Community Farm Alliance

Kentucky General Assembly Helps CFA, Local Farmers, Create L.I.F.E.

2008-04-07T12:57:00.002-04:00

With the 2008 Legislative Session of the Kentucky General Assembly all wrapped up, CFA can't help but celebrate. After a long and interesting few months, we are grateful that BOTH our pieces of legislation have been signed by the presiding legislative officers and sent to Governor Beshear for his signature! Congratulations and Thank You to all those members who helped CFA lobby for these legislative victories! Your hard work and dedication as well as your emails, phone calls, and personal visits to legislators made this session a successful one for CFA and for Kentucky's family farmers, proving that Real Change Comes From the Ground Up!

Special thanks go to Representative Dwight Butler and his intern Brittany Dowell for their inspiring work on HB 484, as well as to co-sponsors Rep. Charlie Hoffman, Tom McKee, C.B. Embry and Jeff Greer.

A world of gratitude to Rep. Rick Rand, Johnny Bell, and Jeff Greer for the success of HB 495! Thank you for being true champions for Kentucky's family farmers!

HB 495: Limits the Implementation of the National Animal Identification System in Kentucky.
Sponsor: Representative Rick Rand
Co Sponsors: Representative Johnny Bell and Representative Jeff Greer

What Will House Bill 495 Do?
· HB 495 prohibits the state of Kentucky from mandating the National Animal Identification System in the absence of a federal law requiring compliance with the USDA program. In the event that NAIS does become mandatory at the federal level, HB 495 ensures that Kentucky's compliance can be no more stringent than federal policies.
· HB 495 also prevents the state from penalizing any farmer or withholding goods, services, licenses, permits, grants or other benefits based on non-participation in any phase of the National Animal Identification System.

What House Bill 495 Does NOT Do:
· HB 495 does not prevent Kentucky from establishing or participating in disease control programs specifically designed to address a known disease in a specific species of livestock.
· HB 495 does not prohibit private agricultural industry organizations from establishing voluntary source verification programs for their own members or others who elect to participate.

Why is This Necessary?
Though NAIS is currently voluntary and expected to remain voluntary at the federal level, USDA is funding state departments of agriculture that agree to implement the program. Kentucky has recently been promoting the program and requiring participation in certain phases of the system to qualify for certain services. HB 495 will stop us from going any further. Until USDA can get the program mandated, Kentucky should back away from it also, for the sake of our family farmers. The program is intrusive, costly, and burdensome to the family farmer and tilts the scales heavily in favor of corporate agribusiness. HB 495 is the necessary step to stop N.A.I.S. in Kentucky!

What Happened with HB 495?
HB 495 passed unanimously out of the House Agriculture Committee, unanimously off the House floor with a vote of 95-0. The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Agriculture committee, and unanimously off the Senate floor. It has now been delivered to Governor Beshear where it awaits his signature.

John Logan Brent, Henry County Judge Executive and Beef Cattle Producer
"I am very appreciative of my Representive Rick Rand for sponsoring this bill and for Community Farm Alliance and all of there hard work in seeing it through. Our legislature got this one right. HB 495 is a common sense bill designed with the farmer in mind, not the corporation and that is definately refreshing in today's Agriculture."

Steve Smith, CFA member and farmer in Trimble County
"This bill is a true victory for our family farms. Special thanks go to Representatives Rick Rand and Johnny Bell, and to the people of Community Farm Alliance for all of their hard work for farmers in Kentucky on this issue."

HB 484 – Local Food for State Universities
Sponsor: Representative Dwight Butler
Primary Co Sponsor: Representative Charlie Hoffman
Other co-sponsors: Representative Tom McKee, Representative C.B. Embry, Representative Jeff Greer

What Will House Bill 484 Do?
HB 484 amends KRS 164A.575 to require state funded universities to purchase agriculture products from local producers.

Why is This Necessary?
This legislation partnered with HB 669 from the 2006 legislative session ensures that Kentucky institutions are supporting a local farm economy and secures yet another market venue for Kentucky's family farmers. Now, not only will patrons of Kentucky's state parks and institutions be eating locally grown, so will our state universities' faculty, staff, and students!

Whats Happened with HB484?
HB 484 passed unanimously out of the House Ag Committee and out of the House of Representatives. It was sent to the Senate Education Committee, rather than the Senate Agriculture Committee, where it was met by Senator Ken Winters who would not agree to hear the bill unless it was amended to be an encouragement for universities to purchase Kentucky grown agriculture products rather than a mandated requirement. The bill then passed unanimously out of the Senate Education Committee with the Committee Substitute. Though the committee substitute reduced the bill to an encouragement rather than a mandate, it still contained a requirement for all food service contracts entered into by a university with a food service distributor to contain the purchase of Kentucky grown agriculture products. After two readings on the Senate floor, one shy of passage, Senator Brett Guthrie added a Senate Floor Amendment that removed that requirement, gutting the bill to a simple encouragement.

Brittany Dowell, Legislative Intern for Rep. Butler and student at the University of Kentucky studying political science, also a member of Community Farm Alliance.
"Representative Butler and I were disappointed by the Senate floor amendment, but we have been encouraged by the Community Farm Alliance's commitment to enforcing the legislation and holding Universities accountable."

Commissioner of Agriculture Richie Farmer
“This bill will provide another market for Kentucky farmers to sell their Kentucky Proud products,” Commissioner Farmer said. “This will create economic activity in many rural Kentucky communities and help keep farmland in agriculture. "

Legislative Update and Call to Action

2008-03-14T13:15:00.003-04:00

First the good news:

HB 484 Passed the Senate Education Committee yesterday with a unanimous vote and has been sent to the consent calendar for approval on the Senate Floor! Thank you to all those who called and lobbied to help us achieve this great victory for Kentucky farmers! Congratulations to Betty Bailey, CFA board member from Bath County and 4th generation family farmer, who shined like a star in her testimony in front of the committee!

We'll keep you posted on what happens on the Senate Floor!

And now the not so good news:

HB495 is in trouble in the Senate! In order to get through the Senate, the bill must be heard by the Senate Ag Committee, who has not yet agreed to put the bill on their agenda for a vote!

CFA NEEDS YOU!

WE NEED ALL THE CALLS WE CAN GET TO CHAIRMAN JENSEN! We are hoping to convince him to put it on the agenda for next Thursday's Ag Committee meeting, as after next week time will start to quickly run out on the session.

TAKE ACTION!

PLEASE CALL THE MESSAGE LINE NOW!! 1-800-372-7181

There are three ways to help:
Leave a message for the entire Senate Ag Committee
Leave a message for Senator Jensen
If your Senator is on the Ag Committee, call and personally ask them to VOTE YES and ask them to ENCOURAGE JENSEN TO PUT THE BILL ON THE AGENDA!

