Binational Family Farm Alliance Forms

FAMILY FARMERS FROM MID-MISSOURI AND MEXICO

HOLD FAIR TRADE PICNIC AND ROUNDTABLE

Propose International and Local Solutions to Challenges Faced by

Family Farmers Around the World

Columbia, MO, 2003 - The Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) hosted
Mexican
farmers on Thursday, July 10th, to discuss the impacts of current farm
and
trade policy on family farmers and rural communities, and to propose
solutions that will address their joint concerns. As a result of
corporate-managed "free trade" agreements such as the North
American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and failed U.S. farm policy, both Missouri and
Mexican farmers are experiencing low grain and livestock prices,
increasing
corporate concentration and declining rural economies. While discussing
the
impacts of NAFTA in their communities, participants showcased
community-based solutions like MRCC's Patchwork Family Farms
project-Mid-Missouri's source for sustainably-raised family farm pork.

Farmers and rural Missourians came together at noon at the MRCC office on
Thursday at 1108 Rangeline Street for a cultural exchange, roundtable
discussion and picnic featuring Missouri family farm products. The public
is invited.

"There's the same winners and losers on both sides of the
border-farmers
and rural communities losing out while corporate agribusiness cashes
in,"
said Howard County farmer and Missouri Rural Crisis Center Program
Director
Rhonda Perry. "NAFTA might be a great thing for the graintraders and
meatpackers, but farmers and consumers are paying the price to underwrite
their huge profits."

As part of the farmer and farmworker movement, The Countryside Can't Take
It Anymore," the Mexican farmers are touring the Midwest to talk
with U.S.
farmers about mutual efforts to impact international farm and trade
policies. The goal of the tour is to help farmers and rural communities
understand how the current pro-free trade policies of our government
actually increase poverty, instability and migration, especially within
the
agriculture sector.

"The NAFTA trade model has failed Missouri family farmers and
ranchers, and
has helped fuel the economic devastation of rural America," said
Livingston
County farmer and MRCC President Bill Christison. "We need a
farm bill
that pays farmers a fair price, creates a farmer-owned reserve, curtails
corporate concentration and provides incentives for the enhancement of
local food systems. That's a plan that family farmers and rural
communities
can get excited about."

MRCC and other farm groups support fair trade and agricultural policies
that could reverse the severe rural depression inflicted throughout the
continent:

a.. Allow countries to prioritize sustaining family
farms and global
food security.
b.. Vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws at the local,
regional,
national and international levels to guarantee competitive markets for
family farmers and strengthening these laws where necessary.
c.. Allow countries to establish domestic and global
reserves, manage
supply, enforce anti-dumping laws, and ensure fair market prices.
d.. Allow countries to ensure the production and
distribution of a safe,
affordable, and abundant food supply to meet their domestic needs and
achieve food security.
"For the Mexican organizations of farmers and peasants that make up
'The
Countryside Can't Take Anymore' movement, it is crucial to carry out this
tour in the U.S.," stated tour participant Emilio Lopez, an
economist
specializing in agriculture and rural sociology. "The reasons are
obvious:
the farmer's movement in Mexico which includes the majority of Mexican
farmers, have been seriously impacted by NAFTA. NAFTA and free trade are
a
silent war on farmers and rural communities in Mexico and in the United
States."

Along with the policy discussions, participants toured Missouri family
farms, sampled Missouri's family farm products, and were presented with
piñatas depicting farm scenes created by student-artists involved with
the
CARE Gallery (Columbia's Art Related Experience).

The tour is being sponsored by the National Family Farm Coalition and its
member groups in seven states: Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota,
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. MRCC is the Missouri member of the
National Family Farm Coalition.

Are U.S. farmers going to export their way to prosperity?

Or have farmers been sold a bill of "free trade" goods?

--Selected Facts and Figures on Trade and Agriculture--

a.. Since NAFTA was put into place in 1994, the overall U.S.
agricultural trade surplus has declined from $22.5 billion per year to
$12
billion, a 47% decrease.

a.. 82% of US corn exports are controlled by 3 agribusiness
firms.

a.. During the first 7 years of NAFTA, Archer Daniels
Midland's profits
went from $110 million to $301 million, while Cargill's net earnings from
1998 to 2002 jumped from $468 million to $827 million. ADM and Cargill
are
two of the main agribusinesses that control the corn trade.

a.. Despite the promises made before NAFTA regarding
benefits farmers
would see from free trade, according to the secretary of Social
Development
in Mexico, there are now more poor people than ever before in history. In
1992, 36% of the rural population was "food insecure". Today
that number
has risen to 52.4%.

a.. Since 1984, the real price of food has remained
constant, while the
price farmers receive has fallen by 38%. In 1999, farmers received 21
cents
on the dollar from food products, as compared to 10 years ago, when they
received 32 cents. These numbers demonstrate how consumers, taxpayers and
especially farmers are paying the price so that agribusiness can earn
record profits.

a.. Since NAFTA was put into place in 1994, U. S. corn
exports have
decreased by 10.4 million metric tons, an 18% decrease.

a.. Since NAFTA was put into place in 1994, the U.S. has
become a net
importer of beef. U.S. beef imports have climbed from 2.1 million live
animals to 3.2 million per year, a 52% increase.

a.. Even the shining star example of increasing exports-the
pork
industry-demonstrates that focusing on exports does not translate into
benefits to family farmers. Since 1993 pork exports have climbed
dramatically, yet the number of hog farmers has declined from 218,060 to
75,350 today, a whopping 65% of hog farmers driven out of raising hogs.
During the same period, consumer prices were up 35% and the farmer's
share
of every consumer dollar was down 38%.

a.. As a result of U.S. farm and trade policy, the average
price of the
8 largest U.S. crops from 1999-2001 was 20% below the average price for
the
1985-1995 period.

a.. In the last decade government payments to farmer have
more than
tripled reaching nearly $25 billion per year. These measures have been
necessary to keep farm income from further decline as a result of bad
U.S.
farm policy. 60% of net U.S. farm income now comes from the government.

International Impacts of "Free Trade"

a.. Since the signing of NAFTA, migration from rural areas
has
skyrocketed. Today 270,000 Mexicans per year migrate to urban areas or to
the U.S. in search of employment.

a.. More than 80% of Mexico's poor live in the countryside,
2 million of
those being corn producers. Before NAFTA, Mexico only imported about 2.5
million tons of corn per year. In 2001, they imported over 6 million tons
of corn. For every 10 tons of corn exported to Mexico, an average of 2
rural residents migrate to the U.S.

a.. Between 1996 and 2001, the number of family farms in
Canada fell by
11% due to government policies that support corporate agriculture, not
family farms.

a.. When adjusted for inflation, net farm income in Canada
has fallen by
24% between 1988 (1 year prior to the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement)
and
2002.