Farming

The 9-Percent Lie: Why Are The USDA And EPA Hiding The Fact That Half Of All US Greenhouse Gas Emissions Come From Industrial Food, Farming And Land Use?

July 30, 2019 Ronnie Cummins, Organicconsumers.org Educate! EPA, Farming, Food and Agriculture, greenhouse gases, Land, USDA

The Climate Emergency is finally getting the attention of the media and the U.S. (and world) body politic, as well as a growing number of politicians, activists and even U.S. farmers. This great awakening has arrived just in time, given the record-breaking temperatures, violent weather, crop failures and massive waves of forced migration that are quickly becoming the norm. Global scientists have dropped their customary caution. They now warn us that we have to drastically reduce global emissions—by at least 45 percent...

Iowa Crops Look Like Food — But No One’s Eating

July 26, 2019 Mark Bittman, Portside.org Educate! Commodification, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Iowa

Iowa is unrecognizable from centuries ago, when Europeans took the land for themselves. What were prairie and wetlands are now neatly partitioned grids of intensely cultivated land: the model for the farm as factory. I was in Iowa last week shooting for the PBS NewsHour Weekend “Future of Food” series. There are some good things going on — and you’ll see them in the segment, which will run later this summer or fall — but I left feeling depressed as hell.

We Have The Money To Fix Our Food System

July 12, 2019 By Brian Wakamo, Otherwords.org Create! Farming, Food and Agriculture, Labor, New Economy

Poverty is expensive, but fixing it doesn’t have to be — at least not compared to the status quo. The Institute for Policy Studies and the Poor People’s Campaign recently released a Moral Budget, and it’s a veritable treasure trove of illuminating data proving that point. They propose we could easily cut $350 billion from the annual military budget — which would still leave us with a bigger budget than China, Russia, and Iran combined — and raise $886 billion by enacting fair taxes on the rich and corporations.

Taking Farmers For A Ride

May 30, 2019 By Ben Lilliston, Commondreams.org Educate! Farming, Food and Agriculture, Trump Administration

Over the last year, President Trump has taken farmers on a roller coaster ride that’s finally gone off the rails. Escalating trade fights have kicked farmers, already mired in a five-year slump, in the gut. Now, the administration is working up a new trade aid package, while simultaneously opposing aid for farmers recovering from recent Midwest flooding. What’s going on? If there’s a plan, it’s hard to see from here. Just in the last few weeks, Trump tweeted a dramatic escalation in new tariffs on China, which immediately announced an escalation of tariffs on U.S. goods, including agriculture products.

New Study Confirms: Degenerative Food & Farming System Poses Mortal Threat

January 30, 2019 Ronnie Cummins, Organicconsumers.org Educate! Farming, Food and Agriculture, New Economy

A new study calling for a “radical rethink” of the relationship between policymakers and corporations reinforces what Organic Consumers Association and other public interest groups have been saying for years: Our triple global crises of deteriorating public health, world hunger and global warming share common root causes—and that the best way to address these crises is to address what they all have in common: an unhealthy, inequitable food system perpetuated by a political and economic system largely driven by corporate profit.

Why Sustainable Agriculture Should Support A Green New Deal

January 2, 2019 Elizabeth Henderson, Thepryingmantis.wordpress.com Create! Environment, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Sustainability

“For Sale” signs have replaced “Dairy of Distinction” on the last two dairy farms on the road I drive to town. The farm crisis of the 1980’s that never really went away has resurfaced with a vengeance. In 2013, aggregate farm earnings were half of what they were in 2012. Farm income has continued to decline ever since. The moment is ripe for the movement for a sustainable agriculture to address the root causes. Just as in the 80’s, a brief period of high commodity prices and cheap credit in the 2010’s resulted in a debt and asset bubble. Then prices collapsed. Meanwhile, ever larger corporations have consolidated their dominance in the food sector resulting in shoppers paying more, and a shrinking portion of what they pay going to farmers.

U.S. Taxpayers On The Hook For Insuring Farmers Against Growing Climate Risks

January 1, 2019 Georgina Gustin, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Farming, Taxes

Like every Midwestern farmer, Jerry Peckumn relies on a few things going right every season. Rain, but no deluge. Sunshine, but no heat wave. A timely cycling of the seasons. Peckumn is a progressive, conservation-minded farmer who's deeply concerned about the impact of the changing climate on his farm. He knows nature isn't controllable and the weather is getting more erratic. So, like hundreds of thousands of American farmers, he relies on federal crop insurance.

Fairness For Farmers—Consumers Hold The Key

September 28, 2018 Julie Wilson, Organicconsumers.org Strategize! Fair Trade, Farming, New Economy

Not all fair-trade certification labels are created equal, according to a new report by the Fair World Project (FWP). The report breaks down the various definitions of the most common fair-trade certifications, and the role verification programs play in the global fair trade movement. “Fairness for Farmers: A Report Assessing the Fair Trade Movement and the Role of Certification,” identifies the fundamental differences between six fair trade product labels. It also emphasizes the importance of purchasing fair-trade certified products to ensure farmer fairness and to combat power imbalances often seen within global supply chains. The report states: Small-scale farmers face many threats including land grabbing, unfair trade agreements, lack of government and technical support, low and volatile prices, uneven wealth distribution, corporate control of the food system, and climate change.

Farmers In America Are Killing Themselves In Staggering Numbers

June 29, 2018 By Irina Ivanova, Cbsnews.com Educate! Farming, Murder

"Think about trying to live today on the income you had 15 years ago." That's how agriculture expert Chris Hurt describes the plight facing U.S. farmers today. The unequal economy that's emerged over the past decade, combined with patchy access to health care in rural areas, have had a severe impact on the people growing America's food. Recent data shows just how much. Farmers are dying by suicide at a higher rate than any other occupational group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The suicide rate in the field of farming, fishing and forestry is 84.5 per 100,000 people -- more than five times that of the population as a whole. That's even as the nation overall has seen an increase in suicide rates over the last 30 years.

