e-Bulletin
#8
October 2002
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1.
S.2943, Fair Contracts For Growers Bill
A
push is on for more cosponsors and a similar House Bill.
The Fair Contracts for
Growers Act of 2002 (S. 2943), sponsored by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and
Charles Grassley (R-IA), was introduced September 17th and provides for greater
fairness in the arbitration process relating to livestock and poultry
contracts.
S.2943 has been referred to
the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which both Senators Feingold and Grassley
are members. The bill is also co-sponsored at the present time by the following
Senators:
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) - Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman
Tom
Harkin (D-IA) - Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman
Michael
Enzi (R-WY)
Byron
Dorgan (D-ND)
Tim
Johnson (D-SD)
The bill ensures that the
decision to arbitrate is truly voluntary and that the rights provided by our
judicial system are not waived. It specifies that if a livestock or poultry
contract provides for the use of arbitration to resolve a dispute, arbitration
may be used to settle the controversy only if, after the controversy arises,
both parties consent in writing to use arbitration.
Although arbitration is
touted as a cheaper and faster way to settle disputes, use of arbitration by
contract growers has proven just the opposite. Poultry growers have found that
it is far costlier than filing a lawsuit, does not allow for discovery of facts
from company records, relies on arbitrators unfamiliar with confined livestock
production and payment systems, and is written to prevent any further access to
the courts by the farmer.
In the last week of
September, as part of a larger Conference Report on the Department of
Justice Appropriations Authorization Bill, the House of Representatives passed a similar measure to provide
arbitration fairness for car dealers in their contract relationship with car
manufacturers. The car dealer
measure is nearly identical in structure to the Feingold-Grassley bill (S.
2943).
With the House acting to
provide arbitration fairness for car dealers, it is time to step up our call
for arbitration fairness for family farmers as well. What's good for car
dealers ought to be good for farmers. Representatives are being contacted to
introduce a bill similar to S.2943 in the House.
While there's not much time
left in this session before Congress returns home for the elections, the final
days of a session are often marked by the passage of scores of bills. We almost
got this job done in the recent Farm Bill. Now lets finish the job in Congress.
• Please contact your Senator and ask him or her to
sign on as a cosponsor of S. 2943.
• You could also call your Representative and ask
that he/she introduce a similar bill in the House.
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
Representative is or how to get in contact ?
Check
http://www.congress.org/
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2.
Poultry growers win majority on Gold Kist Board
Months of hard work
contacting their fellow Gold Kist growers with ideas for improving their ag
co-op and with detailed instructions on how to prepare ballots for a write-in
vote has paid off. Three contract poultry growers won seats on the Gold Kist
Board of Directors in the recent district elections unseating both the board's
chair and vice-chair.
Gold Kist's contract growers
have sent a loud message to management. They expect their ag co-op to pay
attention to the comcerns of their contract grower members, and they want
assurances that the company is operating in a fiscally responsible way.
Now, 6 of the 9 voting
districts represented on the Gold Kist Board of Directors are in the hands of
contract poultry growers. The following are the newly elected directors, all of
whom will serve three year terms:
Dist. 1 Chris Fannon, NE
Alabama
Dist. 2 Billy Meeks, NW
Alabama
Dist. 5 Fred Gretsch,
Georgia
Next year three more
Districts hold elections : Dist 9 (Michael Davis), Dist. 7 (Doug Reeves) and
Dist. 4 (Jeff Henderson).
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3.
Summary Report: 2001 Tobacco Farmer Survey
RAFI-USA, in cooperation
with Wake Forest University, conducted a telephone survey of 1236 North
Carolina tobacco growers. In the 30-minute telephone survey, growers were
interviewed three times over a five-year period. The survey asked farmers about
their family situation, agricultural production, activities to cope with
changes in the tobacco industry, and attitudes about the future of the tobacco
industry and their options.
What is learned from this
survey is beneficial to those who are trying to create a solid future in areas
in which agriculture is still an important part of rural economies and sustains
families and communities.
Pessimism
The survey shows a great
deal of pessimism about the future of tobacco farming -
·
Most would not
recommend it to their children
·
Most believe that the
tobacco program will be eliminated in 5 years
·
Nearly half expect that
tobacco will not be grown on their farms in 10 years
·
Contracting to grow
tobacco is on the rise (80% this year) though the majority of farmers think it
is not in the best interest of farmers.
·
Lack of capital,
processing, markets, labor, profitability and equipment are obstacles to
increasing income from other farm sources.
RAFI-USA used the survey
results to help us decide how best to support farmers and tobacco communities
during these difficult times of change. From what the farmers told us, we
designed the Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund. The program addresses many
of the barriers and supports farmers who are looking for ways to remain viable.
In four years, the program has supported 17 producer and community
demonstration projects.
