Just a week before millions of Americans across the country sit down for their Thanksgiving feasts, “Fair Food: Field to Table” launches to tell the story of the nation’s farm workers, growers and advocates of fair food in their own voices, and promoting realistic solutions for a more socially-just US food system.
*Approximately 2.5 million farm workers toil in harsh conditions to harvest the agricultural bounty of the United States, earning near starvation wages of $11,000 annually while risking their lives in one of the nation’s most hazardous occupations.
*The 20-minute piece, which was shot across the United States, is available in streaming multimedia format and can be viewed at: www.fairfoodproject.org
*‘Fair Food’ is one of the few comprehensive explanations of both the serious problems facing farm workers and innovative, workable solutions currently put into action by forward-thinking growers and food businesses.
*While most information about farm worker conditions focuses on the negative, Fair Food educates viewers about the growing movement for a more just food system and ways that farmworkers, growers, businesses, students and advocates and consumers are working to achieve that goal.
*“Fair Food: Field to Table” was created by The California Institute for Rural Studies (www.cirsinc.org) and photographer/writer Rick Nahmias (“The Migrant Project”).
*Additional information resources launching with the project include a dedicated website (http://www.fairfoodproject.org) with links to dozens of farm worker related organizations and advocacy sites, plus an educators’ tool kit.
The Countryside Alliance Crew have released a hilarious 4 track ep of 'rural' covers of hit tunes.
Dizzee Rascal's "Bonkers" becomes 'Wurzzi Rascal's' 'Conkers', Estelle and Kanye West's 'American Boy' becomes 'Astile ft. Cornye Westcountry'. On the flipside, Wileys 'Rolex' gets the country-fied treatment as 'Wellie' with 'Wearin' My Thermals', and the 'Cow Eyed Peas' get all meaty on 'Moo Moo Cow' - that's 'Boom Boom Pow' to those out of the rural loop.
From the Fair Food Project:
FARMWORKERS TODAY: Approximately 2-3 million farmworkers feed our nation every day, working under some of the harshest and most dangerous conditions found in any industry. This is a glimpse into the hard realities that a vast majority of these workers face on a day-to-day basis. For more information on the fair food movement in the US and to see other chapters of this project please visit: fairfoodproject.org.
Parts 2 and 3 can be found at the Fair Food Project's youtube channel
This is horrible. Go to Kiva.org and fight world poverty. I've already contacted them to see if there's anything Kiva members can do to prevent this in the future with micro-lending.This is horrible. Go to Kiva.org and fight world poverty. I've already contacted them... more
First Lady Michelle Obama gave an inspiring speech at the opening of the White House Farmers Market and Twilight Earth was there! Enjoy the photos.First Lady Michelle Obama gave an inspiring speech at the opening of the White House... more
Shelley Pack and Sarah Norton visit their local Farmer's Market, to eat produce without pesticides. And with these girls, nothing ever goes as planned.Shelley Pack and Sarah Norton visit their local Farmer's Market, to eat produce... more
Farmers angered by collapsing milk prices demonstrated in Brussels on Monday, pelting police with bottles and chickens. As shown in the amazing photo spraying officers with milk directly from a cow's udders.
The streets of Brussels were left covered in milk and manureFarmers angered by collapsing milk prices demonstrated in Brussels on Monday, pelting... more
Although farmers markets are no longer chock full of summer peaches, cherries and tomatoes, produce is still available at the region's U-pick farms.Although farmers markets are no longer chock full of summer peaches, cherries and... more
Now that this year's Oscar nominations are out, debate will rage about which films deserved it, which actors should have received a nod, and who should (or shouldn't) win. While these food films flew under the Academy's radar, at least when it came time to nominate, that doesn't mean they all didn't deserve a nod, or at least a closer look.
If you watch all of these films you'll understand where our food system stands today, a little bit about how it got that way, and you'll have some insight into what it might look like in the future. There's a scary, uncertain future built on greed and there's a bright, progressive future built on community. I reckon we end up with the latter, and I hope these films help you make choices to become a part of that future.
Follow link for the list, including a clip from each film.Now that this year's Oscar nominations are out, debate will rage about which films... more
If the main goal of the emergency organic dairy rally that was held yesterday in West Salem, Wisconsin was to catch the ear of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, it was a success. Secretary Vilsack came to the La Crosse Interstate Fairgrounds with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to host a town hall meeting about new Obama administration programs that will affect rural communities, but before the town hall forum began, Vilsack made a surprise appearance at the organic dairy rally to assure farmers that he feels their pain.