We Subsidize The Wrong Kind Of Agriculture

June 26, 2018 By Brian Wakamo, Inequality.org Create! Farming, Food and Agriculture, Subsidies

Summer: the season of barbecues, baseball games, and backyard fun. It’s also the time of year when the American farming industry comes into full swing producing the crops we hold near and dear. The pastoral ideal of golden fields of corn and wheat is what comes to mind for most people, and they’d be on the right track. Corn, soybeans, and wheat are the three biggest crops grown in this country, and — along with cows, pigs, and chicken — make up the bulk of our farming output. There’s a reason for this: The federal government heavily subsidizes those products. In fact, the bulk of U.S. farming subsidies go to only 4 percent of farms — overwhelmingly large and corporate operations — that grow these few crops. For the most part, that corn, soy, and wheat doesn’t even go to feed our populace. More of it goes into the production of ethanol...

Dangerous Liaison: Industrial Agriculture And The Reductionist Mindset

May 20, 2018 Colin Todhunter, Global Research. Create! Agroecology, Farming, Food and Agriculture

A minority of the global population has access to so much food than it can afford to waste much of it, while food insecurity has become a fact of life for hundreds of millions. This crisis stems from food and agriculture being wedded to power structures that serve the interests of the powerful global agribusiness corporations. Over the last 60 years, agriculture has become increasingly industrialised, globalised and tied to an international system of trade based on export-oriented mono-cropping, commodity production for the international market, indebtedness to international financial institutions (IMF/World Bank).

Enabavi Banishes Chemicals For Rich Organic Rewards

December 28, 2017 By Chithra Ajith, villagesquare.in Create! Farming, Food and Agriculture

There was a time when Enabavi was just another impoverished village in the arid plains of Warangal in Telengana, full of frustrated farmers, some of whom committed suicide to escape indebtedness and penury. But the tiny village of 52 households refused to give up and banded together to change their fate. In 2006, it created agrarian history by becoming the first village in Telengana to be fully organic and entirely free of pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified crops. Since then, thousands have visited Enabavi to draw inspiration from its sustainable lifestyle, which was crowned by an appearance on Sathyameva Jayathe, a popular TV talk show hosted by film star Aamir Khan.

America’s Farmers Killing Themselves In Record Numbers

December 11, 2017 Debbie Weingarten, theguardian.com Educate! Farming, Food and Agriculture, mental health

Rosmann, an Iowa farmer, is a psychologist and one of the nation’s leading farmer behavioral health experts. He often answers phone calls from those in crisis. And for 40 years, he has worked to understand why farmers take their lives at such alarming rates – currently, higher rates than any other occupation in the United States. Once upon a time, I was a vegetable farmer in Arizona. And I, too, called Rosmann. I was depressed, unhappily married, a new mom, overwhelmed by the kind of large debt typical for a farm operation. We were growing food, but couldn’t afford to buy it. We worked 80 hours a week, but we couldn’t afford to see a dentist, let alone a therapist. I remember panic when a late freeze threatened our crop, the constant fights about money, the way light swept across the walls on the days I could not force myself to get out of bed. “Farming has always been a stressful occupation because many of the factors that affect agricultural production are largely beyond the control of the producers,” wrote Rosmann in the journal Behavioral Healthcare. “The emotional well-being of family farmers and ranchers is intimately intertwined with these changes.”

Food Should Be A Commons, Not Capitalism

December 10, 2017 Claire Luchette, www.CivilEats.com Create! Farming, Food and Agriculture

No consumer, farmer, or activist participates in the food system without also participating in capitalism. To Eric Holt-Giménez, the director of Food First, this is a basic truth that’s too often overlooked in the struggle to change our broken food system. In his new book, A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism, Holt-Giménez delineates the basic truths of capitalism and how they are connected to the history of our food system. Part history book, part practical guide, the book links many of the injustices associated with food to other inequities, arguing that capitalism fuels and is fueled by oppression. If we better understand “the rudiments of how capitalism operates,” he explains, “we can better grasp why our food system is the way it is, and how we can change it.” Civil Eats spoke with Holt-Giménez recently about the book, the current food crisis, and the future of food activism.

Chocolate Barons Devastate National Parks In West Africa

October 23, 2017 Davis Harper, www.ecowatch.com Create! Africa, Capitalism, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Ghana

By Davis Harper for Eco Watch - For several years, chocolate barons have devastated forests to make room to plant cocoa, a crop that naturally grows in shade. Now, a report from Mighty Earth—a nonprofit that works to conserve threatened landscapes—shows new evidence that illegal deforestation is occurring in protected areas; specifically, in the national parks of West Africa. The Ivory Coast and Ghana produce a combined 2.6 million tons of chocolate—60 percent of the world's supply. It's no wonder so many of these nations' protected lands are at risk. According to Mighty Earth's report, 10 percent of Ghana's tree cover has been replaced by cocoa monocultures. The Ivory Coast, once heavily forested and extremely biodiverse, has lost seven of its 23 protected areas to cocoa. Due to habitat loss, its chimpanzees are now endangered, and its elephants are nearly extinct. This means that companies like Mars, Nestlé, Hersey's and Godiva are on the hot seat for making products using cocoa grown by uncertified sources. "Chocolate companies have taken advantage of corrupt governance in Ghana and the Ivory Coast to deforest parklands," saic Glenn Horowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth. With a rising demand for the world's guiltiest pleasure, chocolate companies are also taking advantage of farmers—on average, these growers are paid less than 80 cents a day.

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