Senator Kay Hutchison
Senator John Cornyn
Hi, my name is _______ from _________ (city and/or state) I’m calling in support of the proposed GIPSA rule to create jobs for family farmers and level the playing field. I strongly encourage the Senate to support full implementation of the GIPSA rules as proposed by the USDA and oppose any amendments to the appropriations bill that would stop or delay USDA from writing a final rule. Please tell Senator _____ that I support the new GIPSA rules and care about America’s family farmers.
Thank you.
Urgent calls needed to protect family farmers, ranchers and the local food movement.
We interrupt our GMO labeling campaign to bring you this vital alert!
Farmers and ranchers across the country need your help today more than ever. As usual with Congress, Big Ag lobbyists are desperately working to kill a set of fair market rules that give family farmers fair contracts and keep them from being discriminated against in the market.
The Senate is expected to vote any day on the Agriculture Appropriations bill which will determine if farmers are finally given a level playing field and fair market protections under the rule of law or if Big Ag gets to continue to write the rules in their favor.
Over the past 30 years, giant meat cartels have been allowed to unfairly discriminate against family farmers in the marketplace: paying lower rates, cutting their contracts without notice and even threatening farmers with retaliation when they dare to speak out.
It’s time for these abuses against farmers, which harm all of us, to end. After all, if all the farmers are driven out of business, the only one left to put food on your plate will be factory farms and agribusiness giants.
America’s farmers have been harmed by mergers gone wild!
Today only 4 companies control nearly 84 percent of beef packing while another 4 control more than 66 percent of hogs. Such concentration has diminished farmer profit and increasingly placed farmers at the mercy of meat cartel contracts, which have proven to be abusive if not corrupt.
This rampant consolidation and the resulting anti-competitive practices have needlessly driven nearly a million farmers off the land over the past 30 years. Since 1980, the U.S. has lost more than 600,000 hog farmers and more than 160,000 independent cattle producers in the past 15 years alone. During this time, hog farmers have seen their take home pay cut in half as cattle producers have seen it drop nearly 40 percent.
While bacon and burgers are still arriving on America’s plates everyday, the loss of farmers and farmer profits continue at an alarming rate. The placing of meat production into the hand of fewer producers and packers has gutted rural America of one of its best avenues for job creation while simultaneously stalling its chance for long-term economic viability.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/464?akid=392.297378.UGNaia&t=11
Already in the last year, the USDA has written a set of proposed fair market contract rules under Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) that would make it illegal for packers and slaughterhouses to unfairly discriminate against independent farmers. Unfortunately, those rules have not been finalized and giant meat cartel lobbyists are pressuring Secretary Vilsack, President Obama and the U.S. Senate to weaken these vital rules that would provide fair market contract protections for the first time.
America’s farmers and ranchers are closely watching the decision on GIPSA, hoping that the U.S. Senate will stand up for family farmers because they know what this decision means for future generations of farmers.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/464?akid=392.297378.UGNaia&t=15
Thank you for participating in food democracy — your action today may save family farmers and help free our food supply from corporate control.
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team
PS Thanks for taking action to protect America’s farmers — your support is greatly appreciated! We need your help to keep the pressure on! If you can, please consider chipping in as little as $10 to help us continue this fight.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/donate/133?akid=392.297378.UGNaia&t=18
We rely on folks like you to keep us going. Thanks again for your support.
Sources:
1. “The Obama-Biden Plan” Change.gov
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/333?akid=392.297378.UGNaia&t=20
2.”Corporate Farming: A Reasonable Hope for Fairness”, Center for Rural Affairs, August 2010.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/349?akid=392.297378.UGNaia&t=22
