Land O Lakes Campaign Gains Steam!

Posted on August 26, 2012 by admin

Over a year ago Family Farm Defenders contacted Land O Lakes, one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the U.S, to urge them to pay family farmers a fair price for their milk and to stop engaging in other questionable practices that hurt farmers and consumers (such as pushing GMOs like RR alfalfa and rBGH, importing milk protein concentrate (MPC) for use in dairy products, and colluding with other dairy giants to manipulate dairy prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange).  Given that 2012 is the U.N. Year of the Co-op, it is also disturbing to have a once proud farmer driven co-op like Land O Lakes routinely violating the Rochdale Principles of International Cooperation, as well as the 1922 Capper Volstead Act.

Unfortunately, Land O Lakes has not yet responded to the valid concerns of family farmers, which means FFD and its allies are now ramping up their public accountability effort in order to get their attention.

To hear a good overview of dairy price fixing and why Land O Lakes is being taken to task, listen to WORT Community Radio’s (89.9 FM in Madison, WI) interview with Joel Greeno, dairy farmer and FFD vice president.   You can find the interview at:  http://archive.wort-fm.org/  by scrolling down to Labor Radio Aug. 24th.

Also, FFD’s executive director, John Peck, had an article on the U.N. Year of the Co-ops identifying “bad” co-ops such as Land O Lakes in the August issue of Z Magazine.  You can read a version of the article here:  It\’s 2012! Are You Feeling Cooperative Yet?

For those who would like to share their concerns with Land O Lakes directly, FFD has produced a consumer oriented “Land O Fakes” postcard spoofing off their popular butter brand.  You can download your own copy of the postcard here: Land O Fakes Postcard

If you would like bulk quantities of this postcard to distribute as part of your local organizing please call the FFD office and we’ll get them in the mail to you as soon as possible:   #608-260-0900

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Family Farm Defenders Responds to Midwest Drought by Raising Funds to Help Wisconsin Farmers – Teams Up With the First Annual Wisconsin Reggae Festival for a Drought Relief Benefit Show

Posted on August 2, 2012 by admin

For Immediate Release
Aug. 2, 2012

Contact: 608-260-0900 – John Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

Sat. Aug. 18th 3:00 pm – 1:30 am
High Saloon 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI

Family farmers across America’s Heartland are in the grips of one of the worst droughts in living memory and Wisconsin farmers have been especially hard hit as pastures lie brown and many crops have suffered or been lost all together. Farmers are trying to salvage what corn they can for silage, while others have already been forced to feed animals hay that was supposed to be set aside for this coming winter.

Family Farm Defenders, a national grassroots organization based in Madison, WI is no stranger when it comes to disaster and has provided valuable solidarity to stricken family farmers in the past. Within weeks of Hurricane Katrina pummeling the Gulf Coast back in 2005 FFD sent a busload of volunteers with food, medicine, and other relief supplies to the region, followed by a solidarity shipment of WI tractors and other implements to farmer co-ops in MS and LA. In 2007 and 2008, FFD raised over $25,000 in small recovery grants over 40 family farmers and farmworkers hurt by flooding. And in 2011 with help from Farm Aid and the Teamsters Union, Family Farm Defenders delivered 17 semi-loads of donated WI hay to parched ranchers in TX and OK.

The Sat. Aug. 18th reggae benefit concert will feature ten acts on two stages, including such stellar performers as: Dubtonic Kru: Jamaica; DJ I Roach: Minneapolis, MN; Unity The Band: Appleton, WI; DJ Vilas Park Sniper: Madison, WI; Kingtown Rockers: Madison, WI; DJ Affgaad: Minneapolis, MN; Mt. Zion Soundsystem: Milwaukee, WI; DJ $amrock: Madison, WI; Tony Brown: IA; and DJ Kayla Kush: U-Dub WSUM, Madison, WI with food provided by Cafe Costa Rica. Tickets for the concert are $12adv/$15dos (12 & under FREE0 and can be purchased online at: www.high-noon.com or at Willy St. Co-op East & West

Current sponsors of the benefit concert include: 91.7FM WSUM, 89.9FM WORT, Paradigm Gardens, General Hydroponics, Willy Street Co-op, Just Coffee, Maximum Ink, High Noon Saloon, Alchemy, Lakeside Printing Co-op, Jamerica, Amsterdam, Madtown Printing, Mickey’s Tavern, and Revolution Cycles, with more to come.

