Tell the DOJ to stand up for farmers today. End the fear and intimidation in rural America!
Dear Kendall,
Today family farmers face some of their toughest times since the Great Depression. In the last 48 hours we drove more than 900 miles across the country to be here in Normal, Alabama because we believe it's important to stand up for farmers in the face of unfair contracts and corporate abuse.
Right now, the Department of Justice and USDA are holding their second listening session on anti-competition issues in the food industry. Today Secretary Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Eric Holder are listening to farmers talk about the abuses in the poultry industry that are forcing family farmers deeply into debt and out of business.
Unfortunately, because of how the poultry industry works, there’s a lot that they won’t hear. Despite widespread reports of price manipulation and corporate intimidation, the Department of Justice has had a hard time finding any poultry farmers willing to testify publicly about these abuses.
In the past few days we’ve heard directly from chicken growers who were warned by the company that they contract with that if they even show up at this hearing they will face retaliation, possibly losing their contracts. There’s no place in America for these types of threats to our nation’s farmers.
Click here to stand up for family farmers across the country who bear the brunt of agribusiness’s corporate abuses in the Heartland. Tell Attorney General Holder and Secretary Vilsack it’s time to put an end to this type of corruption.
Farmers are afraid to come forward because they know if they do they face the possibility of losing their jobs, their houses and their farms. This happens all the time in rural America. Last year America got a taste of what the chicken industry is all about when poultry grower Carole Morison, who starred in Food Inc., spoke out against the industry. After 23 years her company cut her contract! And the only way she could hold onto her farm was because both she and her husband had two off-farm jobs.
For decades, poultry growers have complained about the unfair contracts, price manipulation and loss of income due to corporate intimidation. Without competition, family farmers have no choice but to submit to company demands, however unreasonable.
Farmers no longer own the chickens, but raise them on contract, regularly going into debt more than $1 million to build highly specialized buildings, with only one or two companies to sell to under contract in their area. As a result, farmers have no competitive markets to sell to and companies like Tyson and Perdue dictate the terms of the contract, including costly modifications to their structures. Oftentimes these are demands that farmers are simply unable to sustain.
In these “take it or leave it” contracts, farmers live in constant fear of having their contracts canceled if they fail to comply with the demands of companies such as Tyson.
Now, as the Department of Justice is finally ready to investigate this deplorable situation, the Big Chicken companies have put the word out that they will retaliate if any grower testifies. On the way down to Alabama we spoke with one grower who actually said that farmers are afraid to even show up at the public hearing, lest they become “made an example of”.
This type of fear and intimidation has no place in America.
Here at Food Democracy Now! we believe that farmers should not have to live in fear of having their contracts pulled out from under them, forced into continuous debt and should be paid a fair wage for their labor.
Tell the Administration to stand up for family farmers like Carol Morison as they bravely share their stories and fight for justice. It’s time to Fight Big Food!
Thank you for participating in food democracy!
Dave, Lisa and The Food Democracy Now Team
We need to keep the pressure on! Please donate to Food Democracy Now today – whether it’s $5 or $50. We rely on folks like you to keep us going. Thank you!
Showing posts with label Food Democracy Now. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food Democracy Now. Show all posts
Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Food Democracy Now
Dear Friends,
Speak up to stop Big Ag.
President Obama has found himself with some strange bedfellows lately.
While on the campaign trail in Iowa, Barack Obama boasted, “We’ll tell ConAgra that it’s not the Department of Agribusiness. We’re going to put the people’s interests ahead of the special interests.”1 Despite that promise, it seems that ConAgra’s friends at Monsanto and CropLife are still finding their way into the USDA.
Last month, President Obama nominated two “Big Ag” power brokers--Roger Beachy and Islam Siddiqui--to key agency positions, putting agribusiness executives in charge of our country's agricultural research and trade policy. Please join us in telling the President that this isn't the change we voted for. We don't want Big Ag running the show any more.
Siddiqui's confirmation hearing is set for next week. Please help us reach our goal of 50,000 signatures to make a real impact.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/65?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Obama’s first agribusiness selection is Roger Beachy, to be head of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Beachy is the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO. It may sound innocuous, but the Danforth Center is essentially the non-profit arm of GMO seed giant Monsanto; Monsanto’s CEO sits on its board, and the company provides considerable funding for the Center’s operations.2
As the head of the USDA’s new research arm, formerly known as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CREES), Beachy is responsible for deciding how U.S. research dollars will be spent in agriculture.3 Translation: more research on biotech, less research on how to scale sustainable and organic agriculture.
