Farmers

Iowa Farm Bankruptcies Continue To Rise, Despite Aid

January 6, 2021 Erin Jordan, The Gazette. Educate! Bankruptcy, Farmers, Iowa, Recession

There were 27 farm bankruptcies in Iowa in 2019 — more than double the 13 bankruptcies in 2018, the American Farm Bureau Federation reported. This was despite the $1.58 billion the federal government paid Iowa farmers in Market Facilitation Program payments to ease losses because of the trade dispute with China. Later this month, we’ll know how many Iowa farms went bankrupt in 2020, but Iowa State University economics professor and crop markets specialist Chad Hart said to expect another increase. “The government has provided a lot of short-term funding to help farmers get through the year,” Hart said, referring to market facilitation and coronavirus food assistance programs, which funneled two rounds of aid to farmers in 2020.

Indian Farmers Plan To March Into New Delhi

January 3, 2021 Anish R., Peoples Dispatch. Resist! Farmers, India, Modi, Privatization

India’s protesting farmers, who have been camped on the outskirts of the capital, Delhi, have warned of intensifying their agitation if their demands are not met. Farmers’ organizations announced on Saturday, January 2 that they would hold a series of agitations culminating in a tractor parade in Delhi on January 26, which is celebrated as Republic Day. The government has so far refused to accept the key demand of the farmers, which is the withdrawal of three farm laws which were rammed through parliament in September. Farmers fear these laws will drive down the prices they get for their produce and pave the way for greater corporate involvement in agriculture.

India’s Farmer Revolt

December 15, 2020 Subin Dennis, Tribune Magazine. Resist! Corporatism, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, India

The farmers’ struggle taking place now on the borders of Delhi and its neighbouring states is one of the most important mass agitations that India has seen in its three decades of neoliberal reforms. Since 26 November, hundreds of thousands of farmers have congregated on the borders of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. At the beginning, most of them were from the state of Punjab, located about 200 km from Delhi, but many more have since joined from the state of Haryana, which abuts Delhi on three sides, and then from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as well. With their caravans, the farmers have occupied long stretches of several highways that connect Delhi to its neighbouring states.

The Biosecurity Myth That Is Destroying Small Farming

November 13, 2020 Lucile Leclair, Counterpunch. Educate! Big Ag, Biosecurity, Farmers, Pandemic

Chen Yun’s pigs stopped eating, then developed a fever. Within a week, all 10,000 on his farm in Jiangxi, in southeast China, had died of African swine fever (ASF). In 2018-19 the virus affected every province and led to the slaughter of half the country’s pigs. The outbreak spread from China to Southeast Asia; the virus, already present in central Europe, reached Belgium in 2018. France and other European nations remain braced for its possible arrival. ASF, which was identified over a century ago, does not infect humans but mortality can be up to 100% among pigs.

Food Sovereignty Activists See The Pandemic Crisis As Pivotal For Change

June 16, 2020 David Bacon, Food First. Create! COVID-19, Farmers, Food and Agriculture

Disaster brings change, however. Many grassroots organizations and movements are trying to seize the moment to propose alternatives, and in some cases, to begin implementing them. Some are breathing new life into proposals made before the COVID-19 crisis began. It has been a chance for this alternative system to prove its value. “Conventional farmers lost their crop because they lost their market when restaurants closed and the distribution chains broke down,” Garcia explains. “Puerto Rico still gets most of its food from outside, so the supply problems meant the supermarkets didn’t have food on the shelves. Prices went up for what they did have. Plus, who knows who’s been touching that product or where it comes from. People are wary of it. “The small agroecological farmers had new costs, but they could function when the other system couldn’t. Now even conventional farmers are starting to copy this new system. In the middle of this crisis we’ve seen an answer we didn’t expect. We thought we would be losing a crop, and instead, we grew.”

USDA COVID-19 Farmer Relief Will Leave Out Farmers Most Impacted

May 25, 2020 By Eric Deeble, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Educate! COVID-19, Farmers, Food and Agriculture

The Trump Administration announced the impending opening of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) farmer aid payments to be delivered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). CFAP will make $16 billion in aid available to farmers who suffered economic losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it fails to meet its Congressional mandate to compensate all farmers fairly and represents a missed opportunity to help build more resilient food systems and markets that benefit both farmers and consumers. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition conducted an initial review of CFAP details released today and found several deficiencies that will limit the effectiveness of the program and the opportunity for many farmers to be compensated fairly for their losses.

The Generosity Of Agriculture

May 19, 2020 By Kerry Hoffschneider, Indianz. Create! Debt, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Meatpackers

The generosity of agriculture and the potential for farmers, ranchers and all people to act in more selfless fashions can be found amongst the chaos of the times if one looks for it closely enough, said Zach Ducheneaux, Executive Director of the Intertribal Ag Council (IAC). Ducheneaux, who works with his family on their fourth-generation ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in north central South Dakota, has experienced the challenges and successes of the current food system in this nation firsthand. He took the time to tell an important story to help inspire more goodwill and problem solving in the wake of tumultuous times. “Even in these times of uncertainty, collapsing markets and few signs of hope on the horizon – farmers, ranchers, some government officials, nonprofits and Tribal Nations are thinking of ways to serve others first,” Ducheneaux began.