If you are interested in cosponsorship, please contact: Amy Becher at [email protected]

Donations can also be made online through Razoo:
Online fundraising for Drought Relief for Wisconsin Farmers

Checks can also be mailed to: Family Farm Defenders, PO Box 1772, Madison, WI 53701. Please write “drought relief fund” in the memo line. Family Farm Defenders is a 501 c(3) charitable organization so all gifts are tax deductible.

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Family Farm Defenders Seeks Nominations for the 2nd Annual John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize

Posted on July 17, 2012 by admin

Family Farm Defenders, a national farmer and consumer advocacy group based in Wisconsin, and well known worldwide for espousing the principles of food sovereignty, is proud to announce it is seeking nominations for its 2nd Annual Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize. The award is named in honor of FFD’s founder and long time activist, John Kinsman.
In Oct. 2010 Family Farm Defenders received the Food Sovereignty Prize from the Community Food Security Coalition at its gathering in New Orleans. Food sovereignty, first articulated by La Via Campesina in 1996, encompasses seven principles:  food as a basic right, agrarian reform, protecting natural resources, reorganizing food trade, ending the globalism of hunger, social peace and the democratic control of agricultural policies.
FFD president and organic dairy farmer and forester, John Kinsman, has said that, “The seven principles of food sovereignty are the finest recipe for global food, social and environmental justice that exist today. Food sovereignty can enhance the dignity of every person in the world, and these principles now inspire and guide Family Farm Defenders in all our plans and actions.”
Family Farm Defenders launched the John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize last year to encourage young farmers to pursue the principles of food sovereignty as they begin their careers in agriculture.

Last year’s winners included Lindsey Morris Carpenter who has run Grassroots Farm, a 40 member Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation near Monroe, WI since 2007 and Daniel and Hannah Miller who have operated Easy Yoke Farm near Millville MN as a CSA operation since 2010 and also sell at farmers markets, co-ops, and retail markets.  Both winners received a cash prize of $2000, plus a fair trade holiday gift basket.

Nominations of beginning farmers are due by Sept. 1st, 2012.  Please send name, address, phone, and email of nominees to:  FFD, P.O. Box 1772, Madison, WI  53703.  Nominations can also be faxed to:  608-260-0900 or sent by email to:  [email protected]
Once the farmers have been nominated a FFD member will contact the farmer for supporting information. Selected farmer(s) will be notified in early October and receive their award at a reception and dinner to be held at the the Goodman Center (149 Waubesa St.) in Madison, Wisconsin from 5:30 – 9:00 pm on Sat. Dec. 8th.

Donations are also being solicited to support the prize itself and all donors will be acknowledged in the award program.  FFD is a 501 c(3) charitable organizations, so all gifts are tax deductible.

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Farmers, Consumers, Taxpayers Protest at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Shareholder Meeting to Expose Runaway Corruption, Greed, and Speculation by the 1%

Posted on May 22, 2012 by admin

For Immediate Release                                       5/22/12

Wed. May 23rd 4:30 pm Thompson Center (Randolph & Clarke) in Chicago

On Wed. May 23rd Family Farm Defenders will be joining Stand Up Chicago and other allies for a protest outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to expose its sordid track record of racketeering, commodity speculation, tax evasion, and corruption.

Specifically, FFD will be denouncing the rampant dairy price rigging that occurs at the CME and hurts farmers and consumers across the U.S. and around the world.  In 2008 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) found Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) guilty of price rigging at the CME and levied an unprecedented $12 million fine. Yet, these illegal trading practices continue at the CME.  One of the worst perpetrators is another corrupt cooperative, Land O Lakes, which openly colludes with Kraft, Sargento, and other dairy giants.

“The CEO of Land O’Lakes believes that farmers only exist to serve the market.  He needs to understand that farmers work hard to pay their bills and support their families first, and only serve the market second,” noted Joel Greeno, dairy farmer and vice president of Family Farm Defenders.  “It is especially disturbing that as the rest of the world celebrates the U.N. Year of the Co-op, we have an outfit like Land O Lakes acting more like a corrupt corporation, violating federal law and hurting its own members.”

Despite being the most profitable business in Chicago, posting nearly $1.9 billion in profits last year, the CME is also a notorious tax dodger, threatening to move out of IL if it did not get $77 million per year in state tax breaks.   Far from being a responsible corporate neighbor, the CME has become just another parasite feeding off Illinois taxpayers and Chicago residents.