Unfortunately, Beachy has already started work at the USDA, but the next nominee—Islam Siddiqui—still must be confirmed by the U.S.Senate. Siddiqui, the Vice President of Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, was recently nominated to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative.4 Amazingly, when Michele Obama planted her “organic” garden on the White House lawn, Siddiqui’s CropLife MidAmerica sent the First Lady a letter saying that it made them “shudder”.5
During his career, Siddiqui spent over 3 years as a pesticide lobbyist, an Undersecretary at the USDA and a VP at CropLife. In defending Siddiqui, the White House has stated that he played a key role in helping establish the country’s first organic standards.6 What they neglect to mention, though, is that those original organic standards would have allowed irradiation, sewage sludge and GMOs to undermine organic integrity! The standards were so watered down that 230,000 people signed a petition for them to be changed, which they eventually were.7
Fortunately, the organic community stopped Siddiqui and his cronies then, and we need your help now to do it again. If Siddiqui’s nomination is allowed to go through, then agribusiness will continue to control the seeds, the science, and the distribution of global food and agriculture.
Please join Food Democracy Now! and a broad coalition of other groups, in calling on President Obama to keep his campaign promise of closing the revolving door between agribusiness and his administration.
Please click here to add your voice.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/65?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Thanks for standing with us and our coalition partners from across the country, including: The Pesticide Action Network (PAN), National Family Farm Coalition, Food & Water Watch, Farmworker's Association of Florida, Institute of Agriculture & Trade Policy, Greenpeace and the Center for Food Safety in calling for President Obama to live up to his promises to put people's interests ahead of special interests
Sustainably Yours,
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team.
If you'd like to see Food Democracy Now!'s grassroots work continue, please consider donating. Your donation of $5 or more will help us continue our work. We appreciate your support! http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/25?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Sources:
1. Obama slams corporate agriculture, two Illinois firms, The Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2007
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/58?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
2. Another Monsanto man in a key USDA post?, Grist, September 24, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/59?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
3. A New Direction on Research at the USDA? The Experts Weigh In, The Huffington Post, October 15, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/60?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
4. Obama’s attempt to tap an agrichemical-industry flack runs into trouble, Grist, October 10, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/61?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
5. Michelle’s green garden upsets pesticide makers, The First Post, April 23, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/62?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
6. Agriculture nomination steams greens, Politico, October 10, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/63?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
7. USDA Enters Debate on Organic Label Law, The New York Times, February 23, 2003 http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/72?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Speak up to stop Big Ag.
President Obama has found himself with some strange bedfellows lately.
While on the campaign trail in Iowa, Barack Obama boasted, “We’ll tell ConAgra that it’s not the Department of Agribusiness. We’re going to put the people’s interests ahead of the special interests.”1 Despite that promise, it seems that ConAgra’s friends at Monsanto and CropLife are still finding their way into the USDA.
Last month, President Obama nominated two “Big Ag” power brokers--Roger Beachy and Islam Siddiqui--to key agency positions, putting agribusiness executives in charge of our country's agricultural research and trade policy. Please join us in telling the President that this isn't the change we voted for. We don't want Big Ag running the show any more.
Siddiqui's confirmation hearing is set for next week. Please help us reach our goal of 50,000 signatures to make a real impact.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/65?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Obama’s first agribusiness selection is Roger Beachy, to be head of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Beachy is the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO. It may sound innocuous, but the Danforth Center is essentially the non-profit arm of GMO seed giant Monsanto; Monsanto’s CEO sits on its board, and the company provides considerable funding for the Center’s operations.2
As the head of the USDA’s new research arm, formerly known as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CREES), Beachy is responsible for deciding how U.S. research dollars will be spent in agriculture.3 Translation: more research on biotech, less research on how to scale sustainable and organic agriculture.
Unfortunately, Beachy has already started work at the USDA, but the next nominee—Islam Siddiqui—still must be confirmed by the U.S.Senate. Siddiqui, the Vice President of Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, was recently nominated to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative.4 Amazingly, when Michele Obama planted her “organic” garden on the White House lawn, Siddiqui’s CropLife MidAmerica sent the First Lady a letter saying that it made them “shudder”.5
During his career, Siddiqui spent over 3 years as a pesticide lobbyist, an Undersecretary at the USDA and a VP at CropLife. In defending Siddiqui, the White House has stated that he played a key role in helping establish the country’s first organic standards.6 What they neglect to mention, though, is that those original organic standards would have allowed irradiation, sewage sludge and GMOs to undermine organic integrity! The standards were so watered down that 230,000 people signed a petition for them to be changed, which they eventually were.7
Fortunately, the organic community stopped Siddiqui and his cronies then, and we need your help now to do it again. If Siddiqui’s nomination is allowed to go through, then agribusiness will continue to control the seeds, the science, and the distribution of global food and agriculture.
