Farm Issues
Farm Bill: Healthy Food, not Corporate Welfare!
Unless you are a diehard policy wonk, it's tough to get excited about the Farm Bill. But consumers have a bigger stake in this mammoth piece of federal legislation than we may realize. Big Ag's lobbyists fight hard to protect corporate interests, almost always at the expense of consumers. The OCA is here to help you fight for for healthy food and against corporate welfare!
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This week Switzerland’s small farmers announced their support for a nationwide ban on synthetic pesticide use. Switzerland’s association of small farmers, which represents around 8,000 farmers, says that it is possible to farm profitably without pesticides in a way that protects public health and the environment.
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Jeff Hansen’s hog farming is a story that is as old as time. The growth of his CAFO over the past 30 years produced over 5 million pigs brought to market in 2020. Pollution from pig CAFOs sends a steady stream of toxins into the surrounding air and nitrogen and phosphorus into the waterways.
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Tech billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, may seem a strange fit for the role of America’s top farmer. But he’s been quietly amassing massive tracts of U.S. land under the cover of investment firm Cascade Investment LLC, and now owns a minimum of 242,000 acres of U.S. farmland.
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For the first time in US history, members of the House agriculture committee heard from Black farmers on the impact of systemic discrimination by the department of agriculture (USDA).
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Quietly nestled in the latest Covid-19 relief package is a consequential provision that would cancel billions of dollars of debt held by farmers of color—a move that would provide long-sought relief to agricultural producers who have experienced discrimination, including at the hands of federal lenders.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not really like attending parliament – except on special occasions. Budget session was one such occasion. Unsurprisingly, he tried to reach out to farmers still protesting at the border of the capital Delhi, against his government’s new farm laws.
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Regenerative agriculture is a global farming revolution with rapid uptake and interest around the world. Five years ago hardly anyone had heard about it. It is in the news nearly every day now. This agricultural revolution has been led by innovative farmers rather than scientists, researchers and governments. It is being applied to all agricultural sectors including cropping, grazing and perennial horticulture.
In
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Fiber farmers stand at a unique juncture of agriculture on the one hand and the world of textiles and clothing on the other.
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While banks and asset managers are promising to divest from fossil fuels, they are expanding investments in high-carbon foods and commodities tied to deforestation.
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When COVID-19 first hit, Illinois farmers Adrienne and Drew DeSutter weren’t sure how the pandemic would affect their lives. Farmers already deal with a lot of uncertainty and lead isolated lives, they said.
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