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My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)
If you've stood in line at a farmers' market recently, you know that the local food movement is thriving, to the point that small farmers are having a tough time keeping up with the demand.
But consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers' markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.
As a small organic vegetable producer in southern Minnesota, I know this because my efforts to expand production to meet regional demand have been severely hampered by the Agriculture Department's commodity farm program. As I've looked into the politics behind those restrictions, I've come to understand that this is precisely the outcome that the program's backers in California and Florida have in mind: they want to snuff out the local competition before it even gets started.
Last year, knowing that my own 100 acres wouldn't be enough to meet demand, I rented 25 acres on two nearby corn farms. I plowed under the alfalfa hay that was established there, and planted watermelons, tomatoes and vegetables for natural-food stores and a community-supported agriculture program.
All went well until early July. That's when the two landowners discovered that there was a problem with the local office of the Farm Service Administration, the Agriculture Department branch that runs the commodity farm program, and it was going to be expensive to fix.
The commodity farm program effectively forbids farmers who usually grow corn or the other four federally subsidized commodity crops (soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton) from trying fruit and vegetables. Because my watermelons and tomatoes had been planted on "corn base" acres, the Farm Service said, my landlords were out of compliance with the commodity program.
I've discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future. (The penalties apply only to fruits and vegetables - if the farmer decides to grow another commodity crop, or even nothing at all, there's no problem.)
In my case, that meant I paid my landlords $8,771 - for one season alone! And this was in a year when the high price of grain meant that only one of the government's three crop-support programs was in effect; the total bill might be much worse in the future.
In addition, the bureaucratic entanglements that these two farmers faced at the Farm Service office were substantial. The federal farm program is making it next to impossible for farmers to rent land to me to grow fresh organic vegetables.
Why? Because national fruit and vegetable growers based in California, Florida and Texas fear competition from regional producers like myself. Through their control of Congressional delegations from those states, they have been able to virtually monopolize the country's fresh produce markets.
That's unfortunate, because small producers will have to expand on a significant scale across the nation if local foods are to continue to enter the mainstream as the public demands. My problems are just the tip of the iceberg.
Last year, Midwestern lawmakers proposed an amendment to the farm bill that would provide some farmers, though only those who supply processors, with some relief from the penalties that I've faced - for example, a soybean farmer who wanted to grow tomatoes would give up his usual subsidy on those acres but suffer none of the other penalties. However, the Congressional delegations from the big produce states made the death of what is known as Farm Flex their highest farm bill priority, and so it appears to be going nowhere, except perhaps as a tiny pilot program.
Who pays the price for this senselessness? Certainly I do, as a Midwestern vegetable farmer. But anyone trying to do what I do on, say, wheat acreage in the Dakotas, or rice acreage in Arkansas would face the same penalties. Local and regional fruit and vegetable production will languish anywhere that the commodity program has influence.
Ultimately of course, it is the consumer who will pay the greatest price for this - whether it is in the form of higher prices I will have to charge to absorb the government's fines, or in the form of less access to the kind of fresh, local produce that the country is crying out for.
Farmers need the choice of what to plant on their farms, and consumers need more farms like mine producing high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables to meet increasing demand from local markets - without the federal government actively discouraging them.
Jack Hedin is a farmer.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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62 Comments so far
Show AllJust a thought - maybe the subsidies are designed to ensure food security. This involves storable/stable foodstuffs. Fruit and vegetables rarly fit this objective.
Have you visited your local corporate pig farm lately? Very sad.
The huge agri-business companies get massive taxpayer subsidies.
As consumers we can make a difference by buying local organic foods.
As citizens we need to understand the extent of farm subsidies.
Have you visited your local corporate egg farm lately?
http://slacktide.typepad.com/slacktide/2004/03/vegans_and_the_.html
As a farmer myself I've gained much 'nurishment' at the government teat. I don't particularly like it, but this is what we've been stuck with and in order to compete for land one must follow the rules. A few years ago I had a letter to the editor published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press expressing my view that direct government payments to farmers merely because of historic cropping was idiotic. I also expressed scepticism for payments when prices were low, because they tend to support American farmers while leaving 3rd world agriculture with poor prices and no safety net. I said the only worthwhile program was federallly subsidized crop insurance which helps with weather-related problems and costs the tax-payer very little. This still makes sense to me, but with entrenched government programs it is very difficult to make changes that wean the addicted from their free lunch.
Farmers are taken for granted.
In medieval Japan the highest profession was said to be farmer, the lowest was merchant.
The reverse is true today.
Remind me once again...what is the Republican/Conservative/Corporate Democrat mantra? LET THE FREE MARKET PREVAIL.
But that only applies if the "Free Market" is made up of the corporate interests who donate large amounts of campaign funds and can afford to place extremely well-paid lobbyists in the halls of Congress.
