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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Apples· steve urow© 2014 -
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steve urow's garden not· steve urow© 2014
Closer to my Nebraska home, I watch the continuing plunder of the Great Plains¹ Ogallala Aquifer, the largest underground reservoir in the United States and one of the largest on the planet. It once held as much water as Read more
North Dakota to be First State to Issue Licenses to Hemp Farmers
Public Hearing on Proposed Rules Set for June 15
BISMARCK, ND - In a trail blazing move, North Dakota’s Agriculture
Commissioner Roger Johnson formally proposed rules yesterday to license farmers in his state to grow industrial hemp under existing state law. With the backdrop of farmers across Canada planting over 50,000 acres of industrial hemp in 2006 to meet expanding demand for the nutritious and versatile plant in the United Sates, the rulemaking process announced yesterday is an Read more
"Warren Staley, chief executive of Cargill Inc.
"'If it's ethanol and biodiesel, we have to look at the hierarchy of value for agriculture land use: food first, then feed and last fuel,' Staley said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the Society of American Business Read more
WASHINGTON - Florida tomato pickers converged on McDonald's Corp.'s flagship Chicago restaurant over the weekend to protest poor working conditions and wages they say have stagnated for 30 years.
The farm hands, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, want a penny-per-pound pay raise from their employers, growers based in and around Immokalee, Florida. And they want Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's to finance the wage hike by paying more for their tomatoes. The company said it is studying the issue.
Tomato pickers earn about $7,500 a year, the workers' coalition
Read morePRESS RELEASE April 18, 2006
Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy
Press contact
Ben Lilliston
612) 870-3416 or blilliston@iatp.org
Minneapolis - U.S. farm policy geared towards driving down prices for corn and soybeans is a significant contributor to the nation's obesity epidemic, according to a report released today by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
Read moreFrequently Asked Questions About the W.T.O.
Dr. Robert L. Thompson <http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/thompson/index.html ,
the Gardner Chair in Agricultural Policy at the University of Illinois, has provided an excellent recap summary and explanation addressing eight frequently asked questions about the W.T.O., which was posted recently at the University's farmdoc webpage
< Read more
Press contact
Ben Lilliston
(612) 870-3416 or blilliston@iatp.org
New Primer Advises Small-Scale Farmers on Avian Flu Risks Free Range Poultry Farmers Have Unique Advantages and Challenges
Minneapolis - The rapid spread of avian flu across Asia and Europe has heightened concerns that the disease will arrive in North America soon. By acting now, small-scale poultry farmers in the U.S. can reduce the risk to their operation of contracting the disease, according to a new primer by the Institute for Read more
bThe other day, a prominent Canadian journalist paid me a visit to interview me for his book on building a sustainable future. At one point, I expounded on the closed-nutrient cycle of old-school organic farming, contrasting it with what writer Michael Pollan deemed the "industrial-organic" way. In the old-school organic style, which relies on animals, farm wastes are recycled into the soil, providing all the nutrients necessary for the next harvest. The industrial-organic farmer, by contrast, imports his or her soil fertility -- just like the conventional farmer. The difference is that
Read moreFarm Policy Issues
One key and every present issue impacting agriculture is the weather. Although the weather is always unpredictable and changing, a news article from today documented that in some parts of the U.S., the conditions don't seem normal.
Kirk Johnson
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&amp;amp;emc=tnt&tntget=
2006/03/21/national/21drought.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin, writing in today's New York Times, reported on unusual weather conditions occurring mostly in the Western part of the U.S.
"Spring is here,
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