Vilsack stood on the sidelines for a few minutes, listening to a couple of farmers describing their struggles, before climbing up to the podium, which had non-perishable food for struggling farmers stacked in front of it. "I would never ever suggest to you that I completely understand the stresses and strains you all are under," Vilsack told the farmers, "but I do have some sense of it."
"We are focusing on rules that will level the playing field so that small- and medium-size producers have a fair shot. We are, as you are, asking questions about how producers can make so little, and how others...can make so much. And we are attempting to take steps to provide assistance to dairy producers across the country."
Secretary Vilsack said that USDA is looking into measures to stabilize prices, and he suggested that USDA would work with bankers to adjust existing dairy farmer loans so that they can keep their farms. He didn't address the question of enforcement until a farmer from the crowd demanded to know if the violators of organic standards would be prosecuted. "I commit to you that we will indeed enforce the rules," Vilsack responded, and was met with applause.
The crowd thinned after Vilsack left, but the farmers that stayed took turns telling their own stories. The press releases promised a "symbolic" milk dump, to illustrate that "the value of their milk has deteriorated along with the value of their farms," but there was no photo op, and I was told that the milk would later be sprayed on a field as fertilizer.
-Mark Andrew Boyer
For more videos and news visit: http://www.OrganicNation.tvIf the main goal of the emergency organic dairy rally that was held yesterday in West... more
In 2008, global food price spikes and four successive hurricanes battered the Caribbean island of Haiti, causing an estimated US$220 million in damage to food crops. Tens of thousands of farmers were left without a means of earning an income and the country without enough food to eat. This short video looks at a special IFAD-funded programme designed to kick-start the country’s food production quickly and the support needed to make Haiti food secure.In 2008, global food price spikes and four successive hurricanes battered the... more
China's vast scheme to channel southern rivers to its parched north faces potentially explosive defiance at a dam where bitter memories and an unsure future are driving farmers to protest the nation-spanning feat.
In Machuan Village, beside the Danjiangkou Dam in central China, hundreds of farmers recently spilt out of crumbling mud-brick homes to denounce plans to resettle them soon for the rising reservoir, which will store water for Beijing, Tianjin and farmland along 1,421 km (883 miles) of canals and tunnels.China's vast scheme to channel southern rivers to its parched north faces potentially... more
If this passes humans may be next to be taxed for the same reasons. Law enforcement may pass on this one as the evidence may be hard to collect, not to mention the containment issues they would face!Saving the planet may put some small family businesses out of business if this $175... more
This is a story I did on a family farmer that got diagnosed with cancer and was unable to harvest his crop. Without the caring support of nieghbors and Farm Rescue he could of lost everything.This is a story I did on a family farmer that got diagnosed with cancer and was unable... more
Every year we can expect to see California in a drought condition, farmers without water and massive forest fires causing millions of dollars in losses. At the other end of the country we can expect to see flooding and millions of dollars being spent through Federal Disaster funds. This plan takes that excess water and just like the Panama Canal we channel it to the western states. This plan put thousands of people to work, while saving billions of dollars in Federal Disaster funds.Every year we can expect to see California in a drought condition, farmers without... more
Consumer demand for organic, fair trade chocolate is helping to revive an entire sector of the economy in Sao Tome. Thanks to an initiative first proposed by IFAD, 1400 farmers on this island 230 kilometres of the west coast of Africa have switched to organic cocoa production and are earning more money as a result.Consumer demand for organic, fair trade chocolate is helping to revive an entire... more
As farmers leave the land in record numbers, agribusiness and the associated industrialization of agriculture continue to expand. The consequences—intended and unintended—of this rapid restructuring of our food system reach well beyond the boundaries of what we think of as “the family farm.” The award-winning documentary short, AS WE SOW, documents the stories of survival and failure in the real heartland, a struggle pitting family against family, neighbor against neighbor, citizens against their government, and small, independent farmers against the giants of global agribusiness. At the center is the land itself: who will control it and how, and at what cost to people and communities, to our health and our environment, and, ultimately, to our democracy.
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This is an American tragedy not only in regards to destroying agriculture as we know it, but also in regards to destroying the culture and heritage of America.As farmers leave the land in record numbers, agribusiness and the associated... more
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
Two experts on African agricultural development visited farms in Mozambique ahead of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh.
In this video, Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, and Dr. Julie Howard, Executive Director of the Partnership to End Hunger and Poverty in Africa, listen to farmers and translate their concerns to the rest of the world.
Policymakers must target development aid in such a way that it captures agriculture's true contribution to the economy. Aid should also aim to build long-term, sustainable growth and improved rural livelihoods.
www.farmingfirst.orgTwo experts on African agricultural development visited farms in Mozambique ahead of... more
