The Farm Bureau is one of the biggest lobby's in Washington, second only to Monsanto, one article says. They have close ties with Monsanto. They are here to promote Big Ag in spite of the grassroots image.
Date: 10/21/2012 11:48:46 PM ( 12 y ) ... viewed 16866 times
"In the waning days of the 2011 Missouri legislative session, Senate Bill 187 was signed into law, limiting citizens’ ability to sue large agribusinesses over the harm their factories inflict on neighboring property owners. The Farm Bureau had been pushing various forms of this bill for years, but with a Republican surge in the 2010 legislative elections and a new crop of freshman legislators, it finally passed. Though its sponsors spun the bill as protection for family farmers, it was, in reality, exactly the opposite. Senate Bill 187 limits the number of times a farmer can sue and caps damages at property value, which of course have decreased after the CAFOs moved in."
Despite its track record, the Farm Bureau insists it has been and always will be the champion of the small farmer and rural America. To those who claim the Farm Bureau has sided squarely with one side, against the interests of many farmers, the Bureau’s Maslyn responds, “I’d say they’ve never been to one of our meetings.”
Christen takes issue, as do a growing number of small farmers: “The point is, operators that raise hundreds of thousands of animals in confinement are ‘industrial operations’ and need to be regulated. And the Farm Bureau is never going to concede to this,” he said. “Their argument and scare tactic was and is: If we regulate the ‘big’ guys, we will have to regulate the ‘little guys’ also. Soon it will be too late, there will not be any family farmers left. But why would the Farm Bureau worry; they will sell their insurance anyway. The billboard in my town reads: ‘You don’t have to be a farmer to insure with us.’ ”
Ran into a number of organic farmers who are thinking of voting No on 37. One told me that the San Diego Farm Bureau was voting NO on 37, so therefore he thought this was good for small farmers. He feared that the farms would be gang suited by frivolous lawyers, and more regulations would be added. I called into the one of the leaders of the Yes campaign and was guided to the CA RIght to Know site.
We have a lot of work to do with farmers who are buying into the more than one million a day No ads funded by Monsanto and the other big ag chemical and gmo backers.
Check out this plant your dream blog for my notes. Farm Bureau and Big Ag and Monsanto go hand in hand. Organic needs to be shown to be in the best interest of local organic farmers.
Environmental Attorney Andrew Krimbrell, Center for Food Safety and co-creator of Prop 37, speaks out on Monsanto in this Clip.
Monsanto is often very much tied in with the Farm Bureau:
MONSANTO WORKS WITH THE FARM BUREAUS
"However, the 17,000 employees at Monsanto share something in common with the 1000 people in this room. We have all chosen agriculture as our profession.
This common bond creates mutual dependence. American farmers can only be successful if companies like Monsanto continue to bring you innovative new products.
Likewise, as a company that is solely involved in agriculture, Monsanto can only be successful if American farmers are profitable."
Although illustrative, Christen’s case is not unusual. From California to New York, the Farm Bureau leads the charge for industrial-scale food production. It opposes the labeling of genetically engineered food, animal welfare reform and environmental regulation. In Washington, its well-funded team of lobbyists and lawyers seeks to undermine the federal Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, opposing pesticide restrictions and increased scrutiny of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from CAFOs, like the “farm” up the road from Christen.
The Farm Bureau has sued the EPA, which is trying to limit farm runoff from polluting the Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, the Bureau pushes hard to expand international trade and lobbies for the stream of government subsidies that disproportionately benefit the nation’s biggest commodity farm operations and, indirectly, the agribusinesses at the heart of this system.
In Washington, the 2012 Farm Bill has predictably been a top priority for the Farm Bureau lobby team. They have surprised players from both sides of the debate by conceding cuts in traditional subsidies in exchange for a large expansion of subsidized crop insurance that protects against disasters and falling prices at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $9 billion a year. The tactical, philosophical shift garnered praise even from Farm Bureau adversaries. Nonetheless, it should be noted that crop insurance is a small, but significant piece of Farm Bureau insurance companies’ portfolio. In 2011, they collected over $300 million in crop insurance premiums.
OUT
We are Californians from across the state that oppose this deceptive food labeling measure. We believe that the misleading Proposition 37 will unnecessarily raise food costs, hurt small businesses and farmers, create frivolous lawsuits, and saddle California with more bureaucracy and red tape.
