To Allow Farmers to Keep Farming and to Sustain Rural Communities
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The | Vol. 3.1 May 2000 |
| Tobacco Communities Project To Allow Farmers to Keep Farming and to Sustain Rural Communities |
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Creative
Marketing of Livestock Adding value can take on several different forms, offering the opportunity to become creative with production and marketing. Consumers today are more concerned than ever with food safety and production practices. For some farmers, producing "natural" or organically grown meats and products work well (For more information, ask us for copies of RAFI's information packets on Alternative Livestock Production and Organic Certification; ATTRA (800-346-9140), from which several examples in this article are taken, also offers excellent materials on alternative livestock marketing).
For other growers, raising different types or breeds of livestock may offer viable alternatives. Started by six Utah hog producers, Gorditos Meats supplies pork to 10 Hispanic markets. After talking with local people, the producers determined that there was a large Hispanic population in Utah that wasn't getting what it wanted. What they preferred was a smaller whole pork carcass, with the skin, head, and feet intact. Gorditos Meats teamed up with two custom slaughterers and now offers three different product lines. Choices for marketing vary depending on location, the amount of product available, and the amount of time a farmer has to devote to marketing. Often, farmers' markets are a good setting to sell meats and other products. If meats are to be sold in this manner, the animals must be slaughtered at an approved slaughter house, properly labeled, and kept frozen at all times (for more information on regulations, contact David Marshall of the NCDA Food and Drug Protection Division at 919-733-4136).
WANTED:
Conservation Plants Increased supplies of the following plants are needed: WOODY PERENNIALS: Shrub dogwoods, Inkberry, Virginia sweetspire, willows. HERBACEOUS PLANTS: Sericea lespedeza, roundhead lespedeza, Maximillian sunflower, Jersusalem artichoke GRASSES: native warm season grasses (switchgrass, indiangrass, big bluestem, and little bluestem), slender spikegrass, beaked panicum, river oats. NRCS has foundation stock of shrub dogwood, sericea lespedeza, and Maximillian sunflower for sale. Other species will require more effort and creativity to obtain. The plant materials office can give help in locating wild populations (or stocks for sale) of the other plants mentioned. NRCS can give some assistance in marketing these plants. They are often contacted by local project sponsors looking for plant materials, and they will forward the name of growers to prospective buyers. There also might be possibilities of growing certain plants on consignment for an existing nursery. Warning: Native plants are an unusual enterprise. Wild collecting, production, and marketing are all "trial-and-error" learning experiences. However, for a grower looking for a unique niche of a product in high demand, which doesn't require a large initial capital investment, this may be for you. If you would like more information, contact Gerry Cohn at cohn@rafiusa.org.
THE BURLEY WORLD: How Contracts Will Work in Kentucky This past winter, the burley world was shocked by a dramatic cut in purchase intentions, resulting in a 45 percent basic quota reduction. Coupled with this was the announcement by Philip Morris USA that they would begin to contract directly with growers for a significant portion of their burley leaf this year, bypassing the traditional auction system. Though companies have not committed to how much poundage they are planning to buy on contract this year, estimates by observers of the burley world estimate that one third of the leaf will never make it to the warehouse floor. The Tobacco Communities Project has obtained a copy of the contract that Philip Morris USA is offering Kentucky growers. The contract contains the following provisions:
No mention is made in the contract of the nitrosamine question that is facing all tobacco farmers in the present growing season. Unlike the flue-cured world which is focused on the curing process, reduction of nitrosamines in burley will require altered production practices all the way from the seedling to the factory stage.