Senate Agriculture Committee

Sen. Tom Jensen (R)
Estill, Jackson, Laurel, Menifee, Powell
606-878-8845

Sen. David Boswell (D)
Daviess, McLean
270-771-4921

Sen. Ernie Harris (R)
Carroll, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Trimble
502-241-8307

Sen. Dan Kelly (R)
Marion, Mercer, Nelson, Taylor, Washington
859-336-9048

Sen. Bob Leeper (I)
Ballard, Marshall, McCracken270-554-2771

Sen. Vernie McGaha (R)
Adair, Casey, Pulaski, Russell
270-866-3068

Sen. Joey Pendleton (D)
Christian, Logan, Todd
270-885-1639

Sen. Dorsey Ridley (D)
Caldwell, Crittenden, Henderson, Livingston, Union, Webster
270-826-5402

Sen. Richie Sanders (R)
Allen, Barren, Edmonson, Green, Metcalfe, Simpson
270-586-5473

Sen. Ernesto Scorsone (D)
Fayette
859-254-3681

Sen. Brandon Smith (R)
Bell, Harlan, Leslie, Perry
606-436-4526

Sen. Damon Thayer (R)
Grant, Kenton, Owen, Scott
859-621-6956

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF KENTUCKY'S FAMILY FARMERS!

Thank You and Keep It Up!

2008-02-29T12:01:00.002-05:00

HB 484 and HB 495 Pass House and Head to Senate!

THANK YOU to all the CFA members and friends who made calls to Representatives asking for support of HB 484 and HB 495! Both bills passed on the House Floor Wednesday!

On to the Senate!
Please make sure to call your Senators and ask them to support our bills! We should be in front of the Senate Ag Committee within 2 weeks and need to get those calls going NOW!

Ways to Help:

1. Come to Frankfort and help us lobby!
For more information contact Kaycie Len at the Frankfort office 502.223.3655

2. Call the LRC Message line and leave a message for the Senate Ag Committee asking them to VOTE YES on HB 484 and HB 495!
1-800-372-7181

3. Call your Senator and ask them personally to VOTE YES on HB 484 and HB 495!
To find your Senator's contact information visit www.lrc.ky.gov "Who's my Legislator"

Premiere of CFA’s new short film, "L.I.F.E.’s Lessons," at Derby City Espresso on March 6th

2008-02-26T16:33:00.002-05:00

Community Farm Alliance invites the public to the world premiere of L.I.F.E.’s Lessons, a new short film showcasing CFA’s work in bringing fresh, local food into Louisville’s food deserts, on Thursday, March 6th from 7-9 PM at locally-owned Derby City Espresso, located at 331 East Market Street in downtown Louisville. There is a sliding scale of $5-$30 for admission, which includes a year’s membership to CFA. CFA is a statewide grassroots membership organization working on, among other things, connecting small family farmers in Kentucky with urban markets.

“This new video is about food justice, and giving all of Louisville’s citizen’s equal access to fresh, local food,” says Bill Huston, a CFA leader and partner in Urban Fresh, a business initiative to get fresh local food to residents of West Louisville and east Downtown, two of Louisville’s food deserts. “It is the story of L.I.F.E.- a locally integrated food economy - and how CFA farmers and urban residents are working together to bring health, wealth, and safe “real” food into Kentuckians’ kitchens.”

Mr. Huston is referring to the fact that many of Louisville’s citizens live in neighborhoods where they cannot access fresh food within walking distance of their homes, and do not own vehicles to drive to other neighborhoods. Instead, they are relying on either fast food, or people who can transport them to other neighborhoods’ stores. CFA, in partnership with other organizations, has initiated a movement to change that, first, by helping create Grasshoppers Distribution, LLC, Louisville’s first farmer-owned, all local food distributor, and Urban Fresh.

Ivor Chodkowski, CFA board member and owner of Grasshoppers Distribution, LLC, continues, “This month, this country experienced one of the biggest recalls of beef ever in the history of modern agriculture. The global food system is broken. With a locally integrated food system, consumers get to know and trust the farmers who produce their food, local businesses prosper, and everyone in Kentucky wins.”

Both Mr. Huston and Mr. Chodkowski are featured in L.I.F.E.’s Lessons, a short film that allows residents of Louisville’s food deserts, and Kentucky farmers, to speak for them selves about the ill health effects experienced in the food deserts, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. They also discuss why they see a local food system as their only chance for a positive solution.

Another person featured in the film, California neighborhood resident Dorcilla Johnson, continues, “We at CFA are firm believers that those who experience the challenges, own the solutions. The people interviewed in the film are all participants in the grassroots organizing that is needed to fix the problems in our local food system.”

Adam Barr, CFA board member, and a young farmer who participates in the Smoketown Farmers Market adds, “This is a great time for the public to get involved in helping us recreate our own food system. There are all kinds of ways to plug in: organizing the neighborhoods around our two low-income farmers markets, working on our new community kitchen project, and continued lobbying of local officials for support. CFA wants you all to come out to Derby City Espresso, enjoy the film, drink up some locally-roasted coffee drinks, and become part of an active network of great people who get things done, and have fun doing it.”

Legislative Call to Action!

2008-02-18T16:37:00.002-05:00

CFA NEEDS YOU! COME TO FRANKFORT WEDNESDAY OR CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS TODAY!

HB 484 and HB495 will both be heard in the House Agriculture Committee Meeting this Wednesday February 20th at 8:00am in the Capitol Annex building here in Frankfort. If you would like to come and show your support by helping us fill the meeting room, please be at the CFA Office at 7:30am Wednesday morning!

If you can't make it to Frankfort on Wednesday, PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!

HB 484 – Local Food for State Universities
Sponsor: Representative Dwight Butler
Primary Co Sponsor: Representative Charlie Hoffman

What Will House Bill 484 Do?
HB 484 amends KRS 164A.575 to require state funded universities to purchase agriculture products from local producers.

To view a copy of the bill, go to: www.lrc.ky.gov

Why is This Necessary?
This legislation partnered with HB 669 from the 2006 legislative session ensures that Kentucky institutions are supporting a local farm economy and secures yet another market venue for Kentucky's family farmers. Now, not only will patrons of Kentucky's state parks and institutions be eating locally grown, so will our state universities' faculty, staff, and students!

HB 495: No N.A.I.S. in Kentucky!
Sponsor: Representative Rick Rand
Primary Co Sponsor: Representative Johnny Bell

To view a copy of the bill, go to: www.lrc.ky.gov

What Will House Bill 495 Do?
· HB 495 prohibits the state of Kentucky from mandating the National Animal Identification System in the absence of a federal law requiring compliance with the USDA program. In the event that NAIS does become mandatory at the federal level, HB 495 ensures that Kentucky's compliance can be no more stringent than federal policies.
· HB 495 also prevents the state from penalizing any farmer or withholding goods, services, licenses, permits, grants or other benefits based on non-participation in any phase of the National Animal Identification System.
What House Bill 495 Does NOT Do:
· HB 495 does not prevent Kentucky from establishing or participating in disease control programs specifically designed to address a known disease in a specific species of livestock.
· HB 495 does not prohibit private agricultural industry organizations from establishing voluntary source verification programs for their own members or others who elect to participate.

Why is This Necessary?
Though NAIS is currently voluntary and expected to remain voluntary at the federal level, USDA is funding state departments of agriculture that agree to implement the program. Kentucky has recently been promoting the program and requiring participation in certain phases of the system to qualify for certain services. HB 495 will stop us from going any further. Until USDA can get the program mandated, Kentucky should back away from it also, for the sake of our family farmers. The program is intrusive, costly, and burdensome to the family farmer and tilts the scales heavily in favor of corporate agribusiness. HB 495 is the necessary step to stop N.A.I.S. in Kentucky!

