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From: "Scotty Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "(Farm Bureau Investigation}" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 15:53:05 -0700
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Subject: MORE ON FARM BUREAU - PLEASE POST AND FORWARD
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PLEASE POST THIS TO ALL APPROPRIATE LIST SERVES AND=20
CHAT ROOMS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Easter there=92s Trouble on the Family Farm=20
It=92s Time to Investigate  Farm Bureau Leadership

Bill Christison is the President of the National Family Farm Coalition=20
and  the Missouri Rural Crisis Center.  He is a lifetime advocate of=20
family farm agriculture and a fourth generation soybean farmer from=20
Chilocothe, Missouri.

This Easter Sunday as your family gathers around the table, feasting and=20
sharing the bounty of food Americans are blessed to enjoy, I ask you to=20
consider the plight of our American family farmers.  All across this great=20
nation, the families and people who grow our food are in trouble. =20
Because of record low prices for their products, farmers teeter on the=20
brink of foreclosure - many mortgaging everything to stay afloat.  In rural=20
America, in family farm country, this Easter Sunday marks a day of=20
uncertainty, and a day of injustice.

Two weeks ago, CBS News broadcasted a report that took a stark look at=20
the problems in farm country.  This broadcast examined the leadership of=20
the nations most powerful farm organization, the American Farm Bureau=20
Federation.  What this report found shocked millions of Americans.  The=20
report concluded that many farmers feel Farm Bureau leadership has=20
abandoned them to side with agribusiness interests.  The report showed=20
how Farm Bureau leaders have profited handsomely, while investing in=20
the very businesses that compete with their own farmer members.

I have long known Farm Bureau leadership does not represent the family=20
farmer.  Looking back over five decades of farm policy, it is telling to see=
=20
that the Farm Bureau has been the leading farm lobby while the family=20
farm agriculture has been in steady decline.   From the end of the New=20
Deal, to the current disastrous farm policy, Farm Bureau leadership=20
drives farm policy that favors big agribusiness over family agriculture.

It is time to investigate the leadership of this organization that calls its=
elf=20
the =93Voice of Agriculture.=94  The  =9360 Minutes=94 broadcast and a=20
subsequent report released by Defenders of Wildlife, entitled =93Amber=20
Waves of Gain,=94 paint the outline of a huge agribusiness conglomerate=20
that needs to be better understood.    Reports of Farm Bureau leadership=20
profiting handsomely from insurance investments and stock options=20
reveal a giant money-making machine so enter twined with corporate=20
agribusiness it can no longer serve the needs of the farmers who buy=20
from, and sell to, these giant corporations.=20

I am proud to join over 180 grass-roots farm and environmental groups=20
from around the nation in calling for an investigation of the leadership of=20
the American Farm Bureau.   I am a family farmer and a former Farm=20
Bureau member.  I gave up my membership when I realized that Farm=20
Bureau policy is the policy of an inhumane and environmentally=20
industrialized agriculture that is destroying the family farm and turning=20
farmers into latter-day serfs.

As you break bread today, just a few days after paying taxes, you may=20
also wonder what current failed farm policy is costing the taxpayers of=20
America.  Last year, in the third year of our current farm policy, the so-
called Freedom to Farm Act,  which was supposed to eliminate the need=20
for federal supports, American taxpayers spent a record $22 Billion in=20
farm sector bailouts.  This year is expected to be as bad, or worse.  This=20
Freedom to Farm Act was advanced by Farm Bureau and was sold to=20
policy makers as a way to end government farm supports!

Farm Policy has not always been a losing proposition for taxpayers.   In=20
the years preceding Farm Bureau domination of Farm Policy, there was a=20
golden era of farm policy that actually saw the federal government and=20
taxpayers profiting off farm policy.   This was a time when rural America=20
was vibrant and alive.  It came as part of a system that allowed farmers to=20
get a fair price for their products and let them compete against the big=20
grain traders and the meat processors.  This period started the farmer-
owned grain reserve, which allowed farmers to set aside their goods until=20
prices went back up.   During the time farmers used a non-recourse loan=20
which presented a fair and equitable solution to problems of over-
production.  Farm Bureau leadership still opposes these two items.=20

But those days are gone.  Instead, all across rural America, a frightening=20
trend of  industrialized agriculture threatens to completely erode what=20
remains of family agriculture.   With the assistance of Farm Bureau=20
leadership, a corporate, industrial agriculture is festering that degrades=20
our rural environments and rips the fabric of rural culture with factory=20
mega-farms.   You can bet agribusiness in profiting nicely - but what=20
about the family farmer?  =20

As you sit around the table today, carving up ham and enjoying seconds=20
of the mashed potatoes sweet corn, you might wonder what you can do. =20
Above all, we must not give up the hope and dream of a healthy rural=20
American supported by family farm agriculture.  If our elected officials=20
begin caring enough to investigate these allegations into the leadership=20
of the Farm Bureau, change may come quickly.  But, just in case, you=20
might give them a call and let them know this Easter, there is trouble on=20
the family farm and its time to investigate Farm Bureau leadership.

Bill Christison
President National Family Farm Coalition
202 543-5675