Our current agriculture system is not sustainable. Results of the current
farm policies include record low prices, consumer concerns about food
safety, concentration of the food system into the hands of a few corporations,
and a cost to taxpayers of $30 billion last year in a mostly disaster
oriented program.
Current farm and trade policies have failed to increase either exports
or producer prices for agriculture products, reduce consumer prices
or make food more affordable.
Like producers across the globe, small scale and family farmers in the
US face an unprecedented crisis. Hundreds of thousands are threatened
with industrialization of agriculture and collapse of prices in virtually
every kind of crop or livestock product they raise.
The disappearance
of another generation of family farmers, including minority farmers,
will damage our economy and environment. Current farm policy has hastened
the concentration of the ownership of the food system and food supply
into the hands of a few multinational corporations, extracting wealth
from farmers, farmworkers, rural communities, and the land.
Rural communities
across the globe also face increased poverty, low wages in unskilled
jobs, deterioration of infrastructure, and an increasingly fragile environment.
Biodiversity is declining, environmental devastation increasing.
Ongoing discrimination
in agriculture programs and services, and in the marketplace has had
a disproportionate negative impact on minority and other small farmers
and farmworkers, denying them land, the means of production, market
access, and income.
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Our current agriculture system is not sustainable. We the undersigned
organizations support the following package of principles, goals and
proposals that we believe are essential elements of a comprehensive
national food and farm policy. A piecemeal, disaster oriented approach
to farm policy will only exacerbate the problems resulting from our
current fractured farm policy. We urge Congress to assure that all of
these elements are addressed in a wholistic manner and also, to return
to a process of open and democratic dialogue on our food system for
designing future farm policy, a practice that has not been a piece of
farm policy making for over a decade.
Rural and urban
communities across the global lack access to an adequate and affordable
supply of food, facing poverty and hunger in the midst of abundance
concentrated in the hands of a few. In order to restore justice, sustainability
and security to our food system, we commend to you the following principles,
goals and proposals:
The following proposals reflect the specific needs of the diverse groups who
support this agenda.
Comprehensive
Farm and Food Policy - The debate on the 2002 Farm Bill must be democratic
and open to all with a stake in the food system. The resulting farm and
food policy must be comprehensive and assure the needs of all stakeholders,
including those who lack the resources to participate, are met. The policy
should promote bio-diversity and protection of the global resource base
and assure the food security of future generations.
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Fair Price with
Supply Management: Ensure that farmers earn a fair price for their
commodities from the marketplace, not from taxpayers. This should be done
through a no-cost non-recourse loan with supply management. Loan rates
would be set to provide the cost of production, including a valuation
of protecting the land and resource base for future generations, plus
reasonable profit. Supply management options should promote care of the
land and factor in an adequate supply of food and reserves. An adequate
program of loan rates and supply management would help assure more balanced
development on a global scale of small farm agriculture and protection
of the resource base.
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Farmer Owned Reserve:
Create a farmer owned reserve to ensure food security in times of scarcity
and price stability in times of plenty, with uniform storage rates for
on and off farm storage.
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Small Farms of
the New Millennium Payments: Many small and minority farmers, particularly
those with who produce perishable products or seek a diversified operation,
have been unable to access any federal farm benefits. Little investment
has been provided to develop this potentially viable small farm base to
undergird poor rural communities. Under this program, small farmers would
receive flexible, direct payments of $10,000 annually which could be used
for production, diversification, conservation, storage, marketing or financial
management, family needs such as health insurance or other expenditures
to help support the family and the farm operation. The goal would be to
help farmers diversify, adjust their farm operation to the marketplace
and become a viable and sustainable entity that contributes to the economic
and resource base of their community.
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Crop Insurance
and Disaster Payments: The adoption of a comprehensive farm policy
promoted above should dramatically reduce the need for the expensive disaster
payments that have become a perennial feature of current farm programs.
More investments in promoting real risk management should be considered
as substitutes for the current crop program. If any federal subsidy including
single service delivery, is provided to support crop insurance and the
crop insurance industry, it must be modified to serve the needs of farmers
with diverse operations under whole farm rather than crop specific products.
In addition, equitable access to programs by minority and small scale
producers must be documented, monitored, and assured.
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Technical Assistance
and Outreach Program for Minority and Limited Resource Farmers: Minority
and other small farmers still experience barriers and lack of information
on USDA programs resulting in much lower participation rates. The underfunded
Section 2501 Minority Farm Outreach Program established in the 1990 Farm
Bill attempts with very limited resources to fill these gaps. Our research
indicates that farmers who have received assistance from community based
organizations funded through this legislation had higher rates of participation
and understanding of USDA programs than those who had not. The current
Section 2501 Program should be made mandatory and funding authority increased
to $50 million annually.
Eligibility criteria
should ensure that funds are used to support the ongoing efforts of organizations
that have a proven track record of working with eligible farmers at the
grass roots level. Funding levels also need to be increased to meet the
increased demand for the program. In addition to 2501, all agencies and
programs should be provided clear and direct authority to enter into grants
and contracts with qualified CBO's to perform outreach and technical assistance
in every USDA program, particularly where participation remains substandard.
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Minority Farmers
Registry: Will develop a registry of all remaining minority farmers
as a baseline to prevent further land loss and so that programs and policies
can be developed to accomplish this goal.
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American Indian
Agriculture: We urge support for the comprehensive proposals set forth
by the Intertribal Agriculture Council to foster and expand Indian Agriculture.