What Can You Do? TAKE ACTION!

Contact your legislators today! Ask them to vote yes on HB 484 and HB495!

To find your legislator’s contact information, visit the LRC website at: www.lrc.ky.gov

Call the LRC message line to leave a message of support for your legislator: 1.800.372.7181

Urge your legislators to support Kentucky’s diversifying family farmers.

Final Chance for Farm Bill Reform

2008-02-12T16:28:00.000-05:00

Senator McConnell needs to hear from all of us!

The Farm Bill is undergoing a final revision before it goes to the White House. With the Bush administration’s stance against taxes and “budget gimmicks,” the Congressional Conference Committee is scrambling to secure funding for crucial environmental and nutrition programs in the Farm Bill. This moment in the process offers us a final chance to push for positive reform.

Conservation, rural development and nutrition programs are in jeopardy. To help reduce environmental degradation, strengthen rural communities, feed the hungry and address rising diet-related health concerns these programs must be fully funded. Establishing payment caps (similar to Dorgan-Grassley) of commodity subsides would provide the needed funding for these programs.

Commodity subsidies are government payments that go to a narrow list of “program crops” (wheat, corn, cotton, rice and soybeans) and are mostly awarded to the largest farms in the United States. Reforming the commodity subsidy system would benefit many small, diversified family farms here in the U.S. and also reduce the amount of “dumping” of cheap commodities on poor countries, which devastates farmers abroad. Very few farmers profit from commodity subsidies, but everyone would benefit from an increase in funding to programs that help to improve the health of the environment, rural communities and families.

Small farmers have been chronically underserved or discriminated against by U.S. farm policy, especially minority and limited-resource farmers. This is why we are asking Senator McConnell to support an increase in funding - at least $10 million a year in mandatory funding - for Section 2501 of the Farm Bill. Producers of color are essentially shut out from U.S. farm programs due to a system that favors large-scale commodity crop and livestock producers. An increase in this funding would afford minority farmers better opportunities and help to level the playing field.

Please join friends and farmers and contact Senator McConnell with this important message, your voice can make the difference!

Make a Phone Call: Sen. McConnell’s Office – (202) 224-2541
Fax a Letter: Sen. McConnell’s Fax – (202) 224-2499
Send an Email: mcconnell@senate.gov

In your message be sure to tell Senator McConnell to support a Farm Bill that would:

1. Fully fund conservation, rural development and nutrition programs.
2. Establish commodity subsidy payment caps.
3. Secure $10 million annual mandatory funds for minority farmers through Section 2501.

For more information go to: www.betterfarmbill.org

Beyond the farm bill

2007-12-18T12:04:00.000-05:00

Progressive urban food bills could help reshape America's food future

The following is an essay by Christopher D. Cook, author of Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis. His work has appeared in The Nation, Harper's, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor and Mother Jones.
-----
After many legislative hiccups along the way, Congress is rapidly deciding the fate of America's food supply: what's grown, how it's produced and by whom, and how that food will affect our health and the planet. The roughly $288 billion Farm Bill, covering everything from urban nutrition and food stamp programs to soil conservation and farm subsidies, will dictate much about what we eat and at what price, both at the checkout line and in long-term societal costs.

And if agribusiness lobbies keep getting their way, as they've largely done in this year's Farm Bill battles, the "food bill" we all pay will be astronomical -- not just the cost of the Farm Bill itself, but the hidden costs of a taxpayer-subsidized industrial food system that causes profound harm to public health and the environment, as well as to farmers and workers.

Despite valiant progressive efforts that may bring some change at the margins, the big picture is not pretty: increasingly centralized power over food, abetted by lax antitrust policies and farm subsidies that provide the meat industry and food-processing corporations with cheap raw ingredients; huge subsidies for corn and soy, most of which ends up as auto fuel, livestock feed, and additives for junk food, fattening America's waistlines while soiling the environment; and, despite organic food's rising popularity, a farming system that's still heavily reliant on toxic pesticides (500,000 tons per year), which pollute our waterways and bloodstreams while gobbling up millions of gallons of fossil fuel. As a nation we consume (quite literally) some 100 billion gallons of oil annually in the making and long-distance transport of our food supply.

Closer to home, despite annual crop surpluses and the dumping of cheap excess supplies onto foreign markets, residents in poor urban areas are deprived of fresh, nutritious food. These so-called "food deserts" -- whose only gastronomic oases are fast-food joints and liquor marts -- feature entire zip codes devoid of fresh produce.

Government studies show this de facto food segregation leads to serious nutritional deficits -- such as soaring obesity and diabetes rates -- among poor people. And in the countryside, taxpayer subsidies directed mostly to large-scale growers and agribusiness are plowing smaller farmers out of business at a rate of one every half an hour, creating individual misery and community-wide economic havoc.

What's to be done? Congress (particularly the Senate, where debate currently resides) needs to hear Americans -- urban and rural alike -- demand serious change, to shift our tax dollars ($20 billion to $25 billion a year in farm subsidies alone) toward organic, locally oriented, nutritious food that sustains farming communities and consumer health.

Investing our tax dollars in food isn't the problem; instead of commodity subsidies that ultimately benefit the production of meat and fattening processed foods by a handful of corporations, we need a New Deal for food that reinvests funds in sustainably grown, healthful produce grown by a diversity of farmers.

Even as the congressional Farm Bill battles grind toward a mostly disconcerting conclusion, it's not too soon to look beyond this omnivore's omnibus, and begin considering a national movement of progressive urban food bills.

Cities and states have enormous purchasing power and are slowly taking the lead: San Francisco's Department of Public Health is devising sustainable procurement policies to buy more local and organic produce; some city and state food policy councils, such as Minnesota's, are helping smaller organic farmers survive by linking them up with urban markets; and the California Assembly last year passed a pilot measure to help develop new fresh produce markets in poor neighborhoods.

Change is coming piecemeal on the local level, and needs a serious booster shot. A movement of progressive urban food bills could help galvanize and expand local efforts and create a new food infrastructure that truly sustains our health, ecologies and economies -- and could help buck the trend toward increasingly monopolistic supermarkets that eschew poor districts and shut out small farmers and food companies. For starters, such a measure could include:

Organic and local-first food-purchasing policies requiring city agencies, local schools, and other public institutions, such as county jails and hospitals, to buy from local organic farms when possible.
Incentives -- backed by public education, expanding markets, and consumption of local organic foods -- to encourage nonorganic farmers to transition to sustainable agriculture, while subsidizing affordable prices for consumers. Ultimately this could build momentum for national subsidies for sustainable organic farming.
Healthy-food-zone programs with carefully targeted grants that encourage small businesses and farmers' markets to expand access to healthy foods in poor neighborhoods identified as deserts. Such measures would simultaneously boost markets for area growers while, over time, radically improving public health.
City-sponsored education campaigns discouraging obesity-inducing fast food while promoting farmers' markets and other healthful alternatives, such as an accessible directory of stores featuring regional organic products.
Zoning, targeted water subsidies and other incentives for small-scale urban and suburban farming. American cities have agencies and budgets for everything from trash collection and wastewater treatment, to public health and the environment -- yet few dedicate serious planning and money toward ensuring that its residents eat well.