Please join Food Democracy Now! and a broad coalition of other groups, in calling on President Obama to keep his campaign promise of closing the revolving door between agribusiness and his administration.
Please click here to add your voice.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/65?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Thanks for standing with us and our coalition partners from across the country, including: The Pesticide Action Network (PAN), National Family Farm Coalition, Food & Water Watch, Farmworker's Association of Florida, Institute of Agriculture & Trade Policy, Greenpeace and the Center for Food Safety in calling for President Obama to live up to his promises to put people's interests ahead of special interests
Sustainably Yours,
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team.
If you'd like to see Food Democracy Now!'s grassroots work continue, please consider donating. Your donation of $5 or more will help us continue our work. We appreciate your support! http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/25?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Sources:
1. Obama slams corporate agriculture, two Illinois firms, The Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2007
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/58?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
2. Another Monsanto man in a key USDA post?, Grist, September 24, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/59?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
3. A New Direction on Research at the USDA? The Experts Weigh In, The Huffington Post, October 15, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/60?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
4. Obama’s attempt to tap an agrichemical-industry flack runs into trouble, Grist, October 10, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/61?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
5. Michelle’s green garden upsets pesticide makers, The First Post, April 23, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/62?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
6. Agriculture nomination steams greens, Politico, October 10, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/63?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
7. USDA Enters Debate on Organic Label Law, The New York Times, February 23, 2003 http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/72?akid=35.1117.opQTqV&t=1
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Food Safety First - Send Bill Marler Packin' to DC!
It’s time to get serious about food safety.
The USDA has yet to appoint the Under Secretary for Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) – and it’s time that we had a real reformer at the USDA.
Every year in the U.S. an estimated 76 million people get sick with food borne illnesses and 5,000 die. One person who knows this fact better than anybody else in the country is food safety lawyer Bill Marler.
You may remember him as the generous patron who offered to pay for author Michael Pollan’s visit to Washington State University after his best-selling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, had been removed from the freshman reading program. But Marler’s been known as a leading advocate for food safety for nearly two decades.
In 1993, Marler served as the lead attorney in the famous Jack in the Box E.coli outbreak. Since then, he’s led the charge in protecting the rights of consumers against unsafe practices by major corporations.
As someone who’s been on the front lines of America’s food safety crisis for nearly 20 years, he has seen first hand the devastation that can be left in the wake of poor food safety practices. We believe that Marler understands the problems that create food safety outbreaks and knows the solutions. He believes that inspection is an important process that not only protects consumers but could save farmers, hospitals and businesses money as well. He understands the importance of regionalizing our food system to build more processing plants that will create a safer food supply and real jobs for rural America.
Known as a fair and fierce opponent, Marler is the perfect candidate to help reform America’s bankrupt food safety system from the ground up. As unprecedented food safety legislation winds its way through Congress that will redefine the Food and Drug Administration’s role in keeping America’s food safe, it’s important that the USDA has an individual with a strong commitment to food safety and consumer health. Bill Marler is that candidate.
Write to President Obama and Secretary Vilsack today and ask them to appoint Bill Marler as the next Under Secretary for food safety at the USDA.
It’s time that America leads the way in having the safest food possible. Bill Marler can make that happen.
Click here to send Bill Marler to the USDA and make our nation’s food supply more safe. http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/?p=428
Sustainably yours,
Food Democracy Now!
If you'd like to see Food Democracy Now!'s grassroots work continue, please consider donating as little as $10 or $25. We appreciate your support! http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/?page_id=9
Please write President Obama and Secretary Vilsack today!
You can cut and paste the below letter and send it to President Obama at the link below
and email Secretary Vilsack at the email below.
SAMPLE LETTER:
Send Comments to the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
or
Email Secretary Vilsack: AgSec@usda.gov
Sample Letter:
Dear President Obama and Secretary Vilsack
In an age of record food safety outbreaks, it’s important that America has a reformer on the frontlines in the effort to rebuild our nation’s broken food safety system. In just the past few weeks, U.S. consumers have had to contend with E.coli O157:H7 found in Nestle Toll House cookie dough and a massive new E.coli outbreak in over 421,000 pounds of beef.