“It is disgusting to find out that Craig Donohue, the ex-CEO of the CME, has been racking in millions as part of his bloated executive compensation while he allowed criminal racketeers to bankrupt family farmers at an institution for which he supposedly had fiduciary responsibility,” added John Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders.  “We look forward to the Dept. of Justice taking aggressive anti-trust enforcement action against him and other elites who are now facilitating illegal and corrupt trading at the CME.”

For more background read below:

CME – Corporate Auction Block for Global Free Trade

Ever wonder who really sets the “free market” price for your food? Why would people in Brazil, South Africa, Japan, India, or Australia, care so much about what a handful of traders are doing in Chicago?

What is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)?

Founded in 1898 as the non-profit Chicago Butter and Egg Board, the CME has since grown into the world’s largest private trading clearinghouse. Each day an elite group gathers at the CME in downtown Chicago to swap commodities such as cheese, carbon credits, timber, feather meal, soy oil, and fertilizer. Within seconds this “thin” market reverberates around the globe, affecting farmgate prices and grocery bills for billions of people.  In 2002 the CME went public, issuing its own stock, and in 2007 acquired the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) for $8 billion as one of its designated contract markets (DCMs).  In 2008 the CME Group bought out another rival, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) for $8.9 billion, and in 2009 also acquired the Dow Jones Indexes.  In 2008 the CME reported revenues over $2.5 billion, handling over a billion contracts worth $1,000+ trillion dollars.  While some human shouting still occurs in the pit, over 70% of CME trading happens quietly behind the scenes through its Globex electronic platform.  Beyond its headquarters in Chicago, the CME also has offices in New York, Houston, Washington DC, Sydney, Singapore, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.  Craig Donohue, who recently stepped down as the CEO of CME Group, took home $6.9 million in salary and stock options in 2010, placing him well within the Forbes wealthiest 500.  Despite being Chicago’s most profitable business, the CME recently threatened to move out of IL if they weren’t given $77 million per year in state tax breaks.

CME – Insider Trading Cloaked in Secrecy

Because the CME is a private corporation, it is not subject to the same transparency and accountability rules governing public agencies. While the CME often fondly invokes the public trust doctrine, its primary fiduciary responsibility is to its private investors. In this respect, the undemocratic character of the CME fits well with that of other global free trade entities such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) – all of which are run by unelected officials who ostensibly police themselves. According to the CME’s own mission statement, “Integrity and openness are critical. We expect the highest ethical standards from our employees and market participants. We rigorously regulate our markets.” Many of those who have been victimized by the CME would beg to differ. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is charged with overseeing the CME, but since much of the manipulation involves commodity cash trading, the CFTC can only intervene if this corruption trickles over into futures markets.  In 2004 the Dept. of Justice in conjunction with twenty three State Attorney Generals began an anti-trust investigation of collusion by the dairy giants at the CME, but this effort was stymied by the Bush White House and has yet to be fully pursued by the Obama administration.  In 2008 the CFTC found Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) guilty of price rigging at the CME and levied a $12 million fine.  Unfortunately, much more needs to be done to free farmers, consumers, and taxpayers from the corporate greed that now pervades the CME in Chicago.

How Can You Help Restore Fair Trade and Moral Integrity to the CME?

Contact the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to demand more government oversight of the CME:   CFTC, 1155 21st St. NW, Washington, DC 20581  tel. #(202) 418-5000

Contact the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to demand a thorough Congressional and U.S. Dept. of Justice (DoJ) investigation of unfair trading practices at the CME:

Patrick Leahy – Judiciary Cmte chair (D-VT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Congressional Switchboard tel. #202-224-3121

Dept. of Justice Comment Line  tel. #202-353-1555

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America’s Mad Cow Crisis

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

By:  John Stauber, founder of the Center for Media and Democracy, co-author of Mad Cow USA

Published on Thursday, April 26, 2012 by Common Dreams

Americans might remember that when the first mad cow was confirmed in the United States in December, 2003, it was major news.  The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been petitioned for years by lawyers from farm and consumer groups I worked with to stop the cannibal feeding practices that transmit this horrible, always fatal, human and animal dementia.  When the first cow was found in Washington state, the government said it would stop such feeding, and the media went away.  But once the cameras were off and the reporters were gone nothing substantial changed.