Send for the 4 page survey
report by calling RAFI-USA at 919-542-1396 or writing for a copy at RAFI-USA,
PO Box 640, Pittsboro, NC 27312. Copies can also be downloaded from our website
at www.rafiusa.org Look under What's new.
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4. Five
Key issues in Agricultural Lending
This 3 page report by
RAFI-USA considers the following 5 key issues in agricultural lending
practices.
To identify the financing
and debt problems that the above trends cause and to read RAFI-USA's
recommendations for solving the problems, call or write us as listed in section
3 above.
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5. State
seeking compromise on waste cleanup
By P.J. LASSEK World Staff
Writer
10/10/2002
Oklahoma is going to ask
poultry companies to pay for the removal of chicken waste from sensitive
watersheds, instead of forcing them to accept liability for years of water
degradation in lakes and scenic rivers, an official said Wednesday.
State Secretary of
Environment Brian Griffin announced Oklahoma's intention to ask the poultry
companies to take "financial responsibility" as a compromise to avoid
litigation. The poultry companies, Griffin said, "have made it very clear
to us that they will not accept technical legal liability for the action of
their contract growers." "That's a deal-breaker, a line in the
sand," he said. "If we force them to take that liability, they'll
fight that all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Griffin discussed
negotiations between the state and the Arkansas poultry industry during the
23rd Annual Oklahoma Governor's Water Conference held Wednesday at the Adam's
Mark Hotel. "There are a lot of things the companies can do with the
(waste) -- gasify it, pelletize it, or compost it. But first you have to bank
it, get it off the fields to a safe storage area, then get it out of the
watershed," Griffin said. "We don't care how you do it," he
said. "We just want you to take financial responsibility to deal with
it."
Griffin said Attorney
General Drew Edmondson thinks the poultry companies need to accept legal
liability. A legal opinion issued by Edmondson's office last year suggested
that poultry corporations could be liable for pollution produced by their
contract growers. But because Gov. Frank Keating wants litigation to be the
last resort, Griffin said, he has been charged to develop necessary measures
agreeable to both sides that would protect the state's sensitive watershed and
scenic rivers.
Tulsa attorney Charles
Shipley, however, questions Griffin's plan, calling it "weak-kneed."
"Without having the (poultry companies) being held liable for the waste
generated by the contract growers for their industry, I think you get less than
half a loaf," Shipley said. "We avoid actual relief by avoiding the
issue of their liability," he said. "That is why it's a deal-breaker
for them because the companies know it's going to cost them a lot of money to
fix what they have screwed up."
Shipley, who represents a
class-action lawsuit brought against poultry companies for waste pollution to
Grand Lake, likened the situation to pollution in EPA Superfund sites. The
poultry companies "are saying that whatever we've done up to this point,
don't make us go back and fix it. And we're not agreeing we're liable for it,
but as good citizens we'll start financing something that will relieve
pollution in the future," he said.
Shipley questioned what
would happen with the continued pollution effects. "There are still many
areas where the soil is so saturated with the chicken waste that the pollution
will continue to leach into streams for another 15 years," he said.
For decades, contract
chicken farmers have been applying "chicken litter" to pastures as
fertilizer. Excess loads of the nutrient phosphorus, which is linked to the
chicken waste, is blamed for degrading the water quality of Oklahoma lakes and
rivers. One of Tulsa's main drinking water sources, Lake Eucha, has been
affected by the massive phosphorus loads, creating chronic taste and odor
episodes that have cost the city millions to treat.
Tulsa also has a lawsuit
pending against the city of Decatur, Ark., and six poultry companies. Griffin
said past measures taken to reduce pollution in the Illinois River without
litigation have "sadly" not improved the river. "Instead of
seeing an improvement in water quality of the scenic river, we've seen a
deterioration, just the opposite."
Griffin said the state's
approval of a numeric standard for phosphorus, which is set to be submitted to
the Environmental Protection Agency Nov. 1, will force upstream states to do
what is necessary to meet that standard as water crosses the border.
Other measures Griffin spoke
about included having Arkansas accept and develop a poultry regulatory scheme
that requires a registration program and a comprehensive nutrient management
plan for contract growers; development of a phosphorus standard for watersheds
that cross state boundaries; and development of comprehensive watershed
restoration strategies.
P.J. Lassek, World staff
writer, can be reached at 581-8382 or via e-mail at
<mailto:pj.lassek@tulsaworld.com>pj.lassek@tulsaworld.com .
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6. Quotable Quotes
"This business sounds
more like organized crime than agriculture."
From a report by a workshop
recorder at a teach-in on "The Human Face of Globalization: Economic
Violence in the New World Order" and referring to a description of the
vertically integrated poultry industry by Mary Clouse, RAFI-USA. The teach-in
was sponsored by Durham - San Ramon Sister Communities of Durham, NC. Read more
about the teach-in at http://www.durham-sanramon.org/getinvolved.html
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