With Congress predictably poised to sustain the present agribusiness system that's proven so destructive and unhealthful for America's populace, cities and states must keep brewing policy change from below. There will be resistance there, too, as the fast food industry and corporate supermarkets will fight hard to keep their virtual stranglehold on sustenance.

But with ample pressure from urban and rural consumers, farmers, public health experts, antihunger activists, environmentalists, and others, cities can create model food bills that build a policy-driven grassroots alternative to our industrial food system. No better time than now to start showing Congress how it ought to be done.

Call Today for Farm Bill Reform!

2007-12-10T16:13:00.000-05:00

URGE YOUR SENATORS TO VOTE "YES" ON THE DORGAN-GRASSLEY AMENDMENT & "NO" ON THE ROBERTS AMENDMENTS

After reaching a much-anticipated agreement over the number of amendments that can be introduced, the full Senate began debate on the next Farm Bill December 7 and is expected to start voting on December 11. THIS IS IT! The full Senate’s consideration and vote marks the farm bill’s final stages and the last chance to institute real reform before the bill moves to the Conference Committee.

An amendment introduced on the floor of the Senate by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is our last chance to reform the commodity payment system and fund sustainable agriculture priorities. The Dorgan-Grassley amendment will put a hard cap of $250,000 on commodity payments, close loopholes, and shift the savings to beginning and minority farmer, rural development, conservation, nutrition, and anti-hunger programs. It will be the major floor amendment on the Farm Bill, and the vote count is expected to be very, very close. Every single vote will count.

The $1.15 billion in savings from the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limitation Amendment will be shifted to:

Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program ($60 million)
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Account Program ($20 million)
Pigford black farmer lawsuit settlement with USDA ($100 million)
Rural Microenterprise Assistance Program ($40 million)
Farmers Market Promotion Program ($15 million)
Organic Certification Cost Share Program ($3 million)
Community Food Grants ($50 million)
Grasslands Reserve Program ($45 million)
Farmland Protection Program ($52 million)
Emergency Food Assistance Program ($315 million)
Food Stamp Benefit Enhancements ($396 million)

The 4 Roberts Amendments (#3546-#3549) would amend the Livestock Title of the Farm Bill, and substantially reduce the number of producers covered by the important protections of the bill. Call your Senators and tell them to vote NO on these Amendments!

The message is simple: “I am a constituent and am calling to ask that Senator_________ vote YES on the Dorgan-Grassley Amendment and NO on the 4 Roberts Amendments (#3546-#3549) during the Farm Bill deliberations. How will the Senator vote on these important amendments for the 2007 Farm Bill?”

It’s easy to call: To call your Senators’ offices, you can contact the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or locate your Senators’ office number by going to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/. When you call the office, ask for their legislative aide that works on agriculture. If the aide is unavailable, leave a short message, along with your name and phone number, on the aide’s voice mail or with the receptionist.

CFA Benefit Concert at the Pour Haus in Louisville

2007-12-04T14:02:00.000-05:00

The mack, Teneia Sanders, and Afrykah of Queendom Come will be the headliners at a Benefit Concert for The Community Farm Alliance’s Jefferson County Chapter at the Pour Haus on Saturday December 8th at 9 PM. The Pour Haus is located at 1481 South Shelby Street in Germantown. Admission is $5. $10 will get you a membership to CFA.

According to CFA member Angelique Perez, one of the organizer’s of Saturday’s event, “The mack can best be described as ‘music for the mind and soul,’ blending infectious rhythm with lyrical prose. The mack will perform original material featuring Jeff Shelton playing guitar and Pete Townsend on drums. Teneia Sanders is another local gem, and has been described by national music critics as ‘a cross between Ani DiFranco and Aretha Franklin.’ Afrykah of Queendom Come has made her mark in Louisville as a community activist working for peace and justice. She will be performing her unique mixture of Hip-hop, soul and R&B. This will be a special show for a special cause. It shouldn’t be missed.”

Angelique Perez continues, “Community Farm Alliance (CFA) works to support family farms throughout the state, and to build food security and a Locally Independent Food Economy (LIFE) in Louisville. CFA’s recent community food assessment highlights the fact that many Louisvillians face barriers that limit access to fresh healthy foods. This lack of access is most apparent in West Louisville and East Downtown neighborhoods where grocery stores and other retailers that stock fresh affordable foods are scarce and residents’ transportation is limited.”

CFA has been working to increase access to fresh, healthy, affordable foods in these areas of Louisville that need it the most. This event serves as a celebration of the work that’s been done and a gearing up for the work that lies ahead as we continue to connect farmers and urban eaters and to build more food secure neighborhoods in Metro Louisville.

Ms. Perez sums it up: “CFA is a statewide membership group with over 2000 members. Please join us at the Pour Haus for a great evening of local music as we celebrate local food and food access for everyone, and build power in our community.” For more information, please contact the CFA Louisville Office at 502-775-4041.

Keep NAIS out of the Farm Bill

2007-11-06T15:52:00.000-05:00

Action Needed on Animal ID!!!
Last week, the Senate Agricultural Committee voted their version of the 2007 Farm Bill out of committee. It will be debated and voted on by the full Senate next week (Nov. 5th-Nov. 9th). The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is an issue of major concern to family farmers and rural communities and must be addressed on the Senate floor.

Please Call Today!!

Please call Senators McCaskill and Harkin on Animal ID today!

National Animal Identification System (NAIS):
In the Senate Agriculture Committee Farm Bill, Senator Harkin (IA) included Section 10305, which defines NAIS and provides exceptions from public disclosure for information collected under NAIS. Unfortunately, this section defines NAIS as any system for identifying or tracing animals that is established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Section 10305 gives legitimacy to a program that has never been authorized by Congress and which the USDA has been proceeding with despite widespread resistance among family farmers and ranchers. Already, the USDA has been very underhanded in using existing disease programs and enrolling people in NAIS databases without their consent. This is one of the most important issues facing farmers today. Without your phone calls the NAIS section will pass with no debate.
Please Call!!

Senator Claire McCaskill (202) 224-6154: ask for Nichole Distefano
Senator Tom Harkin (202) 224-3254: ask for John Ferrell

Message:
· Take Section 10305 out of the Farm Bill because it implies approval of USDA's implementation of NAIS. USDA has clearly shown that they will use underhanded, deceptive and unethical practices in order to force farmers into the program.
· Section 10305 also provides false reassurance that the information in the databases will be confidential, when experience has shown that information in databases is vulnerable to both hackers and marketing misuse.
· Tell Senator McCaskill that we need a REAL debate about Animal ID in the Senate.
NAIS will drive independent ranches and farms in the US out of business.
· NAIS creates an undue economic burden on producers, does not include identification of imported meats, does nothing to increase consumer choice or confidence and expands packers’ ability to unfairly discriminate against independent family farmers.
· Missouri’s Family Farmers believe it is extremely important to ensure consumer confidence in the safety and health of the U.S. food supply while at the same time ensuring the economic viability of independent livestock producers. However, NAIS does not meet the needs of producers or consumers.

