Farmers // Current

Gourd Festival- Boise, Idaho

11th Annual!!!! "The Secret Life of Gourds" is the theme of the 2009 Idaho Gourd... more

amaness
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12 hours ago
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Farmers fight climate bill, but warming spells trouble for them

Farm state senators and others soon will get a taste of what their colleagues from... more

Future_America
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14 days ago
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IBM debuts New Food Traceability iPhone App

This is the start of something big... http://top10produce.com/retailerbenefits.aspx

TOP10PRODUCELLC
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17 days ago
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9 comments

Celebrate the season's best at a U-pick farm

Although farmers markets are no longer chock full of summer peaches, cherries and... more

cutee_leslie
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21 days ago
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Top 10 Produce LLC plans to help small growers increase profitability by putting barcodes on produce

The Produce Traceability Initiative only addresses case-level traceability. Top 10... more

TOP10PRODUCELLC
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21 days ago
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1 comment

The Terminator, not science fiction but science reality

The terminator gene has from day one made the poor farmers that feed the world lives a... more

CarolineS
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29 days ago
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FOOD INC now on Internet

The corporation now threatens every aspect of human life as it gains more control over... more

copperdragon
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29 days ago
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Hispanic Farmers Fight To Sue USDA

n Texas and across the Southwest, Hispanic farmers have been fighting the Agriculture... more

atomiclegion
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1 month ago
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Don't mess with milk farmers

Got MILK?

franksalot
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1 month ago
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2 comments

Rocking Out at Farm Aid 2009!

This past weekend, the OrganicNation.tv crew had the pleasure of attending Farm Aid... more

Dorothee
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1 month ago
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1 comment

'Farming First' in Mozambique: Lessons for African Agriculture and Food Security

Two experts on African agricultural development visited farms in Mozambique ahead of... more

farmingfirst
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1 month ago
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The Future Food Crisis: What Can Be Done?

This is a short (2:54) video looking at looming food crisis which the world faces and... more

farmingfirst
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1 month ago
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9 comments

Farmers protest through MILK!

Farmers angered by collapsing milk prices demonstrated in Brussels on Monday, pelting... more

sophosthegreat
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1 month ago
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Milk farmers’ protests in Brussels get chaotic

Farmers drove hundreds of tractors and a lone cow to the heart of the European Union... more

ajrmy
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1 month ago
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1 comment

Big names in music will take the stage Sunday in St. Louis for Farm Aid

Willie Nelson's 24th annual Farm Aid music festival will feature performances by fellow board members of the organization such as Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews. The all-day concerts happen on Sunday, October 4 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Missouri, in the heart of America's farmlands.

Other performers on the bill include country star Gretchen Wilson, rock bands Wilco and Phosphorescent, and a host of other talents.

Doors open at 12:30 pm Central Time and the show runs until 10 pm. The live show will be satellite-cast via DIRECTV which will match donations through October. The show will also be webcast, streaming live at www.farmaid.org, beginning at 5:00 pm ET.

The organization's goal has been to strengthen family farms in America and support the Good Food Movement, helping to keep families on farms. Through concerts, benefit dinners, ad campaigns, and other efforts, board members Nelson, and the other rockers promote the cause, raising nearly $36 million for programs.

Farm Aid unites farmers, artists, consumers, and concerned citizens. The organization also works on educating about issues that affect family farms such as genetic engineering, food labeling, factory and industrial frame farms, and Mad Cow, Bird Flu and other diseases.

Concertgoers are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items for foodbank collections for hungry families in the region.

Site: www.farmaid.org/events

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The small family farmer is being systematically pushed out by corporate conglomerates.This is an American tragedy. Hopefully money raised will actually go to help small farmers who farm sustainably and who protect the culture and traditions of America.

Boycott Monsanto. Boycott GMOs. Stand up for the men and women who really care about the health of the environment and the body. Those who work with the land and preserve biodiversity instead of stripping it for profit.

To the family farmers who still survive and care about our planet: You have my undying gratitude for your work and sacrfice. Thank you.Willie Nelson's 24th annual Farm Aid music festival will feature performances by... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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13 comments

Documentary: As We Sow /And On This Farm

As farmers leave the land in record numbers, agribusiness and the associated... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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The World Seed Conference: Good for farmers?

Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation – the World Seed Conference. Although the subject may appear obscure, the conference theme and the issues discussed, including plant variety protection and seed improvement techniques, could not be more important to millions of farmers in the developing world.

Between the heavy acronyms and technical terms used by the UN figures, government officials and industry representatives, the conference illustrated two clear themes; firstly, the desire of Northern-based business to continue a process of enclosure of key farming inputs such as seeds by way of technology. Secondly, a push by these same companies (supported by the US and EU countries) for an extension and tightening of intellectual property rights on plant genetic resources into the national law of poorer countries.

Under the guise of innovation and progress, breeding companies suggest that seed varieties developed in laboratories in the North and then sold to poorer farmers in the South can raise yields in crops, increase nutritional values, reduce pesticide and fossil fuels use as well as conserve biodiversity. In the words of one participant at the conference, his company utilised ‘the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind.’

Advocates from industry argue that to safeguard their investment in these manipulated ‘seed innovations’ governments should use a form of legal construction (intellectual property rights) to prevent farmers from re-using and changing seeds that are a ‘product’ of agribusiness. Industry lobbyists also suggest that such monopoly rights should extend to developed plants varieties that business cannot easily control by technology – for example due to natural reproduction.

However, the patenting of seeds, extension of plant variety protection and rollout of a global regime of intellectual property rights for agricultural inputs could have serious consequences for small-scale farmers in the developing world.

Techno-Fixes and Monopoly Control

Firstly, the intellectual property regime that many participants in the Conference wish to tighten and extend to poorer countries (what one participant called ‘the development of a new industry competitiveness on foreign markets’), legally prevents farmers from sharing and saving seeds for later harvests or for future generations.

Under a key intellectual property treaty first signed in the 1960s and last amended in 1991, called UPOV, and the later WTO TRIPS, governments agreed to prevent farmers from saving or sharing seeds with only a few limited exceptions. In countries that have accepted these intellectual property regimes, small-scale farmers have moved increasingly towards the use of imported seeds, suffering from a number of adverse effects including increased debt levels, displacement and worsening food security. Making the situation worse, under intellectual property laws, some governments refuse to subsidise or even prohibit the use of seeds that do not make an ‘official list’ – most often those that were previously shared and exchanged between communities.Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the... more