RAFI-USA e-Bulletin
#14 June-July
2003 ********************************************************* ********************************************************** Massive
Cutbacks Shock Poultry Growers By
Laura Klauke, Program Director, Contract Ag Reform
Voiceless
growers
***************************************************** Will Organically Raised Cattle Save the Farm? By Jason Roehrig, Project Manager, Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund
Larry Harris has been farming his entire life. Tobacco, corn, and soybeans grow on his 100 acre farm near Pinetops, North Carolina. Despite a lifetime of experience in working the land, Larry was forced to find an off-farm job a few years ago and lease a lot of his land to other farmers. There wasn’t enough money to be made in the traditional row crops, so Larry was forced to look elsewhere to support a family.
Larry and Patrick began purchasing cattle last year to help supplement income on Harris Acres Farm which they now operate as a partnership. This year they took it a step further. Larry and Patrick received a cost-share grant from RAFI’s Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund in March to assist with the development of a grass-fed, organic beef operation.
"The financial returns in farming are not immediate. Before the grant, our herd was small and our financial resources required us to be selective in how we raised our cattle. We are now able to provide higher quality pasture and a more efficient grazing method so we can boost our calf weights and profits," Patrick explains.
The Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund is helping with some of the start-up costs like fencing and development of a marketing website. It’s also helping Larry and Patrick gain access to technical assistance from other farmers and researchers. Through an intensive, rotational grazing system, Larry and Patrick expect to be able to graze 12 months out of the year, eliminating the costs of supplemental feed. No corn, no hay just 100% organic, grass-fed beef.
While
they are still a few years away from being able to market as organic,
Patrick and Larry see organic production as a good way to get a premium
price for their product. Patrick points out that "trends in customer
demand show that the average buyer is willing to pay more for a healthy
alternative."
The project is the first of its kind in eastern North Carolina and has generated a lot of interest from the agricultural community. Originally, Larry and Patrick had assumed that they would need to use grant funds to purchase seed for the new pastureland. But when Dave Taylor of Pennington Seeds found out about RAFI’s support of the project, he saw it as a good opportunity for his company to get in on the ground floor of an innovative new enterprise. Pennington Seeds has donated the seed for the project and provides invaluable technical support.
Larry and Patrick have made efficient use of the cost-share grant, shaping a corral from scrap irrigation pipe, purchasing a used scale, and trading work for the use of a seed drill. As time goes on, they will be conducting workshops to talk about the lessons they are learning from the project.
Neighbors watch and wait, wondering if grass-fed beef is part of the answer to the region’s agricultural woes. In an area that has had three agricultural disasters in the last five years, and with the peanut program gone and tobacco looking as if it’s not far behind, one might expect farmers to be frustrated. But as the herd of Senepol cows moves onto the lush new stand of millet for the first time, it’s hard not to share some of Larry and Patrick’s optimism for the future. ********************************************************* Fair Contract Legislation Needs Your Help
The Fair Contracts for Growers Act of 2003 (S. 91), introduced by Senator Grassley (R-IA) would amend title 9, US Code to allow the use of arbitration to resolve a controversy as provided for under a livestock or poultry contract only if, after the controversy arises, both parties consent. The Act also directs an arbitrator to provide to the parties a written explanation of the factual and legal basis for an award.
S.91 has been read twice and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT). The following U.S. Senators have signed on as co-sponsors: John Edwards, D-NC; Michael Enzi, R-WY; Russell Feingold, D-WI; Tom Harkin, D-IA; Tim Johnson, D-SD; and Patrick Leahy, D-VT.
Last year, Congress passed a measure similar to S.91 to provide arbitration fairness in contracts between car dealers and car manufacturers. Likewise, the Senate passed by a 64 to 31 vote an amendment to the Senate farm bill that was basically the same language as S.91. (The amendment was dropped in the conference report.)
To see how your Senator voted on the arbitration fairness amendment to the Senate farm bill, go to -http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00366. A "yes" vote was in support of contract fairness.
Action Needed: Please call your Senators. Ask that they support fairness for farmers by co-sponsoring S.91
If you know your Senators’ names, you can call the capital switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected. Not sure who your Senators are? Check www.congress.org.
For
more information on fairness in arbitration and on how local and state
organizations can participate in the Campaign for Contract Agriculture
Reform, contact: Laura Klauke, Director, Contract Agriculture Reform
Program ; ph: 919-845-4615 or email: laura@rafiusa.org
Check
our website:
For
the text of the Fair Contracts bill, search for S.91 at http://thomas.loc.gov
The Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled on June 26, 2003 that Sanderson Farms, Inc. (Sanderson) - one of the top seven poultry producers in the United States - wrongfully denied family farmers Roy and Nelda Gatlin of Jones County, Mississippi, the right to have their day in court, when the company terminated the couple’s production contract prematurely, then breached its promise to pay half of the $11,000 estimated costs for an arbitration hearing.
"The Court’s decision, in both the majority and dissenting opinions, shows that arbitration should be used as an alternative method for resolving disputes, not as a weapon for depriving people of a forum for resolving disputes," said J. Dudley Butler of Jackson, Mississippi, co-lead counsel for the Gatlins. "Arbitration is a valuable tool when properly used, but is all too often abused by corporations seeking to insulate themselves from defenses such as fraud, duress, and unconscionability. Arbitration should be permitted only when the parties knowingly and voluntarily agree to it; it should not be imposed through power and chicanery."
International Survey Addresses Social Justice In Ag Issues? By Michael Sligh, Program
Director, Just Foods
What the survey is about
We seek to keep this as open as possible.Issues such as access to land and fair trade for farmers as well as worker rights and gender equity issues are examples of what social justice and social accountability address but this list is not exclusive. We are interested in learning about standards-based approaches that may involve informal or formal forms of verification or certification as well as other approaches such as capacity building, market access, research and advocacy activities.
If you are a farmer, farmer organization, NGO, certification body, trader, retailer, trade union or worker representative, inspector/auditor, researcher, consultant or anyone else involved in addressing social justice and social accountability issues in organic or sustainable agriculture or in the food sector more broadly, please take a few minutes to complete this survey. We appreciate it.
The survey is entirely voluntary. If you complete and send in this survey, we will understand that you agree to participate in this activity.
How the survey will be used The results of this survey will be used to better plan for a strategic meeting for strengthening social justice in organic and sustainable agriculture to take place just before the IFOAM trade conference in Bangkok in early November 2003.
The
results will be used to prepare a public presentation at the November
meeting and a written paper/publication for widespread dissemination.
If you would like to receive a copy of the results, please make sure to fill in your contact details on the last question of the survey and we will send you a copy.
You
can find the survey on the Internet at: http://regnet.anu.edu.au/social_survey/index.htm. Fill it out online or download a copy and send it to: socialsurvey@anu.edu.au
or
send it by mail to:Sasha Courville, Australian National University, RegNet, 1st Floor, University House, Canberra, 0200, ACTb, Australia. Resources
Fair contracts + state contract laws
The contract follows the guidelines set out by the Nat'l Assoc. of Attorneys General in their model Producer Protection Act in 2000 which was based largely on existing Minnesota and Iowa statutes. The contract contains many of those provisions including plain language throughout and a material risk disclosure as the front page.
For
a copy of the Jennie-O contract go to the Iowa Attorney General's Website:
http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/ag_contracts/ Scroll down to the Jennie-O contract, which is marked as NEW. While you are there, also check out the MBA Contract for the Smart Chicken raised in Nebraska by contract growers.
For an explanation of the provisions of Minnesota and Iowa contract laws, see "Livestock Production Contracts: Risks for Family Farmers", by David Moeller, Farmers Legal Action Group, Inc. at www.flaginc.org under "Publications." This 13 page document was written on behalf of the Campaign for Family Farms, Taking Action on Corporate Power in Agriculture, 2003.
Plant Closures
The hardcover book is available at a discount price of $16.65 per copy (shipping $4.50 for the first book and an additional $1 per book thereafter; Illinois addresses must include 6.25% sales tax). Send check or money order to SIU Press, P.O. Box 3697, Carbondale, IL 62901 or phone 1-800-346-2680. Ask for Angela; and please use source code PGN3 on your order, whether by phone or mail.
Plucked and Burned
Poultry
Times:
Editor Chris Hill writes that the book "should be required reading
for everyone in the industry." He also states in a book review
for the Gainesville Times, "(Tomlinson) has fused into the story
accounts of growers and companies that made the news. I recognized several
incidences that we have covered in our publication."
Meat Processing, North America Edition: Editor Steve Bjerklie wrote "I know from more than 20 years experience as an agricultural journalist that its story is quite true. …The industry must heed her call if it is to continue to grow in the future, and I sincerely hope it does."
American
Small Farm, June 2003: Book
review - "Sad as it is, Big Chicken does business at the expense
of farmers, laborers, consumers and the environment. The real lessons
and the sad truths it (Plucked and Burned) brings to light should be
known by all."
The
Southeast AgriPost, Canada:
Staff writer and book reviewer Les Kletke wonders in an article, Could
it happen here? He writes, "(Sylvia Tomlinson) does not condemn
integration for its own sake but rather the loss of competitiveness
that can come with it. She does tell the story of corporations being
able to control human lives." And in his book review, Kletke states, "I have been to visit the poultry
industry of the southeastern United States and tried to interview a
poultry farmer who was organizing local growers to form an association.
The fear in his face when I visited his yard and he thought I was a
company representative was real."
Plucked
and Burned by Sylvia Tomlinson is available from Amazon.com or
directly from Redbud Publishing Co. at www.redbudpublishing.com
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