Your Call Can Make the Difference between Congressional Approval of NAIS and a True Debate about the Negative Impacts of this Program!

Election Day is Coming!

2007-11-05T14:05:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is a big day in Kentucky government! Be sure to head out to the polls and excercise your right to be heard!

VOTE KENTUCKY!

Q & A with the Ag Commissioner candidates

2007-10-17T11:25:00.000-04:00

Community Farm Alliance recently helped develop questions for Richie Farmer-(R) and David Lynn Williams-(D), the two candidates running for Commissioner of Agriculture, to be included in Kentuckians for the Commonwealth's candidate survey. Here's what they had to say...

Please describe a major change or accomplishment you would like to make if elected.
Farmer	Williams
There are several: A. I will work to develop programs that will address the health care crisis in rural Kentucky, looking for ways to increase the availability of health care as well as its affordability. Additionally, I am unveiling a new program to use healthy farm products from Kentucky to help battle childhood obesity. B. I will continue to expand and strengthen my Kentucky Proud program, which is aimed at expanding markets for local farmers and local food companies, thereby strengthening the state’s economy as well as helping to improve the environment by cutting down on the average distance that food travels in Kentucky. C. I will seek greater funding for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s vital missions, including its consumer and environmental protection programs. D. I will strive to develop initiatives that will help the Commonwealth reach the goal of getting 25% of its energy from renewable energy sources, including biodiesel and ethanol, including cellulosic ethanol, as well as wind and solar power, by the year 2025. E. I will strive to continue using 50% of the proceeds from the master tobacco settlement for agricultural diversification. F. I will expand KDA’s export operation to attempt to build new markets for Kentucky agricultural and food products overseas, and will use the platform provided by the 2010 World Equestrian Games for that purpose. There are many more items on my second term agenda, but these six are among the top priorities I have for the next four years.	I think we should take the power away from the politicians and give it back to the farmers!

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a program being developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but is being left up to states to implement. Some people believe this program will make the U.S. food system safer and more secure by requiring that all commercial livestock be identified and monitored. Others fear that the program will be detrimental to a local agricultural economy and would favor the interests of corporate agribusiness. What is your position on the National Animal Identification System and how Kentucky should approach the program?
Farmer	Williams
The stated goals behind NAIS are extremely important, as evidenced by recent outbreaks of animal disease overseas. At the same time, it is important that the interests of all producers are represented. That is why I believe that the NAIS should remain a strictly voluntary program (as it is now). The first phase of NAIS, the registration of farm premises, is underway now, and thousands of Kentucky farmers have opted in. However, KDA has no desire to force anyone to participate, and we do not believe that any phase of the program should be made mandatory. The broader issue of animal health is being addressed in other ways. KDA, working with the University of Kentucky and the animal industry, has invested considerable resources to help us better respond to potential animal health problems, and will continue to do so, regardless of the final disposition of the NAIS question.	I believe the National Animal Identification System will make the U.S. food system safer and more secure. The belief that this program would be detrimental to the local agriculture economy is unfounded. I am a major supporter of locally-grown, organic, foods.

Immigrants play an increasing role in Kentucky’s agricultural economy. What is your position on the current discussion around immigration policy as it relates to Kentucky’s farm community?
Farmer	Williams
I believe that Federal immigration laws should be enforced. I also believe, however, that there must be some recognition of the need for producers to have a steady and legal source of farm labor. There has been a lot of shouting back and forth about these matters, but I believe that if we would all just listen more to each other, we can find a way to address both issues. For the last several months, I have been working with farm leaders from a broad range of agriculture organizations on a task force studying the future of agriculture in Kentucky. One issue that this group has been dealing with is the issue of how to build an agricultural labor force, and I look forward to their recommendations, which I expect by the end of the year.	Immigrants are extremely important to our national identity and the very future of the United States. Migrant farm workers have been involved in Kentucky and American agriculture for over a century. As Agriculture Commissioner, I will work to ease the ability for foreign nationals to live in Kentucky and eventually become productive, naturalized citizens of the United States. These immigrants enhance our culture and make our country stronger by increasing the size of our market, still the most profitable in the world.

The Lunatic National Animal Identification System: U.S. Government's Plan to Protect You From Terrorist Livestock

2007-09-21T12:29:00.001-04:00

From "The Hightower Lowdown," edited by Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer, September 2007. Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author of Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country and It's Time to Take It Back.

To get involved with the NAIS fight in Kentucky, contact Community Farm Alliance.

A friend of mine tells a story about the political demise in the 1950s of an entrenched Oklahoma state representative, whom we'll call Elmer Goodenuff.

Rep. Goodenuff, who chaired the ag committee, had been in office so long that he'd grown tight with the capitol crowd, but he had lost touch with the folks back in his rural district. Thus, when some supermarket lobbyists asked him to sponsor a bill requiring that all egg producers be regulated by the state and have to pay an egg-grading fee, he saw no problem with the measure. It was for the public's health, the lobbyists told him. His constituents, however, did have a problem with it. In those days, many small farmers made their spending money by selling eggs fresh out of their chicken yards -- yet here was ol' Elmer hitting them with a bureaucratic rigmarole and a fee that would make their little egg stands more trouble than they were worth. It turns out that the supermarket lobbyists' real agenda had been to get rid of all these bothersome mom-and-pop competitors.

Suddenly, the chairman found himself facing political opposition -- a young lawyer from the home district had filed to run against him. Shortly afterward, the two candidates came together for a debate at the county fair. The lawyer spoke first, limiting his talk to only three sentences: "Hidy folks, I'm so-and-so, and I'll make you a good state representative. If you give me the chance, I'll fight for you ... not for the special interests. Now I yield the balance of my time to Mr. Goodenuff, so he can explain his egg bill to you." Still clueless, Elmer did try to explain it, but his explanation was hardly good enough -- the more he talked, the more votes he lost. His egg bill retired him.

Chicken trackers

I expect that many of t

oday's state legislators and Congress critters -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- are going to experience their own Goodenuff comeuppance if they continue to go along with special interests pushing a new regulatory program that is presently roiling rural America into a full-tilt revolt. This is yet another of those sneaky programs blindly authorized under the screaming banner of "homeland security." It has received practically no mass-media coverage, but I'm sure you'll be excited to learn that the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) sets up a whole new surveillance program to defend you and yours from a rather odd national security threat: terrorist chickens. And terrorist cows, horses, pigs, sheep, llamas ... and so on. Advanced under the benign guise of protecting public health from outbreaks of animal-borne diseases, this program is intended to tag and track every farm animal in America from birth to death.

It is, to say the least, intrusive. NAIS would compel all owners of such animals to register their premises and personal information in a federal database, to buy microchip devices and attach them to every single one of their animals (each of which gets its very own 15-digit federal ID number), to log and report each and every "event" in the life of each animal, to pay fees for the privilege of having their location and animals registered, and to sit still for fines of up to $1,000 a day for any noncompliance.

This is Animal Farm meets the Marx Brothers!