Agriculture
California Farm Bureau Federation
American Farm Bureau Federation
Western Growers Association
Agricultural Council of California
Agricultural Retailers Association
Almond Hullers and Processors Association
Amador County Farm Bureau
American Agri-Women
American Feed Industry Association
American Meat Institute
American Pistachio Growers
American Seed Trade Association
American Soybean Association
American Sugarbeet Growers Association
Butte County Farm Bureau
California Association of Wheat Growers
California Agricultural Aircraft Association
California Bean Shippers Association
California Beet Growers Association
California Canning Peach Association
California Cattlemen’s Association
California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations
California Grain and Feed Association
California Poultry Federation
California Seed Association
California Tomato Farmers
California Tomato Growers Association, Inc.
California Women for Agriculture
Corn Refiners Association
CropLife America
Fresno County Farm Bureau
Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties
Imperial County Farm Bureau
Independent Professional Seed Association
Kern County Farm Bureau
King County Farm Bureau
Monterey County Farm Bureau
National Aquaculture Association
National Corn Growers Association
National Grain and Feed Association
National Institute for Animal Agriculture
Nisei Farmers League
North Valley Ag Services
Pacific Egg and Poultry Association
Pacific Seed Association
Sacramento County Farm Bureau
San Benito County Farm Bureau
San Bernardino County Farm Bureau
San Diego County Farm Bureau
San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation
San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau
Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau
Southern California Agricultural Land Foundation
Stanislaus County Farm Bureau
Tehama County Farm Bureau
Tulare County Farm Bureau
Tuolumne County Farm Bureau
United Egg Producers
Western Agricultural Processors Association
Western Plant Health Association
Ventura County Agricultural Association
Yuba Sutter County Farm Bureau
Yolo County Farm Bureau
Debunking Farm Bureau & Monsanto's Propaganda About GE Alfalfa
August 24, 2005
Lake County Record-Bee - Lake County,CA,USA
August 22, 2005
They're working for Monsanto
Got a good chuckle out of the Farm Bureau response to the proposed
regulation of Roundup ready Alfalfa in Lake County. It was truly classic!
Instead of attempting to refute the multitude of reasons put forth to
justify the proposed ordinance, the main tactic employed was to change the
subject to the much broader issue of all biotechnology.
They can't say this new alfalfa won't mean more poison being used here,
because it will. They can't say that contamination of other growers' crops
isn't a real problem because Monsanto's own studies show it is. They can't
say that the increase in herbicide use won't lead to poison-resistant weeds
sooner because they know it will. They can't say that the main active
ingredient in Roundup is safe because there are piles of evidence to the
contrary.
The Farm Bureau does say that "not a single person or animal has gotten
sick from eating biotech food or feeds," though recently revealed studies
done by Monsanto show that rats fed their genetically modified corn had
liver and thyroid cancer, along with blood cell abnormalities.
The Farm Bureau is also quoted in the Record-Bee as saying, "This is just a
technological way to increase production using less pesticides," an absurd
statement that turns reality on its head. Of course our local Farm Bureau is
against regulation of a genetically modified crop, since their positions are
handed down from the state Farm Bureau where support of the biotech
companies is automatic due to their financial interdependence.
That's why our own Farm Bureau urges us to support an Assembly bill that
would take control away from Lake County and give it to Sacramento when it
comes to genetically modified crops. Another case of them working for
Monsanto, while local growers and environmentalists work for Lake County.
Philip Murphy
Lakeport
Executive Director Jennifer Scheer with the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau agrees the protest is “unfortunate,” but for additional reasons.
As the world population continues to increase exponentially, “we’re going to need to feed a third more people shortly with the same number of resources, or fewer,” she noted.
Genetic technologies employed by companies such as Syngenta have a lot of potential to address that reality, she reasoned.
Scheer can’t speak to the myriad arguments touted by activists such as Eidinger, who points out that GMOs in food have been linked to autism, obesity, food-based allergies, dropping fertility rates, birth defects and “weird” neurological disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We don’t know what the ramifications could potentially be either way,” Scheer speculated. “But at the same time, we don’t want to write it off and 20 years down the road have a mass food shortage worldwide.”
Occupy Monsanto was strategically timed with the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Movement, which began Sept. 17 on Wall Street in Manhattan and targeted, among numerous issues, corporate greed and corruption.
Protests this week mark the first global mobilization against GMOs in more than a decade, according to Eidinger.
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