On June 24 the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a Class 1 recall for primal cuts of beef from the JBS Swift Beef Company in Greeley, Colorado. According to the FSIS website, this recall has a high health risk to American consumers and at a time when they should be relaxing and enjoying the festivities of our nation’s Independence Day, mothers and cooks will have to worry if their children or loved ones could get sick from eating tainted meat on the 4th of July.
It’s time to put this to an end.
I believe it’s important that America leads the way in food safety for the 21st century and support our nation’s leading food safety attorney, Bill Marler, being selected to lead the way as the next Under Secretary of the FSIS.
America can no longer afford to appease an industry that has made our food less safe and continues to put lives at risk because of convenience or profit. Please show us that you care about our nation’s consumers and children by nominating Bill Marler to become the next head of the FSIS.
Sincerely,
[Your name
city & state here]
The USDA has yet to appoint the Under Secretary for Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) – and it’s time that we had a real reformer at the USDA.
Every year in the U.S. an estimated 76 million people get sick with food borne illnesses and 5,000 die. One person who knows this fact better than anybody else in the country is food safety lawyer Bill Marler.
You may remember him as the generous patron who offered to pay for author Michael Pollan’s visit to Washington State University after his best-selling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, had been removed from the freshman reading program. But Marler’s been known as a leading advocate for food safety for nearly two decades.
In 1993, Marler served as the lead attorney in the famous Jack in the Box E.coli outbreak. Since then, he’s led the charge in protecting the rights of consumers against unsafe practices by major corporations.
As someone who’s been on the front lines of America’s food safety crisis for nearly 20 years, he has seen first hand the devastation that can be left in the wake of poor food safety practices. We believe that Marler understands the problems that create food safety outbreaks and knows the solutions. He believes that inspection is an important process that not only protects consumers but could save farmers, hospitals and businesses money as well. He understands the importance of regionalizing our food system to build more processing plants that will create a safer food supply and real jobs for rural America.
Known as a fair and fierce opponent, Marler is the perfect candidate to help reform America’s bankrupt food safety system from the ground up. As unprecedented food safety legislation winds its way through Congress that will redefine the Food and Drug Administration’s role in keeping America’s food safe, it’s important that the USDA has an individual with a strong commitment to food safety and consumer health. Bill Marler is that candidate.
Write to President Obama and Secretary Vilsack today and ask them to appoint Bill Marler as the next Under Secretary for food safety at the USDA.
It’s time that America leads the way in having the safest food possible. Bill Marler can make that happen.
Click here to send Bill Marler to the USDA and make our nation’s food supply more safe. http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/?p=428
Sustainably yours,
Food Democracy Now!
If you'd like to see Food Democracy Now!'s grassroots work continue, please consider donating as little as $10 or $25. We appreciate your support! http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/?page_id=9
Please write President Obama and Secretary Vilsack today!
You can cut and paste the below letter and send it to President Obama at the link below
and email Secretary Vilsack at the email below.
SAMPLE LETTER:
Send Comments to the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
or
Email Secretary Vilsack: AgSec@usda.gov
Sample Letter:
Dear President Obama and Secretary Vilsack
In an age of record food safety outbreaks, it’s important that America has a reformer on the frontlines in the effort to rebuild our nation’s broken food safety system. In just the past few weeks, U.S. consumers have had to contend with E.coli O157:H7 found in Nestle Toll House cookie dough and a massive new E.coli outbreak in over 421,000 pounds of beef.
On June 24 the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a Class 1 recall for primal cuts of beef from the JBS Swift Beef Company in Greeley, Colorado. According to the FSIS website, this recall has a high health risk to American consumers and at a time when they should be relaxing and enjoying the festivities of our nation’s Independence Day, mothers and cooks will have to worry if their children or loved ones could get sick from eating tainted meat on the 4th of July.
It’s time to put this to an end.
I believe it’s important that America leads the way in food safety for the 21st century and support our nation’s leading food safety attorney, Bill Marler, being selected to lead the way as the next Under Secretary of the FSIS.
America can no longer afford to appease an industry that has made our food less safe and continues to put lives at risk because of convenience or profit. Please show us that you care about our nation’s consumers and children by nominating Bill Marler to become the next head of the FSIS.
Sincerely,
[Your name
city & state here]
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