It would be one thing if this were meant for the massive factory farms run by agribusiness conglomerates, which account for the vast number of disease outbreaks. After all, they have corporate staffs, computer networks, and existing systems of inventory tracking. But no -- rather than focus on the big boys that cause the big harm, NAIS targets hundreds of thousands of small farms, homesteaders, organic producers, hobbyists ... and maybe even you.

Me, you shriek?! Yes. If you keep a pony for your kids or board a couple of riding horses, if you've got a few chickens in your backyard, if you've got a potbellied pig or a pet goose, if your youngsters are raising a half-dozen ducks as part of a 4-H club project, if you maintain a buffalo or a goat just for the fun of it -- indeed, if you have any farm animals, NAIS wants you in its computerized grasp.

Every farm, home, horse stable, or other domicile of these animals would have to have its address and precise GPS coordinates filed into the system's central computer, along with the name, phone number, and other personal data of the owner/ renter of the premises. Owners of the animals would have to tag every one of them (luckily, fish ponds are not included!) with an approved tracking mechanism -- most likely by implanting radio-frequency ID chips into them.

Then comes the burden of logging and reporting the "events" in each animal's life. These not only include sales and deaths, but also any movement of the animals off the registered premises, including taking them to a vet, going to a horse show, presenting them for judging at the county fair, trucking them to another farm and participating in a roundup or sporting event.

This is far more onerous than the burden put on owners of guns and autos, the only two items of personal property presently subject to general systems of permanent registration. Gun owners, for example, can take their guns off their premises (to go hunting, attend a gun show, or just carry them around) without filing a report with the government. But NAIS would deny this freedom to chicken owners! The authorities are declaring hens to be more dangerous than a Belgian FN Five-SeveN handgun, and every time Hen No. 8406390528 strays from her assigned GPS locale, NAIS autocrats would require her owner to report within 24 hours the location, duration and purpose of her departure -- or be subject to a stiff fine.

Cui bono?

One would guess that Orwell, Huxley or Kafka came up with this absurdity as a work of satire, but unfortunately it's all too real. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) first published a "Draft Strategic Plan" for NAIS in April 2005, setting forth its intention to make the program mandatory by federal law. In June 2006, the USDA issued an implementation document setting a goal of having 100 percent of premises registered and 100 percent of animals tagged by January 2009. Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, is pushing NAIS in Congress, and there's also an effort to impose NAIS piecemeal by getting state legislatures to pass it. Already, USDA has spent about $117 million trying to get NAIS off the ground.

To find out who's driving this, we have to ask the old Latin question, Cui bono? (Who benefits?) That takes us to another obscure acronym, NIAA, which stands for the National Institute of Animal Agriculture. Despite its official-sounding name, this is a private consortium largely made up of two groups: proponents of corporate agriculture and hawkers of surveillance technologies. They are the ones who conceived the program, wrote the USDA proposal, and are pushing hard to impose it on us.

Such industrialized meat producers as Cargill and Tyson have three reasons to love NAIS. First, the scheme fits their operations to a T, not only because they are already thoroughly computerized, but also because they engineered a neat corporate loophole: If an entity owns a vertically integrated, birth-to-death factory system with thousands of animals (as the Cargills and Tysons do), it does not have to tag and track each one but instead is given a single lot number to cover the whole flock or herd. Second, it's no accident that NAIS will be so burdensome and costly (fees, tags, computer equipment, time) to small farmers and ranchers. The giant operators are happy to see these pesky competitors saddled with another reason to go out of business, thus leaving even more of the market to the big guys.

Third, the Cargills and Tysons are eager to assure Japan, Europe and other export customers that the U.S. meat industry is finally doing something to clean up the widespread contamination of its product. A national animal-tracking system would give the appearance of doing this without making the corporations incur the cost of a real cleanup. The health claims of NAIS are a sham; NAIS backers assumed they could sneak their little package of nasties past the people before anyone woke up. Wrong. Because it does not touch the source of E. coli, salmonella, listeria, mad cow and other common meat-borne diseases. Such contamination comes from the inherently unhealthy practices (mass crowding, growth stimulants, feeding regimens, rushed assembly lines, poor sanitation, etc.) of industrial-scale meat operations, and NAIS will do nothing to stop these practices. Moreover, tracking ends at the time of slaughter, and it's from slaughter onward that most spoilage occurs. NAIS doesn't trace any contamination after this final '"event" in the animals' lives.

Which brings us to the chip companies and sellers of computer tracking systems. In addition to such brand-name players as Microsoft, outfits with names like Viatrace, AgInfoLink, and Digital Angel are drooling over the profits promised by the compulsory tagging of all farm animals. The USDA figures there are more than two million premises in the United States with eligible livestock. There are 6 million sheep in our country, 7 million horses, 63 million hogs, 97 million cows, 260 million turkeys, 300 million laying hens, 9 billion chickens and untold numbers of bison, alpaca, quail and other animals -- all needing to be chipped and monitored. And, as new animals are born, they need chips, too -- a self-perpetuating market!

Amalgamated into the NIAA front group, these money interests established a task force in 2002 "to provide leadership in creating an animal identification plan." The group had already been promoting the idea for months, using fears of disease outbreaks and bioterrorism to put a sheen of respectability on their intentions and to gain endorsements from America's corporate dominated agriculture establishment. In essence, this small, private group of profit seekers developed a self-serving plan that will affect millions of people and got the USDA to adopt it whole, with practically no public participation.

Revolt!

With the unveiling of its 2005 strategic plan, however, the USDA got way more public participation than it wanted. Quicker and hotter than a prairie fire, word of this corporate driven, bureaucratic monstrosity spread throughout the countryside, and NAIS instantaneously became the most hated initiative in rural America. Meetings were held, rallies were organized, research was done, websites sprang up, blogs raged, Paul Reveres rode, groups formed, lawyers leapt into action -- and the rebellion was on!

Stunned, the establishment took a step back. The 2005 plan said NAIS was mandatory, but in November 2006, the USDA rushed out a revision declaring NAIS would be voluntary and that the feds would let states take the lead in implementing the system.

Wary farm activists, however, noted a qualifier in USDA's declaration. NAIS was to be "a voluntary program at the federal level." Activists were right to be on guard, for the ag establishment has been going all out to make the program mandatory at the state level, pushing state legislatures to require participation. Indiana, Kentucky and Wisconsin have already made registration compulsory, and efforts are underway to do so in Maine, North Carolina, Texas and Washington.

Even without legislation, states are being encouraged by USDA to use coercive measures to enroll farms and ranches in NAIS. One way is to make people's participation in various popular government programs (disease management, conservation, etc.) contingent upon registering their premises in the federal NAIS database. Some people are even being told they can't take animals to shows or have their kids join 4-H unless they register.

Another technique is even more crude -- enroll people without their knowledge. This is done by mining data from other agencies and merging it into NAIS computers. In an agency report last year, Massachusetts' agriculture commissioner bragged, "We've had great success in integrating the records of municipal animal inspectors into a database for premise registration. While you may not know your premise ID number yet, if you were visited by your animal inspector, you should be in our database." (This is the same guy, by the way, who says it's time to require chickens to be raised indoors. "Tolerance for outdoor poultry will become zero," he proclaimed.)

