Crowd gathers to 'bust up big ag'
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/25/2010 9:19 AM
E-mail article | Print version
ANKENY, Iowa — Two hundred farmers, consumers and workers chanted "bust up big ag," in a crowded meeting at the Best Western in Ankeny the day before the DOJ/USDA antitrust workshop.
Sponsored by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Food Democracy Now, the National Family Farm Coalition and Food and Water Watch, organizers said the town hall meeting was put together because the public comment period during Friday's workshop was too short.
"The corporate control of our food system by multi-national corporations has driven independent family farmers out of business and off the land, put unsafe and unhealthy food in our supermarkets, and created dangerous working conditions in our factories," said Barb Kalbach, an Iowa CCI board member and farmer from Dexter. "We're here to send a simple but powerful message to our government regulators and elected officials. Bust up big ag, pass policies that promote sustainable agriculture and local markets and put people first."
Representatives from U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin and U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell sat in the front row at the event.
"When done properly, consolidation can stabilize the marketplace, make food cheaper, and raise standards across the industry," said Mark Lauritsen, vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers. "But when workers and communities aren't part of the equation, it's families and local economies that suffer."
Lauritsen said the diverse group of voices brought to the table by the Obama administration can speak not only to how agribusiness is consolidating, but also why.
"Big box retailers like Walmart are making record profits on the backs of small businesses by asking suppliers to make more with less," Lauritsen said. "When family farmers and packers can't meet those unrealistic demands, they're forced to consolidate. We're long overdue for a system that considers the long-term economic implications of downward pressure from retailers and the consolidation that it causes."
Fred Dauer, a Morgan, Minn., farmer and Garst Seed dealer, said when he started farming 34 years ago there were 50 seed companies.
"At the present time, there are four seed companies," Dauer said. "I don't think we're being treated properly as far as price. When the amount of seed dealers goes down, the competition decreases, and they kind of run the show of what they want for the price. It's way better to have more seed companies involved than to have fewer seed companies and pay through the nose for seed."
Dauer, a Land Stewardship Project member, said he's concerned about his son, David, who just started farming. He operates a small farrow to finish operation raising hogs for Niman Ranch.
"I worry about how he's going to make it with all the concentration in the livestock industry," Dauer said.
"Our whole lives we have watched our small towns and our rural areas become depopulated, and it's about time we turn that around," said Jack Knight, a soil and water commissioner and career organic inspector from Allamakee County. "I will die a happy man if I see that turn around in my lifetime. One of the best tools to help us with us this is the power that farm state senators have. Sen. Harkin and Sen. Grassley have been leaders in farm policy, and I would call on them to lead us back."