We also urge full funding for the Indian Reservation Extension Agent Program.
Unlike virtually every farm and urban county in the country, only Indian
Reservations have never been afforded extension services. This program,
which has been consistently underfunded, covers the cost of extension
agents to work out of offices on Indian Reservations, and helps to correct
a longstanding inequity in services. Our campaign endorses the recommendation
of the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
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Equitable Access
to USDA Programs: Currently, the county committees and other local
USDA entities which allocate farm program resources do not operate uniformly
and equitably for all farmers and assure the fair allocation among minority,
beginning and limited resource farmers. Without reforms to make these
entities more responsive and reflective of a county's diverse population,
USDA remains liable for inequitable delivery of services and disparate
treatment of its constituents. Necessary reforms including making minority
advisors voting members, assuring fair participation in county committee
elections, and open and public reporting of election participation and
results. The use of target participation rates programs established in
the 1987 Agriculture Credit Act and open reporting participation in USDA
programs according to race, ethnicity and gender should be reviewed and
extended to all USDA programs on a county, state and national basis.
USDA must use these
tools and others to institute a reliable civil rights compliance monitoring
and enforcement system, and an appeals system, that can be used by the
public and USDA agencies to ensure all USDA programs are fairly serving
minority and other small farmers. Existing programs could address many
of the concerns of minority and family farmers if implementation was not
skewed toward larger farmers and civil rights not violated.
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Access to Land
and Credit: Create loan programs for family farm operations that include
lower interest rates, longer payback terms, direct loans, and only 1 year
of experience required. Eliminate the current system of supervised accounts,
supply debt forgiveness for 3 consecutive disaster years, dollar for dollar
collateral, reinstate lease buyback program, simplify the loan application
process, and institute a 30 day time limit for decisions. Minority, beginning
and limited resource farmers should be restored priority to purchase land
in USDA inventory.
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Rural and Cooperative
Development: Targeted funding should be provided for land based economic
development in rural communities led by community based organizations.
Specifically, funds should be set aside for cooperative development led
by small farmers, farmworkers and other rural residents; and cooperative
ownership of value added processing facilities and land trusts. Other
priorities include funding for credit unions, rural community development,
crossing the digital divide, and meeting the housing, health and educational
needs of farmworkers and all other rural people who have been denied access
to resources for development. Full funding for programs including Rural
Cooperative Development Program, Farmworker and other Rural Housing Programs
and the Technology Opportunity Program under the Commerce Department is
also essential.
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Food and Nutrition
Assistance: Participation in food stamp programs had declined rapidly
despite the fact that there has been a substantially lower reduction in
people living in poverty. It is estimated that 2 million more people live
in poverty and do not receive food stamps today then in 1995. We support
the Nutrition Assistance for Working Families and Seniors ACT which will:
Restore food stamp eligibility to all legal immigrants; End the child
penalty in food stamp law; Increase the minimum food stamp benefit to
$25; Include child support in the existing food stamp earnings disregard;
Expand state options for transitional food stamp assistance; Improve access
to food stamp information; and Increase access to emergency food.
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Protect the Rights
of Farmworkers: Current laws to protect farmworkers must be fully
be enforced, and then expanded without delay to include the labor and
health and safety standards afforded to most other workers in this society.
Most importantly, farmworkers must be extended the right to bargain collectively.
Until such rights are secured in national legislation, industrial operations
including livestock, poultry and mushrooms should be denied the right
to use the current agricultural worker exemptions to existing labor law.
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In addition, the
plethora of agriculture guestworker proposals that have been proposed,
all of which further abridge farmworkers rights, must be opposed, with
support from the family farm community. Immigrants must have their rights
as human beings and workers protected, and the right of legal residents
to receive food stamps and other federal benefits must be restored without
delay.
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Oppose Agricultural
Concentration: Ban packers from owning livestock, moratorium on agribusiness
mergers, prevent packers from paying more to factory livestock operations
than to independent family farmers, all livestock marketing contracts
should be traded on the open market providing equal opportunity for bids
from all producers. In addition, the rights of worker in livestock and
other concentrated operations should be fully protected and the use of
the agriculture labor exemption disallowed.
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Access to Food:
All people should be assured access to an affordable and nutrition diet.
US Food programs, including Food stamps, should receive adequate funding
to assure all needs are met. Benefits, including food stamps for legal
residents, must be restored or extended. Access for small and minority
farmers to provide products for feeding programs should be assured, with
specific outreach funds and authority added.
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Community Food
Security: Programs should improve community food security by promoting
collaborative relationships and the planning and implementation of community
food plans and strategies. Congress should expand current programs and
assure specific outreach and authority for participation by community
based groups serving minority and other small farmers.
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Support Fair Trade
and Democratic Participation in the Construction of Trade Agreements.
Any trade agreement should ensure mutual benefit to and protect the rights
of all citizens, and especially poor people, in all participating nations.
Consideration of any trade agreements, including the emerging proposal
on Free Trade of the Americas, must be open to congressional debate and
ensure democratic participation by all parties who will be affected. Fast
track authority for the President is strongly opposed as it would override
the democratic process and would result in the expansion of an already
exploitative trade agreement (the North American Free Trade Agreement
or NAFTA). Trade agreements and organizations like NAFTA and the WTO,
which advance the rights of corporations while reducing the rights of
all citizens, especially poor people, should be denied.
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