The Great Potato Giveaway

May 17, 2020 David Ryder and Christopher Walljasper, Reuters. Create! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Hunger, Recession

Auburn, Washington - When Tina Yates pulled her truck up to a mall in western Washington state on Thursday, workers waved her past hundreds of cars waiting to pick up free russet potatoes. “You get a VIP pass!” Yates, a bus driver in her 50s, said the workers hollered, as she loaded 1,800 pounds (816 kg) of potatoes into her gray Chevy Silverado, bound for the Salvation Army, local food banks and homes throughout western Washington. Giving away food is just one example of how people around the world are adjusting to the strain the coronavirus pandemic has put on supply chains, as restaurants, schools and hotels close. With unemployment soaring, demand from food banks is rising fast at the same time farmers have fewer outlets to sell their crops.

Day Of Reckoning Dawns For Industrial Livestock Farms

April 29, 2020 Mark Heller, E and E News. Educate! Big Ag, COVID-19, Farmers, Meatpackers, Trump

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing livestock farms and grocery stores to consider whether the meat industry is primed for a new way of doing business. Critics of industrial-scale livestock farming say the evidence has rarely been clearer. Pork processing plants have temporarily closed after workers tested positive for COVID-19. Federal meat inspectors have fallen ill by the dozens, disrupting the operations of plants that remain open. Farmers are suddenly forced to feed — or kill — tens of thousands of animals that can't find a way to market. "This is all being laid bare right now," said Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, an associate professor at American University's School of International Service specializing in global environmental and agriculture policy.

Groups Urge Mnuchin To Ban Large Agribusinesses From CARES Act Aid

April 24, 2020 Friends of the Earth. Create! CARES Act, Farmers, Food and Agriculture

Washington, DC — A coalition of 68 farmer, environmental, and antitrust groups across the country sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin today, urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to ensure that pandemic relief funds do not lead to further consolidation of the food and agriculture industry. The letter urges Secretary Mnuchin to instead invest stimulus funds into farming systems that lift up farmers and rural communities while providing opportunities for diverse, sustainable agriculture systems to thrive. The letter argues that the current food system under the control of a few major corporate players is unsustainable — a reality that the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law late March, provides over $2 trillion in funds to help individuals and businesses weather the economic challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

Midwest Farmers Face Suicide Crisis

March 15, 2020 By Katie Wedell, Lucille Sherman and Sky Chadde, USA TODAY Network. Educate! Debt, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, suicide

One by one, the three men from the same close-knit community took their own lives. Their deaths spanned a two-year stretch starting in mid-2015 and shook the village of Georgetown, Ohio, about 40 miles southeast of Cincinnati. All of the men were in their 50s and 60s. All were farmers. Heather Utter, whose husband’s cousin was the third to die by suicide, worries that her father could be next. The longtime dairy farmer, who for years struggled to keep his operation afloat, sold the last of his cows in January amid his declining health and dwindling finances. The decision crushed him. “He’s done nothing but milk cows all his life,” said Utter, whose father declined to be interviewed. “It was a big decision, a sad decision. But at what point do you say enough is enough?”

‘Frontline Farmers’: Highlights From 50 Years Of Agrarian Activism

January 25, 2020 Lois Ross, Rabble.ca Organize! Activism, Farmers, Food and Agriculture

Depending on the reader's knowledge of agrarian activism in Canada, Frontline Farmers is either an insightful reminder of various campaigns and struggles, or an excellent introduction to agrarian activist history. For all of us, it is a great primer regarding the ongoing issues in Canadian agriculture. The NFU was founded in Winnipeg in July 1969 with more than 2,000 farmers gathered for its first convention. It comprised a merger of several provincial farm organizations from across Canada.

Black Farmers Shut Out Of $10 Billion Medical Marijuana Business

December 7, 2019 By Carolyn M. Brown, Blackenterprise.com Educate! Farmers, Medical Marijuana, Profit, Racism

Now legalized in 23 states and the District of Columbia for medical use and four states — Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska — and DC for recreational use, cannabis is big business. Independent analysts have valued the legal industry at $3 billion and rising to $10 billion when including ancillary trades and services. Cassandra Farrington, the co-founder and chief executive of Marijuana Business Media, puts the industry’s workforce at 60,000. Others sates are expected to follow suit over the next couple of years, putting an end to cannabis prohibition.

Herbicide Warfare Against Gaza Farmers

August 1, 2019 Maureen Clare Murphy, Portside.org Educate! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Gaza, Herbicides, Poison

Israel’s military propagandists are at it again. A video recently tweeted by COGAT, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation, celebrates its efforts to teach Palestinian farmers in the West Bank about hybrid fruits and vegetables. What the military doesn’t boast of in its cheerful short video is its systematic poisoning of besieged Gaza’s most fertile agricultural land. Since 2014, the Israeli military has used crop-dusting planes to spray herbicide along Gaza’s eastern boundary. It has long razed agricultural and residential land along the so-called “buffer zone” to increase its soldiers’ field of vision.

Unfair Food Pricing Is Killing Family Farms And Regenerative Farming

July 2, 2019 By Elizabeth Henderson, Truthout.org Create! Farmers, Food and Agriculture

In February, a dairy farmer friend sent me a note confiding that a few farmers she knows are living on cereal until their milk checks arrive. Yet, the recently released census of agriculture shows that the number of young farmers is growing even as the average age of farmers also increases, and there are uplifting articles about young Black farmers connecting with the land and enjoying the self-empowerment that comes with being an independent farmer. Meanwhile, voices are rising about the central role that regenerative and organic farming can play in a Green New Deal...

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources