XPost: alt.activism, alt.politics.radical-left, alt.politics.socialism   
   XPost: soc.rights.human   
   From: logos@gnostic.com   
      
   Occupy the Food System   
      
   By Willie Nelson, Reader Supported News   
      
   17 December 11   
      
      
      
   hanks 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.   
      
   From seed to plate, our food system is now even more concentrated than   
   our banking system. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios   
   hovering around 40 percent, meaning that the top four firms in the   
   industry control 40 percent of the market. Anything beyond this level   
   is considered "highly concentrated," where experts believe competition   
   is severely threatened and market abuses are likely to occur.   
      
   Many key agricultural markets like soybeans and beef exceed the 40   
   percent threshold, meaning the seeds and inputs that farmers need to   
   grow our crops come from just a handful of companies. Ninety-three   
   percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the United States   
   are under the control of just one company. Four companies control up   
   to 90 percent of the global trade in grain. Today, three companies   
   process more than 70 percent of beef in the U.S.; four companies   
   dominate close to 60 percent of the pork and chicken markets.   
      
   Our banks were deemed too big to fail, yet our food system's   
   corporations are even bigger. Their power puts our entire food system   
   at stake. Last year the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and   
   Justice (DOJ) acknowledged this, hosting a series of workshops that   
   examined corporate concentration in our farm and food system. Despite   
   the hundreds of thousands of comments from farmers and eaters all over   
   the country, a year later the USDA and DOJ have taken no action to   
   address the issue. Recent decisions in Washington make clear that   
   corporate lobbyists have tremendous power to maintain the status quo.   
      
   In November, the Obama administration delivered a crushing blow to a   
   crucial rule proposed by the USDA (known as the GIPSA rule), which was   
   meant to level the playing field for independent cattle ranchers. The   
   large meatpackers, who would have lost some of their power, lobbied   
   hard and won to leave the beef market as it is - ruled by corporate   
   giants. In the same month, new school lunch rules proposed by the USDA   
   that would have brought more fresh food to school cafeterias were   
   weakened by Congress. Food processors - the corporations that turn   
   potatoes into French fries and chicken into nuggets - spent $5.6   
   million to lobby against the new rules and won, with Congress going so   
   far as agreeing to call pizza a vegetable. Both decisions demonstrate   
   that corporate power wins and the health of our markets and our   
   children loses.   
      
   Despite all they're up against, family farmers persevere. Each and   
   every day they work to sustain a better alternative - an agricultural   
   system that guarantees farmers a fair living, strengthens our   
   communities, protects our natural resources and delivers good food for   
   all. Nothing is more important than the food we eat and the family   
   farmers who grow it. Corporate control of our food system has led to   
   the loss of millions of family farmers, destruction of our soil,   
   pollution of our water and health epidemics of obesity and diabetes.   
      
   We simply can't afford it. Our food system belongs in the hands of   
   many family farmers, not under the control of a handful of corporation   
      
      
      
   +   
      
   Pucker your lips for the Apocalypse!   
      
   Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future   
      
      
   http://johnnyasia.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)