A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday December 21,2002
(Continued from Page A 29)
competitive market situation
would reward dairy producers
and consumers as well.
America's dairy farmers and
consumers currently appear not
to be gaining any visible benefit
in the marketplace. The lack of
market competition that exists in
the dairy industry allows the few
largest companies to dominate
the market not through efficien
cy, but through monopoly. A
competitive market would benefit
both consumers and dairy pro
ducers.
National Farmers Union is
urging Congress to hold hearings
to determine whether lack of
market competition within the
dairy industry is resulting in
price gouging that is harming
both consumers and producers.
In years past, consumers benefit
ed when cereal manufacturers re
sponded to congressional ques-
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tions by announcing they would
lower cereal prices.
Similar action is now needed in
the dairy industry to stop the un
just milking of American con
sumers and those who produce
their food.
Dave Frcdcrickson
President
National Farmers Union
Editor.
I’m a subscriber and a farmer,
and really don’t understand what
you folks must be thinking when
you run an editorial like “Who
Calls the Shots” in the Dec. 14
issue.
Our township supervisors,
being composed entirely of farm
ers and rural neighbors, passed a
resolution against factory corpo
rate farming. An absentee inves
tor of a local factory hog farm
threatened to sue the township if
the resolution didn’t exclude him.
That hog farm ruins the quality
of life for farm neighbors tor
miles around. None are “subur
banites, activists, or environmen
talists," just ordinary longtime
rural people who can’t stand the
smell of large, absentee-owned
factory hog farms!
To me, it’s a triumph for de
mocracy that the Pennsylvania
House has refused to pass Senate
Bill 1413, an amendment to the
so-called “Right to Farm" Bill.
Now, I understand and sympa
thize with farmers who are just
trying to make a living. And I
support those farmers whose live
lihood is threatened when subur
banites move into farm areas and
complain.
But my concern is more about
how large corporations tell
the state, the public, and
the lawmakers (whose
pockets they line with
cash) what laws to pass or
reject. Plus, most of us
have known for years that
the Farm Bureau has never
represented the interests of
small family farms (take a
look at “Amber Waves of
Gain" published online by
Defenders of Wildlife,
www.Defenders.org, under
“publications” for a history
of how the Farm Bureau
has actively worked to put
family farms out of
business!).
If Lancaster Farm
ing wants the support
of family farmers, it
needs to listen to
them. Its elected
township supervisors,
local farm organiza
tions, and farmers
themselves who are di
rectly affected by fac
tory and corporate
farms. Township gov
ernments are the cor
nerstone of democracy
in Pennsylvania. And
whether they’re trying
to stop urban toxic
sludge from being
spread or the building
of corporate hog fac
tories, they need to
maintain their power
and effectiveness. We
need to support them,
not the interests of
large-scale corporate
ag which, in the end,
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hurts family farms and rural
America. If you want a reader
ship and a farm population in
the future, support them and
their ability to decide about mat
ters such as factory farming.
The Farm Bureau and corpo
rate agribusiness mouthpieces
like PennAg should be relegated
to the backwaters of influence in
our region. And your periodical
should not be echoing their
views.
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