RAFI-USA E-Bulletin
#12 April
2003 ********************************************************* Sen.
Edwards sponsors arbitration bill Peanut
Rootworm Advisory available Advocates
train to cope with farm problems Organic
certifiers sue USDA over appeal rights Arkansas
drops producer protection bill Briefs **********************************************************
Sen.
Edwards (NC) co-sponsors arbitration bill (S.91) Presidential candidate
and North Carolina Senator John Edwards has signed on as a co-sponsor
of the Fair Contracts For Growers Act of 2003 (S.91).
Sen. Edwards serves on the Judiciary Committee to which the bill
has been referred.
Edwards is the first
Senator from the South to put his name on the bill. North Carolina has
over 6000 contract poultry and hog farmers. Hogs and broilers are the
top two cash commodities raised in the state.
Nationally, North Carolina is second in hog production (behind
Iowa) and fourth in broilers (behind Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama).
The Fair Contracts
for Growers Act, an amendment to title 9 USC, would make the use of
arbitration to settle disputes in livestock and poultry contracts voluntary.
It allows livestock and poultry contract farmers access to courts for
civil actions.
The bill also requires
that, if both parties to the contract choose arbitration to settle a
dispute, the arbitrator shall provide the parties a written explanation
of the factual and legal basis for the award.
Other co-sponsors include: Grassley (R-IA), Feingold
(D-WI), Johnson (D-SD) and Harkin (D-IA) Enzi (R-KY) and Leahy
(D-VT)
For more information,
contact Laura Klauke: laura@rafiusa.org And our website: http://www.rafiusa.org ************************************************** Peanut
Rootworm Advisory available A new tool for peanut
farmers can help reduce their use of insecticides by as much as 75%
without harming crop yields.
The Peanut Rootworm
Advisory was developed over
five years by a team of University scientists & Extension researchers,
Southeastern peanut growers, and the Rural Advancement Foundation International
- USA. It provides farmers with a questionnaire and scorecard relating
to possible rootworm damage for each field. Based on the score, the
Advisory recommends whether a pesticide treatment is warranted, when
and how much.
A Successful Convergence
of Ideas and Work For many years entomologists
at NC State University and Virginia Tech had studied rootworm damage
to peanuts and other crops and were developing information about the
soils, climatic conditions, and other factors that make them a damaging
pest.
Also in the mid-1990's,
RAFI met with peanut farmers to discuss ways to reduce pesticide use
and costs of production for their crops. At first the farmers were skeptical,
but once a small group began sharing ideas, they realized that they
shared a "hunch" that rootworm was a sporadic pest and was
worse in wet years and in heavier soils.
RAFI-USA planned to involve the farmers in the research needed
to check out their hunch.
Extension researchers
in North Carolina and Virginia began investigations into the various
factors affecting rootworm population.
RAFI organized farmers and collected data on more than 400 sites. RAFI staff scouted the fields, gathered
peanut samples and collected data on the farm practices and site characteristics
and shared this "on-the-ground" research with the scientists.
The scientists at NCSU and VA Tech. appreciated the critical
information provided by the farmers for both the research and how to
present it so that they could understand the results easily. The result
of this collaboration is the new Peanut Rootworm Advisory.
North Carolina peanut
farmer David Mayer noted that he now saves $20 per acre by not applying
Lorsban when it is not needed, and in a dry year he saves another $20
per acre on a miticide application.
"That's a huge part of my overall spray bill. I like being
able to make an informed decision," he said.
For more information on the Peanut Rootworm Advisory go to: http://www.isis.vt.edu/cgi-bin/scrRisk
…or contact Scott
Marlow at RAFI-USA: smarlow@rafiusa.org
******************************************************** Advocates
train to cope with looming farm financial problems Family farm advocates
from 14 states, Washington, DC and as far away as California and Texas
attended a three day training session (April 5 - 7) at the RAFI-USA's
Dan Pollitt Conference Center in Pittsboro, North Carolina.
The training was organized
to assist the advocates in dealing with the dire situation for many
farmers this year in the wake of last summer's floods, droughts and
poor commodity prices. The
meeting was built on a training held last summer at the National Family
Farm Coalition meetings in Madison, Wisconsin.
The three day agenda
included overviews of the Farm Service Agency's lending programs, the
National Appeals Division procedures, strategies for writing successful
farm plans, and Chapter 12 Bankruptcy due to sunset June 30th. Time
was also spent discussing policy developments in Washington, as well
as listening to what is happening in the field that could reflect on
those policies.
A group was formed
to start planning the next training, and there was discussion about
forming a network to bring together advocates from around the country
on a regular basis.
RAFI-USA, the National
Family Farm Coalition, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Land
Loss Prevention Project, the Farmers Legal Action Group, Inc., and Farm
Aid organized the meeting. Contact: Scott Marlow smarlow@rafiusa.org *****************************************************
Organic
Certifiers sue USDA over right to appeal Michael Sligh, RAFI-USA
Director of Sustainable Ag Policy and founding Chair of the National
Organic Standards Board, says that USDA is under-cutting the hard-won
definition of "organically grown" as it applies to poultry
by forcing certifiers to allow chickens without access to the outdoors
to be labeled "organic".
