People Putting Food First--#98

1. New Orleans Two Years After Katrina
2. Historic Victory for Tupinikim and Guarani Peoples of Brazil
3. The Cooperative Grocery

1. New Orleans Two Years After Katrina

Today President Bush told reporters covering his visit to New Orleans that things are getting better every day. But the question remains, better for whom? Many of the 800,000 low-income residents—mostly African Americans—who became homeless, have been unable to return due to high rents and the slow pace of reconstruction. Red tape continues to present major obstacles.

Civil rights and advocacy groups are demonstrating today, Wednesday, August 29, 2007, to demand swift action from the administration to create a “Marshall Plan” to restore the Gulf Coast. Melanie L. Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation says, “We are soliciting all people of conscience to join us for ‘A Day of Presence’ to show the people of the Gulf that we do care.”

ACLU’s recent report, Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina, documented many civil rights violations in Louisiana and Mississippi in the past two years, including a number of incidents of racially motivated police actions, housing discrimination, and prison abuse.

http://www.ncbcp.org/
http://www.aclu.org/

2. Historic Victory for Tupinikim and Guarani Peoples of Brazil

On August 28, 2007 the Brazilian Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro declared 18,070 hectares in Aracruz, Espirito Santo as indigenous lands. This land is currently “owned” by Aracruz Cellulose Company who invaded indigenous lands to establish a pulp tree plantation.

As the seven villages celebrate, the chiefs declared that this victory is a result of their union, their courage and determination to struggle for the lands they were evicted from in the past, guaranteeing the future of their children. This victory was also made possible because of a strong network of support, both in and outside Brazil. Thank you for having supported this struggle.

3. The Cooperative Grocery

“ It was just a series of dinner discussions at first,” says Michael Weiler about the idea for a grocery cooperative near Berkeley, CA. He and his wife, Julia Carpenter, and their friends Elisa and Martin Edwards would often talk about how there should be easier and more affordable access to organic and healthy food in the area. Upon moving to Berkeley in 2005, the Edwards were surprised that there were no food co-ops like the one they belonged to in New York. The Park Slope Food Co-op, in Brooklyn, is a store where members contribute a couple of hours of labor per month in exchange for deep discounts on sustainable and organic products. As their dinner discussions morphed into more serious plans, the friends began laying the foundation for a future Berkeley Grocery Cooperative.

“It will be different from any other natural foods place in Berkeley,” says Weiler, “the Cooperative Grocery will be a community-based way of grocery shopping.” The concept for the store is modeled after the Park Slope Co-op; member-owned and member-run. Members pay a one-time fee of 25 dollars and an investment of 100 dollars, which is refundable should they choose to leave the cooperative. Members also contribute a two and a half hour work shift per month, driving down labor costs and insuring that products sold at the store will be affordable.

“Members direct the way it works,” says Weiler. “There will always be a community feel. People will know each other and who is working when they shop.” Unlike other grocery stores, the Co-op will also have services such as on-site childcare and educational programs. “The goal is to make the Co-op as accessible as possible,” Weiler explains. Lindsay Meisel, intern for the CoG (Cooperative Grocery), agrees. “It (the Cooperative Grocery model) changes grocery shopping.”

The CoG has been in development for about 14 months, and already much has been done. The first phase, to become operational as an online store, is almost complete. All that is left is to secure a warehouse site for storing customer orders.

As of now, the Cooperative Grocery has 400 members, and another 5-600 people are planning to join once the online store becomes operational. Membership totals are good, but far short of the 13,000 that belong to the Park-Slope Food Co-op. “I want to put a call out there for members and for talent,” says Weiler. “We are in need of people with financial experience, building experience, web experience, etc.” To heed Michael Weiler’s call, or for more information about the Cooperative Grocery, you can visit their website at http://thecog.org. To become a part of the Cooperative Grocery is more than just finding a new place to shop, it is joining a community of people who believe in the right to affordable, healthy food.

ACTION ALERT—U.S. 2007 FARM (AND FOOD) BILL

Past farm bills have contributed greatly to concentration of power and profits in the hands of a small number of agribusiness corporations and the large-scale farms that grow for them. With Senator Tom Harkin as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the time is right to restore balance in our farm sector. Join the more than 200 U.S. organizations in endorsing the following amendment. And call your Senator to ask them to sign on/support these fairness provisions.

Competition Provisions

INCREASE FAIRNESS IN AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTS AND MARKETS – Below are provisions in Senator Harkin’s Proposed Livestock Title. Current abuses contained in processor-drafted agricultural contracts allow for manipulation of the producer.

