Help Needed on 2012 Farm Bill: Protect Cattle Market Competitiveness

By Bill Bullard
R-CALF USA

The 2012 Farm Bill process appears to be moving very quickly, so we need the public to help us urge the Senate to include in the Farm Bill both the Livestock Marketing Fairness Act and the Ban on Packer Ownership of Livestock.  These bills will help protect the competitiveness of the US cattle market, by slowing the rapid monopoly concentration of the U.S. feeding industry.

Please call your U.S. Senators this week and urge them to become a cosponsor on both the Livestock Marketing Fairness Act (S. 1026) and the Ban on Packer Ownership of Livestock (S. 2141).

Willie Nelson: Occupy the Food System; Farmers march on Wall Street (videos)

On Dec. 4, farmers marched on Wall Street. Here’s one video of a speech by Jim Gerritsen, an organic Maine farmer, who discusses the class action lawsuit against Monsanto, and a more recent piece by singer-songwriter, Willie Nelson:

Occupy the Food System

By Willie Nelson,
Reader Supported News

Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, there’s a deeper understanding about the power that corporations wield over the great majority of us. It’s not just in the financial sector, but in all facets of our lives. The disparity between the top 1 percent and everyone else has been laid bare – there’s no more denying that those at the top get their share at the expense of the 99 percent. Lobbyists, loopholes, tax breaks… how can ordinary folks expect a fair shake?

No one knows this better than family farmers, whose struggle to make a living on the land has gotten far more difficult since corporations came to dominate our farm and food system. We saw signs of it when Farm Aid started in 1985, but corporate control of our food system has since exploded.