The following is
a brief description of the resulting lawsuit written by Jill Krueger,
Farmers Legal Action Group. The lawsuit Massachusetts Independent
Certification Inc. (MCI), a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation that
operates the NOFA/Mass Organic Certification Program, has filed a complaint
over USDA's administration of the National Organic Program. MICI denied
an organic certificate to an egg producer in Massachusetts in October
2002. The producer appealed to the Administrator of USDA's Agricultural
Marketing Service. The Administrator granted the producer's appeal.
MCI then filed a complaint
with USDA's Office of Administrative Law Judges in late February 2003.
In the complaint, MICI objected to the Administrator's failure to adequately
investigate the case, as well as to the Administrator's conclusion that
an egg producer could and should be certified organic when the chickens
had no access to the outdoors, as required by the organic regulations.
USDA's Agricultural
Marketing Service moved to dismiss MICI's complaint. The government
argued that certifying agents have no right to appeal when the Administrator
overrules their decisions in the new organic program, even though their
name must appear on the packaging of any product they have certified
as organic.
In early April, MICI
filed a response opposing USDA's motion. MICI argues that the statute
passed by Congress, the Organic Foods Production Act, requires that
USDA recognize the right of certifying agents to appeal. Both parties
are currently waiting for a ruling from the Administrative Law Judge
on the issue of MICI's right to appeal.
MICI is represented
in its appeal to USDA's Office of Administrative Law Judges by Jill
Krueger, a FLAG staff attorney. Krueger says, "This case is important
because it is about whether organic certification is only a government
program where USDA calls all the shots, or whether it is a public-private
partnership where independent certifying agents have a real role in
determining what is and is not organic under the regulations."
Contact Jill Krueger: jkrueger@flaginc.org
Michael Sligh: msligh@rafiusa.org
*************************************************************** Arkansas
drops contract producer protection bill After passing in the
Arkansas House of Representatives by a whopping 58 to 30 votes, The
Arkansas Swine and Poultry Growers Protection Act was defeated in the
Senate Ag Committee by one vote.
Rep. Sam Ledbetter
introduced the bill after the closing of Tyson's hog operation in Arkansas
left 132 farmers out of work and owing hundreds of thousands of dollars
on their swine facilities. When
the farmers attempted to sue Tyson Foods for fraud and deceit, Tyson
reminded them that their contract contained a clause making binding
arbitration the only means of settling disputes with the company and
denying them access to the court system.
Representative Ledbetter's
bill would have required all contracts to be clearly written disclosing
the material risks faced by the contract growers. It allowed growers
to join associations, to seek professional advice before signing the
contract, and would have protected their right to address a dispute
in the Arkansas courts. The prevailing party would receive attorney
and expert witness fees and other costs of the litigation.
Rep. Ledbetter spoke
for the bill at the Senate Ag Committee hearing. Tyson Foods sent in
a top official to speak last and apparently tipped the vote against
the bill. However, Rep. Ledbetter plans to reintroduce the bill in the
next session.
[RAFI-USA has been
monitoring the attempts by state legislatures to pass protections for
contract producers since 2000 when the National Association of Attorneys
General wrote a model protection act for states to consider. We will
continue to monitor the progress at the state level on the issue of
fair contracts.] ************************************************ BRIEFS: Large-scale
pastured poultry farming in the U.S. Research Brief #64 Center for Integrated
Agricultural Systems (CIAS) UW-Madison College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences This 2 pager provides
detailed information from a survey on whether or not a farm family can
make a living raising pastured poultry on a large scale. The 1997-98
study of farmers growing pastured poultry in Wisconsin and Minnesota
found that such farms must raise many more than 2000 birds per year
to generate at least $18,000 annually in returns to family labor and
management.
Who does the processing?
Where do they sell their birds?
For this and other
information from the study, contact: Steve Stevenson, CIAS,
608-262-5202 ************************************* Have
you read it yet? "Like Coke in
the old 6 ounce bottles, it leaves you wanting more. If you don't raise
chickens, it's a great story. If you do raise chickens, it's YOUR story!"
anonymous poultry farmer.
For mystery, murder, intrigue and good old country living, order
your paperback copy of the novel "Plucked and Burned"
by Texas writer Sylvia Tomlinson at Amazon.com or from Redbud Publishing,
www.redbudpublishing.com ************************************************ Fill in the picture
of the poultry industry by reading the new book by Dr. Leon Fink, History
professor specializing in labor history at the Univ. of Illinois at
Chicago - "The Maya of Morganton". Morganton, North Carolina sets the stage
for this dramatic story of human struggle in the age of globalization.
It tells what happened in that community and to the immigrants when
several hundred Guatemalans arrived to work at the poultry plant there.
The book can be ordered from www.amazon.com
***************************************** No
forest primeval? Watt Poultry USA (April
2003) reports that in Delaware, many environmentalists have come to
realize "that farms that go out of business do not revert to the
forest primeval. Instead they become subdivisions and shopping centers.
This realization has helped lead to a unique level of cooperation between
environmentalists and farmers (including contract farmers) in Delaware."
They want to keep the farmers on the land and farming. ****************************************************************************** Bulletin
edited by Mary Clouse - 919-545-0945 ; clouses64@yahoo.com For
more about us and back issues of the bulletin, see RAFI- USA (www.rafiusa.org
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