By all means, give lip-service to the small business person and convince him/her that liberalism/environmentalism is anti-small business to garner the support but in the end, the folks at the top of the heap really have only one interest in mind and action and that's the big, corporate conglomerate.
I'm 64 and I've come to realize that the only way to make the system work for the grassroots (that's you and me) is to make all politics relevant to your home town. Always ask what's good for your town. If you believe that means clean water, decent food, and chemical-free playgrounds and schools, then lobby and vote appropriately.
Have a binding referendum on the issue.
We should all be growing and exchanging vegetable and herbs from our backyards. To heck with the money economy.
US agricultural subsidies play a much more devastating role in developing countries. Most Americans don't realize that their tax dollars are subsidizing food and fiber products, negatively lowering their prices on the world market. Because these subsidized products are exported to other countries at below the costs of production, usually as part of a trade agreement monitored by the World Bank and World Trade Organization, the local farmers in those countries can't make a living. Many thousands in India have committed suicide out of desperation. Many have been forced to buy GM cotton and other seeds from Monsanto and other biotech companies as a result of agreements between their state and national governments. Many in other countries just join the masses of starving and/or take up arms just on the promise of regular meals.
The situation noted in the above article is, in itself, unconscionable, but that is American agribiz at its core. There has been a policy since the 1940's to institute rules, regulations, and attitudes to make the small farm obsolete, a nostalgic curiosity without relevance. Hail the organic movement and the buy local initiative. Both have grown in popularity and process in the last couple of decades to the point that it has the big boys of agribiz nervous. Some have declared resistance through regulations as noted in the above article, others have done it with threats and lawsuits which stipulate that the small, independent farmers, almost always on the losing side, can't even discuss the case for fear of further legal action. It's like, "We've kicked your butt, but you can't tell the public how badly." Imposing a gag order in situations like this is the norm, not the exception.
Anything anyone can do through their purchases of local or organic foods, petitions to their elected officials, support of organizations that support local and organic, and letter writing, complaining to the agribiz companies that grow and supply the bulk of the produce in your grocery stores can have a strong impact. Citizen action is a powerful tool that has been tested extensively in the organic movement, which has won many issues against agribusiness, the USDA, and even against organic agribiz within the organic movement, which is always trying to water down the National Organic Standards in the name of more profits for their share-holders.
I read this item first at another forum and sent it to my list of family and friends. Farm/food policy is absolutely insane and is headed for a crisis. Only People Power will change it. Food not Lawns is a good place to start.
The whole system of farming is rigged against people who want to buy food for their table, not "commodities". Real farmers provide food for people. That's what they want to do. Corporate agriculture's only interest is growing profits. Government's only interest is GDP and profit growth. Corporations and the government have proven that they don't give a hoot anbout real farmers or the real people that need the food they grow to stay alive.
America now imports over 40% of it's food for the people. Why is that? And not only is the price of commodities like corn and wheat sky rocketing, with the value of the dollar tanking, the cost of those imports are also sky rocketing. The result of all of this is that the only affordable food will have to be domestic. With the rising cost of fuel, the only reasonable option is going to be locally grown food. Either that, or we all are going to have to have our own gardens. Which isn't such a bad idea either.
The government has to get out of the way of the people and farmers that not want, but ultimately will have to have, locally produced farm products to survive. The whole focus of the Farm Bill and farm policy has to be turned away from sustaining profits to sustaining people. And I don't see that as a real possiblity anytime soon.
The only alternative is what I call Community Food Sovereignty. We have to join together in our own communities to not only support our local farmers, but to create a movement to join all the available soils, including lawns, backyards,and decks to cooperatively produce food for and with our neighbors.
At the heart of the US Agriculture is GM tech, and Ag chemical companies. Policy will support the domination of Monsanto, and other companies like them. The subsidies "herd" farmers toward a particular corral, and most farmers don't even notice. Their behavior has been studied very meticulously. Farm shows, TV Farm programs, Federal and State Farm Bureau's have been taken over by carefully marketing savvy Monsanto and the like. F. William Engdahl, a very intelligent author and researcher has written some articles about it, and has a book out, explaining their global initiative and the scope of their reach into government. The site is www.engdahl.oilpolitics.net/GMO/Monsanto/monsanto.html or just google William Engdahl. Very good reading to understand the governments agriculture policies.
jadedprole is absolutely right.
Last year my family and I turned a sizeable portion of our ordinary backyard into a micro-farm. We are still eating vegetables this winter from that effort--and we are only just getting started maximizing our yield. Bags of veggies handed over the fence to the neighbors went a long way toward creating community connections and the beginnings of a local barter economy. (We got back help taking down an old tree and a mighty fine pot of green chile). No money involved!!
