Stop government-backed loans that put farmers out of business.
Download a prinable fact sheet (PDF)
Tell Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack to suspend USDA-guaranteed loans to hog and poultry facilities.
In the last six months, the USDA has bought millions of dollars of pork and poultry products in order to stabilize prices, which are falling because of overproduction.
At the same time, USDA is guaranteeing loans to new and expanding hog and poultry facilities. These loans add to the overproduction problem that taxpayer dollars are being used to fix.
As a result of the over-production problem, many poultry companies are cutting off or suspending contract farmers. Cut off farmers are still responsible for repaying their loans. When a farmer with a guaranteed loan goes bankrupt, taxpayers pay the bank.
When the company needs to ramp up production again, it simply finds a new farmer to get a new federally guaranteed loan, and the cycle starts over.
Guaranteeing loans for new facilities and buying surplus products at the same time makes no sense. It contributes to corporate consolidation and puts existing family farmers out of business. It is an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars.
Tell Secretary Vilsack to stop using your taxpayer dollars to put family farmers out of business.
Sign the petition online or e-mail Tim Gibbons at timgibbons@morural.org with your contact information.
To gather additional signatures, you can print the sign-on letter and fax or mail to The Missouri Rural Crisis Center at 1108 Rangeline Street, Columbia, MO 65201; Fax: (573) 442-5716.
Update, July 2009
The USDA Farm Service Agency has taken the first step by requiring that new loans be for at least three years and contain some protections for contract poultry growers. These new requirements (PDF) will affect the contracts that companies offer to all of their growers, not just those that get guaranteed loans. This is good news!
But we still need more - we need a full suspension on new direct and guaranteed loans to build new poultry and hog facilities.
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