In response to Philip Morris' decision to begin bypassing the auction system and begin contracting directly with burley farmers, Kentucky lawmakers have begun to debate legislation which could offer protections to farmers and tobacco growing communities. The Tobacco Farmers Protection Act, Senate Bill 385, was introduced by Sen. Ernie Harris in March to level the playing field for farmers in their contract arrangements with tobacco companies . The Senate proposal included specific requirements which would:
The bill, which received the support of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association and was opposed by Philip Morris, never made it out of committee in the Kentucky Senate. Instead, a much weaker version of the Tobacco Farmers Protection Act was included as an amendment to SB 49. The current version of this bill, which was agreed upon by a House-Senate conference committee, instructs the Tobacco Task Force to "study issues involving burley tobacco growers who contract to grow their crops for companies rather than sell their tobacco at auctions" and to make recommendations to the legislature by Dec. 15. House members wanted to require tobacco companies to negotiate a model contract which could be used as a voluntary standard of comparison for growers, but Senate members rejected this compromise after intense lobbying by Philip Morris. On the federal level, H.R. 2830, the Family Farmer Cooperative Marketing Amendments Act of 1999, provides a series of protections for farmers attempting to negotiate fair contracts with processors. Marcy Kaptur (D - Ohio), the sponsor of this legislation, states that "a fair and efficient agricultural marketplace depends on an appropriate bablance of market power between producers and processors." According to Dan Looker, the Business Editor of "Successful Farming" magazine, "If farming continues to move toward contractual "supply chains," this could be the most important farm law of the twenty-first century." For more information on contracts in agriculture, contact project staff.
Eleven Numbers 13.8 billion: Federal, state, and local excise tax revenues (in dollars) from cigarette sales in 1997. 10: Increase (in cents) in federal excise taxes on a pack of cigarettes since January 1998. 102: Increase (in cents) of the wholesale price of a pack of cigarettes since January 1998. 7: Percent reduction in U.S. tobacco consumption in 1999. 17: Percent reduction in domestic purchase intentions for 2000. 52 million: Pounds of leaf for consumption imported from Jan-Sept 1998. 104 million: Pounds of leaf for consumption imported from Jan-Sept 1999. 57: Percentage of U.S. leaf in American-made cigarettes in 1998. 50: Estimated reduced cost (in cents) of a pound of tobacco to manufacturers if the tobacco program is eliminated. 6 billion: Pounds of tobacco grown in the U.S. in 1999. 3 billion: Estimated annual cost savings (in dollars) to manufacturers if the tobacco program is eliminated.
Seven Questions 1. Why are the leading manufacturers now encouraging FDA regulation of tobacco? 2. If all tobacco delivered under contract must be baled, bar-coded, and from a single farm, who will be responsible for any future lawsuits resulting from the use of that tobacco? 3. How many smokers have you heard requesting tobacco cured with indirect heat? 4. Will farmers receive more on the warehouse floor this year for tobacco cured with indirect heat? 5. Did you receive more for your baled tobacco last year? 6. If the tobacco program is voted out, do you think contracts offered to growers would look any different than they do this year with an auction option out there? 7. If the tobacco program is voted out and the Stabilization cooperative dissolved, how much would manufacturers have to pay for the 192 million pounds of tobacco now in the pool?
MIDWEST CHURCHES SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS IN CRISIS For the past thirty years, Catholic churches in the Cincinnati Archdiocese have made successful community-wide efforts to help local farmers in crisis. Because of their leadership, local banks, businesses, newspapers, and schools have joined churches of all denominations in a search for answers to help troubled local family farmers find a way to stay in business and to preserve disappearing forests and fields. One very important community activity Midwest churches have been doing benefits future generations as much as it does present farmers and community members: farmland preservation. In the Midwest, churches have taken the lead in educating their communities about the use of agricultural districts, conservation easements, and other tools to preserve farmland and provide much-needed tax-breaks for family farmers wanting to remain in agriculture. A Wake County church assisted farmer Kenneth Barnes in starting a Community Supported Agriculture Project; a retired farmer provided idle land and equipment, and congregants bought subscriptions to the farmer's harvest, enabling him to have advance cash before planting and a guaranteed weekly clientele for his fresh produce. One of the most valuable ways churches can help farmers is to lead local efforts to help pass badly needed agricultural contract reform. Around the country, more family farmers are having to sign contracts with a large processor or integrator in order to survive. Unless the playing field is level, more independent farmers are going to end up as tenant farmers with no access to the market in the new global economy. Farmers are no longer numerous enough to pass needed legislation without help from their non-farmer communities. Churches in both urban and rural areas can invite local farmers to speak about issues of concern to producers. Finally, Midwestern churches have supported farm stress counselors like Roger Hannan, who came to North Carolina workshops last December to train ministers and mental health professionals in dealing more effectively with farmer depression and family stress. Trained lay persons and clergy in your community can sometimes mean the difference between life and death for farmers facing hard times. Roger will be returning to North Carolina for additional training June 26-28; watch for details in the next newsletter.
For more information on the Tobacco Communities Project, contact Gerry Cohn (cohn@rafiusa.org )
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