At the following link, you will find an article and youtube video covering a farmer's march
as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-farmers-march-celebrates-community-power.html
I'm not sure that 'corporate America' is the demise of the family farmer, given that today some 96% or more farms are actually family farms, practicing modern, sustainable agricultire (see: http://youtu.be/D4ZL7w9q9Jc )
In just this past year we've seen everything from trumped up lawsuits attacking biotech alfalfa, attempts by congress to tell farmers how to market their livestock, threats of requiring CDL liscenses, threats of dust regulation, and now threats of using child labor laws to prevent young people from getting valuable training in agriculture that could encourage their own entreprenuerial ventures in ag, or lead to high paying jobs in science and technology (as many find their way to the lab via the hayfield or corn crop). Regulatory threats and regulatory uncertainty certainly tax the American farmer (and future farmers and agriculturalsts) as much if not more than any other alleged source.
I've written before about how economies of scale in compliance have lead to increased market concentration in agriculture ( http://works.bepress.com/matt_bogard/13/ ) and I urge the OWS people to be careful that they not find themselves tools for more progressive policies that may threaten modern agriculture's ability to sustainably feed the world.
This is a great point. I've read several articles and blogs from real farmers explaining how more "progressive" legislation is putting real burdens on them. Their perspective is that many of these regs are written by people who have no idea what life on a farm is really like.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments! Its really great to get this kind of boots on the ground information from real farmers and others with a direct connection.
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