Once registered in NAIS (voluntarily or surreptitiously), you're pretty much stuck there. Until April, there was no procedure at all to opt out of the system, and the one they offer now leaves it up to USDA -- not you -- as to whether you can get your name, premise and animals out of the database. As USDA puts it, a request for removal must be submitted to your state's top NAIS official, "who'll decide whether to authorize the request." So much for "voluntary."

What USDA can't get by coercion or subterfuge, it's trying to get with cash. Our cash. So far, it has laid out $6 million in grants (some dare call them payoffs) to livestock industry organizations and others to front for NAIS by hyping it and running sign-up campaigns. In June, for example, the Future Farmers of America youth group was given $600,000 to entice its 7,200 local chapters into promoting premise registration in classrooms and at FFA events -- with awards offered to chapters that do the best.

Fighting back

Despite its underhanded tactics, its war chest filled with our tax dollars, and its deceitful rationales, the ag establishment still hasn't been able to hang NAIS around our necks. As one farmer put it, "This thing's so stinky, I wouldn't pull it behind my tractor with 40 feet of rope." Like Bush's Social Security privatization scheme, this proposal profits too few at the expense of too many, and the more people learn about it, the less popular it will be.

While the media barons have mostly missed (or ignored) this story, grassroots forces --especially small farmers -- have done a phenomenal job of spreading information, rallying opposition, confronting politicians who've been going along with such a gross intrusion into our freedoms -- and winning converts.

For example, in Wisconsin, which was the first state to require farmers to register their premises in NAIS's database, the sponsor of the bill now opposes the program. Rep. Barbara Gronemus, a Democrat from a rural district, says she was duped. Appalled by the way it's being implemented and by the financial squeeze it puts on family farmers, she says, "I could just kick myself for putting my name to it now."

In at least 11 states, legislation has been introduced to reject the program, and in Texas and Vermont, aggressive grassroots opposition has forced legislators to back off plans to mandate premise registration. I also know some urban Democrats in Congress who had been supporting NAIS on the assumption that it was a consumer protection program. They've since had "visits" from agitated home folks who helped them see the light. Such visits are producing results. This summer, the House Appropriations Committee pointedly refused to approve any new funds for NAIS, instead demanding "a complete and detailed strategic plan for the program, including tangible outcomes ..." Incredibly, NAIS has gone as far as it has without ever having been subjected to a cost-benefit analysis! At last, the committee has now declared that without being shown some real benefits of such a sweeping ID system, it "has no justification to continue funding the program."

This is a big change in congressional attitude. However, billions of dollars are at stake in getting NAIS implemented, and the profiteers form a powerful lobby that will keep pushing at all levels, by all means. To hold them off requires more of us to learn what they're up to and to join the grassroots rebellion against them. You might not own a chicken or a cow, but you do own some fundamental freedoms that NAIS subverts in its pell-mell pursuit of special-interest profits. Some good people are standing up for those freedoms... find out what you can do to help.

BLOCK NAIS IN THE FARM BILL!

2007-05-25T11:58:00.000-04:00

Urge Congress to Keep NAIS Out of Country of Origin Labeling and the Farm Bill

Action Alert from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance:
Ask the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry to strip section 121 out of the draft Farm Bill!

Farm bill provision on NAIS: A preliminary draft of certain sections of the Farm Bill was released on Wednesday afternoon. Section 121 of the draft would allow the USDA to use a mandatory animal identification system in order to implement Country of Origin Labeling ("COOL"). Current law prohibits mandatory NAIS for COOL, and this would be a move in the wrong direction! You can read the draft provisions of the Farm Bill at http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/2007FarmBill.html. And read more about NAIS and Country of Origin Labeling at http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/NAIS-and-COOL

The Subcommittee met today to discuss the draft. This is our first opportunity - but not the last - to ask Congress to get rid of Section 121 of the draft. Please write, email, fax, or call the Subcommittee. The fight over the Farm Bill is beginning!

Take Action: Call, fax, or write all of the following members:
1) The Honorable Leonard BoswellChairman House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock Dairy and PoultryUnited States House of Representatives Washington D.C. 20515Phone: 202-225-2171Fax: 202-225-8510Email: agriculture@mail.house.gov

2) The Honorable Robin HayesRanking Minority MemberHouse Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock Dairy and Poultry1305 Longworth House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Phone: 202-225-0029Fax: 202-225-0917 Email: AgRepublicanPress@mail.house.gov

3) Any member of the Subcommittee who comes from your state. All of the members are listed below, and it's very important that the members hear from the people within their state.

Message: Please strip Section 121 from the draft Farm Bill. The law prohibiting the USDA from using mandatory animal identification to implement COOL should not be changed, and NAIS should not be put into the Farm Bill.

Members of the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
Name (State), Phone number, Fax number

Leonard L. Boswell, Chair (IA), (p) 202-225-3806, (f) 202-225-5608
Kirsten Gillibrand, Vice-chair (NY), (p) 202-225-5614, (f)202-225-1168
Steve Kagen (WI), (p) 202-225-5665, (f) 202-225-5729
Tim Holden (PA), (p) 202-225-5546, (f) 202-226-0996
Joe Baca (CA), (p) 202-225-6161, (f) 202-225-8671
Dennis Cardoza (CA), (p) 202-225-6131,(f) 202-225-0819
Nicholas Lampson (TX), (p) 202-225-5951, (f)202-225-5241
Joe Donnelly (IN), (p) 202-225-3915, (f) 202-225-6798
Jim Costa (CA), (p) 202-225-3341, (f) 202-225-9308
Timothy Mahoney (FL), (p) 202-225-5792, (f) 202-225-3132
Robin Hayes, Ranking Minority Member (NC), (p) 202-225-3715, (f)202-225-4036
Michael Rogers (AL), (p) 202-225-3261, (f) 202-226-8485
Steve King (IA), (p) 202-225-4426, (f) 202-225-3193
Virginia Foxx (NC), (p)202-225-2071, (f) 202-225-2995
Mike Conaway (TX), (p) 202-225-3605, (f) 202-225-1783
Jean Schmidt (OH), (p) 202-225-3164, (f) 202-225-1992
Adrian Smith (NE), (p) 202-225-6435, (f) 202-225-0207
Tim Walberg (MI), (p) 202-225-6276, (f) 202-225-6281

Talking Points

* Please strip Section 121 from the draft Farm Bill. The law prohibiting the USDA from using mandatory animal identification to implement Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) should not be changed, and NAIS should not be added to the Farm Bill.

* COOL can and should be implemented without mandatory animal identification

* Requiring all imported livestock to be identified with a country of origin marking is enough to implement COOL

* Requiring U.S. cattle producers to individually identify all domestic cattle to prove their eligibility for a USA label is not necessary for COOL. We don't need to know every farm or sales barn an animal has been in order to know it was raised in the U.S.

* Using mandatory animal identification to implement COOL would impose heavy burdens on American farmers and ranchers, in both time and money. NAIS will drive independent ranches and farms in America out of business.

* The purpose of COOL is to provide information so that consumers can choose whether to buy domestic or foreign products and, as a hoped-for result, providing American farmers and ranchers with economic rewards for raising food in this country.