In the United States, dairy calves are still taken from their mothers and fed the blood and fat of dead cattle.  This is no doubt a way to infect them with the mad cow disease that has now been incubating here for decades, spread through such animal feeding practices.  No one knows how the latest dairy cow was infected, the fourth confirmed in the United States.  Maybe it was nursed on cow’s blood.  Perhaps it was fed feed containing cattle fat with traces of cattle protein.  Or perhaps there is a mad cow disease in pigs in the United States, which simply has not been found yet, because pigs are not tested for it at all, even though pigs are fed both pig and cattle byproducts, and then the blood, fat and other waste parts of these pigs are fed to cattle.

All these U.S. cattle feeding methods are long banned and illegal in other countries that suffered through but eventually dealt properly with mad cow disease.  Here, rather than stopping the transmission of the disease by stopping the cannibal feeding, mad cow is simply covered up with inadequate testing and very adequate public relations.  US cattle are still fed mammalian blood, fat and protein, risking human deaths and threatening the long term safety of human blood products, simply to provide the U.S. livestock industry with a cheap protein source and a cheap way to get rid of dead animal waste.

I began researching this issue around 1989, long before the disease was confirmed to have jumped from cattle to the people eating them, as announced by the British government in 1996.  In 1997 I co-authored <http://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html> Mad Cow USA, warning that the disease was likely already here and spreading, since the animal cannibalism that caused its outbreak in Britain and spread it to other countries was actually more widespread in the United States than anywhere.

Some years ago responsible U.S. beef companies wanted to test their animals for mad cow disease and label their beef as being disease free, but they were forbidden under penalty of law from doing so.  Only the USDA can test for mad cows in America.    In 2004 and 2005, after two additional mad cows were discovered in Texas and Alabama, the United Sates government declared that obviously mad cow wasn’t much of a problem and gutted it’s anemic testing program.  Today only about 40,000 cattle a year are tested, out of tens of millions slaughtered.  It’s amazing that the California cow was even detected given this pathetic testing program that seems well designed to hide rather than find mad cows.

The prevention of mad cow disease is relatively  simple.  If your country has it, test each animal at slaughter to keep the diseased animals out of the food chain.  Cheap, accurate and easy tests are now available in other countries but illegal here.  Testing cattle both identifies the true extent of the disease, and keeps infected animals from being eaten in your sausage or hamburger.  In this manner countries like Britain, Germany, France and Japan have controlled their problem through testing and a strict ban on cannibal feed.

Once mad cow disease moves into the human population of a country, all bets are off as to what could happen next.  It’s a very slow disease, it develops invisibly over decades in someone who has been infected, and it is always fatal.  We’ll know a lot more in fifty years, but the future looks worrisome.  In Britain people are dying from mad cow disease, people who never consumed infected meat.  They used medical products containing human blood, and that blood was infected because it was from infected people.  There is no test to identify infectious prions, the causal agent, in blood.

Almost none of this information appeared in news stories about the California mad cow.  Instead the headlines and the talking heads fed us the line that the United States fixed this problem long ago, and the fact that only 4 mad cows have been detected so far is proof of our success.   Oprah Winfrey once tried via her talk show to warn about this, way back in 1996,  but Texas cattlemen dragged her and her guest Howard Lyman into court and she had to spend many millions of dollars defending herself from the supposed crime of slandering meat.

Oprah won her case, which was probably unfortunate for the rest of us because had she been convicted the ensuing appeals court trial might have gotten enough attention to wake up Americans to the truth.  Instead Oprah learned her lesson – shut up and you won’t get sued.   Other media learned too that if the government and industry can silence Oprah, they can muzzle anyone. (One of the 4 confirmed U.S. mad cows was later found in Texas, appropriately enough.)

There are a handful of dedicated activists such as Howard Lyman who have been sounding the alarm on this.  They include the ecologist Dr. Michael Hansen of Consumers Union and Dr. Michael Greger, a physician.  Terry Singletary Jr., whose mom died of a version of the human form of mad cow disease, has been a relentless, unpaid activist on this issue.

Despite their dedicated work,  there is no indication that anything is going to change here in America.  The U.S. government refuses to implement the feed ban and the animal testing necessary.   It doesn’t matter if the President is named Clinton, Bush or Obama because their bureaucrats in the USDA and FDA stay the course and keep the cover up going.  Docile, eating what they are fed, trusting the rancher all the way to the  slaughterhouse.  Is that just the cows, or is it us too?

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