schooling, instead of their hunger.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33682
Co-op Markets Promote Locally Grown, Organic Food to Consumers
Organic food is on the rise. Whereas total food sales in the US have grown at an average rate of 2-4% over the past few years, organic sales growth has been 15-21%. In response to this growth, and increasing international competition, local farmers are finding new ways to promote local, organically grown agriculture. Food co-ops, member-owned markets that specialize in local and organic foods, are multiplying nationwide. Environmental groups and co-op advocates note that by buying locally, consumers not only support local farmers, but also help the environment. In the US most food now travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to store; an increase of 25% since 1980. Locally grown food, on the other hand, cuts down on transportation costs and oil usage.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1036.cfm http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_973.cfm
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/business-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/0... 20060710-F6-01.html
***Action Alert***
Stop Water Contamination at the Pascua-Lama Mining Project
The proposed Pascua-Lama mining project, on the border of Chile and Argentina, will have potentially devastating effects on the water supply of the local farmers and indigenous people. The project, led by gold-mining giant Barrick Gold, originally called for three glaciers in the Huasco Valley to be broken up and moved. After considerable opposition from international environmental groups and local communities, the Chilean government ruled that the glaciers cannot be touched. Instead, Barrick Gold will drill under the glaciers to mine vast gold ore deposits. Critics are charging that Barrick has not properly accounted for how this mining will affect the glacial structures and disturb the flow of water that regional rivers depend upon. Furthermore, the drilling will deposit vast quantities of poisonous chemicals, including cyanide and sulfuric acid, into the rivers that are the main source of water for local indigenous and farming communities.
To take action, sign this petition urging the Chilean Government to Say No to Pascua-Lama:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/946839131?ltl=1152570538
For more information:
http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/Chile_en/Pascua_Lama_Background
http://www.aguavalemasqueoro.org/index_en.htm
http://www.barrick.com/default.aspx?SectionId=bc4a30a5-5fbd-43d5-ac2f-ef...
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This edition of We Are Fighting Back! was written by Food First intern Emily O'Keefe and edited by Marilyn Borchardt, Development Director at Food First. If you have any stories, questions or feedback, please contact: info at foodfirst.org.