* Mandatory animal identification would harm American farmers and ranchers, contrary to the goal of COOL.

* The right to know where our food comes from will be an empty right if it is purchased at the price of a mandatory animal identification system, such as the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). If mandatory animal ID is implemented, consumers would be fooled into believing that they were supporting American farmers and ranchers through the "Made in the USA" label. Yet more and more of the food labeled that way would be raised by international corporations that are willing and able to comply with NAIS.

For the last 6 months, the focus of the fight against NAIS has been on individual states pushing for anti-NAIS bills. The state-level fight will continue, but it's clear that the federal-level fight is heating up. Please keep educating your friends and neighbors, we have a lot of work in front of us!!

Working together, we can make our voices heard!
Judith McGeary; Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance

CFA & THE 2007 FARM BILL

2007-05-11T11:31:00.001-04:00

This year, Congress will revisit the Farm Bill, an enormous piece of legislation that addresses a wide range of issues including crop subsidies, the Food Stamp and WIC (Women, Infant, and Children) programs, the National School Lunch Program, and conservations easements. In short, the Farm Bill sets the rules for the American (and by extension, global) food system. CFA has joined several national organizations and coalitions to call for a Farm Bill that supports family farmers and our rural and urban communities. In CFA's May newsletters, we published an excerpt of an article written by George Naylor, president of the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC). Below are links to helpful pages that can help explain the Farm Bill, platforms and proposals that CFA has endorsed, and good articles that offer some analysis and perspective on the Farm Bill. Get educated and then contact your Members of Congress and let your voice be heard!

Understanding the Farm Bill

Farm Bill 101: A Quick and Easy Guide to Understanding the Farm Bill
Oxfam America's guide to the Farm Bill.

Federal Sustainable Agriculture Primer
National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture's primer that explains all the programs funded through the Farm Bill, what they do, who administers them, application and eligibility guidelines, etc.

Platforms & Proposals

Food from Family Farms Act
An “alternative Farm Bill” drafted by the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) that addresses the connection between domestic agriculture policy, international trade and the need to respect food sovereignty (the right of every country to establish its own food and farm policy and meet its basic food needs through domestic production). The Act details how market price supports, farmer-owned reserves, and conservation compliance can work together to ensure fair prices while meeting food security, humanitarian, and energy needs.

Seeking Balance in U.S. Farm and Food Policy
The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) was a member of The Farm and Food Policy Project (FFPP), a collaboration that produced this comprehensive policy statement on how American agriculture can be renewed. The FFPP has also launched a website which lets individuals sign an on-line letter to Congress to show support for policies which advance fresh, local, and healthy foods in the 2007 Farm Bill.

Farm, Nutrition, and Community Investment Act
The Farm, Nutrition, and Community Investment Act (H.R. 2144), introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), is a comprehensive farm and food policy package that addresses nutrition, healthy diets, conservation, dairy, and new markets, including renewable energy, and local food systems. The Act is what is called a "marker bill"— it’s not intended to be voted on, just to express the opinions of the legislators. Click here for more analysis of this proposal.

Farm Bill Articles & Perspectives

"The 2007 Farm Bill: What We Need and Why" by George Naylor
Makes the case for price supports rather than crop subsidies.

“You Are What You Grow” by Michael Pollan
Cleverly connects the dots between the overproduction of commodity crops to the abundance of cheap junk food in the American diet.

“Rethinking School Lunch” by Amy Dillard & Lisa Holmes
Explores the relationship between the Farm Bill and school lunches.

ACT NOW TO PREVENT PRO-NAIS REGULATIONS IN KENTUCKY!

2007-05-03T16:11:00.000-04:00

Very soon, the State Vet's office at the KY Department of Agriculture will submit new regulations concerning animal identification, movement and health status of all livestock. In the last CFA NEWS, we reported that after CFA testified at the public hearing and submitted written comments, KDA had withdrawn the proposed NAIS regulations for Kentucky. Now, KDA and the State Vet’s Office have decided to resubmit regulations similar to the NAIS program for Kentucky.

Once the revised set of regulations are filed, there will be a thirty day comment period and a public hearing sponsored by KDA to hear public input on these regulations. CFA members disagree with the proposed regulations and see them as an attempt to ease Kentucky into the NAIS program, and will resubmit written comments explaining this position and testify at the public hearing in opposition. CFA requested that KDA publicize the new regulations as well as information related to the comment period and public hearing by sending a press release to county papers across the state.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Join CFA Today and Help Us Stop NAIS! Several CFA members and producers across the state are concerned and have decided to hold house meetings and roundtable discussions about NAIS and these new regulations. If you would like to be a part of these discussions, or would like to host a house or barn party…
Contact Kaycie Len Carter at the Frankfort CFA office: Kayciecfa@bellsouth.net, or 502-223-3655

To read the new regulations, you may request a copy from the State Vet’s Office. Once the regulations have been filed, you may submit written comments on the regulations to prevent them from being approved.

Contact the State Veterinarian:
Office of the State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Stout, DVM
100 Fair Oaks Lane STE 252 Frankfort, KY 40601 (502) 564-3956

robert.stout@ky.gov

2007-03-23T15:32:00.000-04:00

House Bill 120 Passed!
Now Awaiting Governor to Sign Into Law

Look for freshly prepared Kentucky Grown and cooked foods at your local farmer's market this season!

A very special thank you to all of you CFA members and friends out there who contacted your legislators seeking support for the bill.

(Pictured from left to right: HB 120 Sponsor, Representative Jim Wayne with CFA Board Members Ivor Chodkowski and John Brumley in the capitol annex building just before the bill was heard by the Senate Agriculture Committee. )

TAKE ACTION!

2007-02-21T12:41:00.000-05:00

Contact your Senator today! Ask them to support HB 120!

To find your legislator’s contact information, click here
-or-
Call the LRC message line to leave a message for your Senator: 1-800-372-7181

What Will This House Bill 120 Do?

This legislation concerning food handler’s permits at farmer’s markets gives farmers more flexibility. The new language amends the current law to allow farmers to receive a temporary food handler’s permit to cook and sell their fresh goods at the market for 6 months. This law gives farmers the flexibility to apply for one permit at the beginning of the market season that will last until the season is over. The bill allows farmers to prepare, sell, and sample their cooked foods at the market for 2 days per week per market.

To view a copy of the bill, click here.

Why is This Necessary?

Under the existing law, farmers could only sell cooked food on a temporary permit for 14 days. At the end of the 14 days, they had to wait another 30 days before they could get another temporary food permit to cook and sell their fresh products at the market.

HB 120 amends KRS 217.125 allowing the health department to issue temporary food handler’s permits for 6 months, forgoing the 14 days on, 30 days off scenario.

To hear what farmers have to say about HB 120, check out the latest CFA NEWS

What’s Happening?

HB 120 was pre-filed before the 2007 legislative session of the Kentucky General Assembly, which is now in progress.

The bill was introduced on the House floor January 5.

Passed the House Agriculture Committee February 7.

Passed unanimously (96-0) in the House February 15.

Introduced in the Senate February 16. Assigned to the agriculture committee.

Urge your legislators to support Kentucky’s diversifying family farmers.

– Support HB 120 –