1. Fairness Standards for Agricultural Contracts:
Minimum standards must be set for contract fairness in agriculture including - prohibition of binding arbitration in contracts of adhesion, protections for producers from having their contracts prematurely terminated if they have made a sizable capital investment, a 3 day right to review a contract before final decision, and prohibition of requiring additional investments unless they are offset by additional considerations by the company.

2. Closing Poultry Loopholes in P&SA:
Poultry loopholes in the P&SA should be closed to provide the Packers and Stockyards Administration with the necessary enforcement authority over all poultry cases. This is necessary to bring poultry in line with other livestock within the P&SA. Despite evidence of the contract being used as a tool to intimidate, retaliate, and reduce growers profits to poverty levels, the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration does not currently have the authority to take administrative action and protect growers by halting unfair practices or penalizing poultry companies that violate the law.

3. Bargaining Rights for Farmers:
Amend Agricultural Fair Practices Act of 1967 to require companies to bargain in good faith with bargaining associations, and allow farmers to join associations without fear of retaliation by processors.

LIMIT PACKER CONTROL/MANIPULATION OF LIVESTOCK MARKETS - These provisions would address a significant problem of captive supply—which packers use to manipulate markets.

4. Captive Supply Reform Act (S. 1017):
Currently, formula contracts and marketing agreements are negotiated in secret. These formula contracts and agreements depress prices and shut small and independent producers out of markets when packers base the price they pay for contracted cattle on a cash market they can manipulate. The Captive Supply Reform Act would require that packers offer contracts with a .rm base price and offer them in an open public manner.

5. Prohibition on Packer-Owned Livestock (S. 305):
Meat packers use packer-owned livestock as a tool for exerting unfair market power over farmers and ranchers. This practice fosters industrial livestock production and freezes independent farmers out of the markets, lowering farm gate prices to farmers and ranchers while consumer food prices continue to rise.

PROPOSED LETTER drafted by Senator McCaskill and Senator Enzi.

August 2007

The Honorable Tom Harkin and The Honorable Saxby Chambliss
Chairman and Ranking Member respectively
U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
328-A Russell
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Chambliss:

As we turn to debate of the new farm bill, it is important that it include a livestock title with initiatives to level the playing field for producers and improve enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act, a law enacted in 1921 to protect producers from unfair, deceptive and discriminatory practices. A farm bill without such provisions would be a glaring omission.

Consolidation and vertical integration in the livestock and poultry industry tilts the balance of power away from producers. The top four firms in the U.S. control 83 percent of cattle procurement and 66 percent of hog procurement. This places an even greater emphasis on ensuring that our markets are fair and that there be strong enforcement and oversight of the marketplace by USDA.

In January 2006, USDA’s Inspector General revealed widespread inaction by the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) at USDA—the key agency in charge of enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act. The Inspector General’s report found that previous recommendations going back a decade by both the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office were not implemented. Most troubling, agency management were preventing investigations of anti-competitive practices from moving forward for roughly five years, and no one at USDA noticed. USDA’s enforcement structure should be streamlined and improved in the farm bill.

The livestock and poultry marketplace has changed over the past 15 years, yet our laws to protect producers remain largely as they have for the past 86 years. Court decisions have watered down the Packers and Stockyards Act, contracts have become increasingly used by producers without the tools needed to protect them from abusive practices, not to mention these contracts are being priced off a tremendously thin and volatile spot market. We respectfully ask that when you markup the Senate version of the new farm bill that these concerns be addressed.
Sincerely,
(your name)

Call the Senate switchboard Today at 202-224-3121.
Ask to speak with your senator. When you get transferred to that office, ask to speak with the senator’s agriculture legislative assistant. If you get voice mail just leave a message.
Message: “I am calling to urge the senator to support Chairman Harkin’s proposed Livestock Title of the Farm Bill. In addition, I would like the senator to support an amendment of captive supply reform act (S. 1017), and packer ban (S. 305). Will the senator be able to support these provisions and sign on to the Enzi/McCaskill Dear Colleague Letter? Please call me at ____to let me know where the senator stands on these bills. Thank you.”
• If the staff person has any questions about the proposed Livestock Title, please have him/her call Steve Etka, who works with the Campaign for Contract Agriculture Reform. His number is (703) 519-7772.
• If the staff person has concerns about the other amendments, please have him/her call Jeri Lynn Bakken, who works with the Western Organization of Resource Councils. Her number is (701) 376-7077.
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This edition of People Putting Food First! e-newsletter was written by Food First staff member Marilyn Borchardt and Ashley Lin, Food First intern. If you have stories, questions or feedback, please contact: info at foodfirst.org. To subscribe to this People Putting Food First e-newsletter go to www.foodfirst.org or simply hit reply and type the word subscribe in the subject line.