The work is satisfying, and not nearly as "backbreaking" as people who've never tried it are so quick to complain. It provides labor the whole family can contribute to and feel good about.
I'm convinced that personal food production is not just a quaint twist on the slow food movement: It is an absolute necessity if we want anything remotely like food security during the coming collapse. Ask Russian gardners. Ask a Cuban.
Plant some food! Give it away!
I'm growing herbs on my kitchen table. One plant's doing great, three aren't doing so hot, but I'm just getting started :(. Before you ask, I've no other spot for plants. I'm using florescent lamp light to add to the sketchy light I've got in the house, this apartment's not fantastic...
*
I've already used some in my cooking...not half bad!
CraftyZan
That is a good place to start to re-establish your relationship with the food you eat and where you live. Try and find a place where you can grow things in the earth if possible, that will give you more information and energy to change things. Toss out the florescent lamp, and move.
Then you can work on taking the chloride and floridation out of your water. Floide is a poison, the by-product of industrial fertilizer and you don't want that in your water.
Jadedprole, I really appreciated your post about growing your own food and creating community through home veggie gardening and sharing. Can you recommend an online community for fellow veggie gardeners who share this ideal?
f--k the USDA.
forget the food crops...grow dope
Seems a little strange, but does anyone conside 100 to 125 acre vegetable farm small. How many migrant workers do they employ? This seems like the pot calling the kettle black. Big farms are fine with me but playing the small-farmer card seems pretty pitiful.
Try to get access to a few square meters of land with sun (a community garden, if not your own space) to start growing something that will truly enhance your diet, say some greens. Add that to rice and beans and you are well on your way. If you live where its cool or cold, Collards or Kale will provide food into the fall. Actually I've been able to go into the garden when its below 0deg.F, kick the snow off the Kale, snap off a few leaves, rinse, and toss it into the stew. Mmmmm....
Everyone needs to have a garden. The the yard, the patio, the rooftops.
The absurdities and iniquities of the farm/food issues are problematic today due to manipulation of well intended programs from the past- we just need to change them. Changing them would be a lot easier if we went back to democracy as a political model(one person one vote not one dollar one vote). But be warned, the greater enemy to a farm policy that encourages farmers like Mr. Hedin is a consciousness, both personal and national, against the rural independent life style and it's economic handmaiden, small proprietary business. The preferred ethos favors the city/industrial- consumer model. Makers of widgets, and mega store associates, need to eat! The huge accumulation of capital and it's drive for monopoly,result in dysfunctional cities.The food giants serve the masses toxic and unhealthy food. Yet I still hear the chorus from the gargantuan population corralled in cities and their suburbs, directed by fat cats and lap dogs, sing loud for cheap food,cheap food- not honest and healthy food. I hope they will learn they are off key!!!
The government owns the word "Organic", and their corporate boys are protecting the qualifications requirements for use of the word.
It must be frghtening to know that the peasants could be feeding themselves before the ownership of all farms become corporate. Trading in non traceable greenbacks to boot. Do I smell a revolution for dinner?
Jack Hedin wrote:
.....Farmers need the choice of what to plant on their farms, and consumers need more farms like mine producing high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables to meet increasing demand from local markets - without the federal government actively discouraging them.....
I could not agree more, and everyone I know supports what you are saying here 110%.
Jack, what can we DO to help?
I'm in Boston, MA. The (supply) problems here in New England probably have more to do with the relatively short growing season and continued loss of good farmland to development than with the commodity farm program issue.
HOWEVER, the urban Farmers' Market sphere has been THRIVING on this end of the state with 22 sites in the City of Boston alone from June through October. The local and regional growers love it and we love it, but it looks like demand is soon going to be exceeding supply here as well, for the above-mentioned reasons.
Some of us have been getting our produce delivered to our doors by Boston Organics this winter. They do a GREAT job and try insofar as possible to provide locally-grown produce depending on the season and general availability. In the summer we also support the Farmers' Markets. Also, we choose locally-grown produce when we shop in the area food co-ops and natural food stores (and even some of the bigger supermarkets at this point.)
Bottom line, we are committed to encouraging and SUPPORTING local growers.
So, aside from all of this, what else can we do to help with the situation you are describing in your excellent article? I was not aware until now of what you are telling us and I'm pretty angry about it, frankly.
I'm going to pass this article around this week.
If you're reading this, please let us know how people can help. Is there a web site specific to this particular situation?
Thank you.
Redmarigold: "I really appreciated your post about growing your own food and creating community through home veggie gardening and sharing. Can you recommend an online community for fellow veggie gardeners who share this ideal?"
Even better than an online group is to seek out fellow gardeners in your area. It's a little hard to swap veggies over the ether. Many cities have community gardens or non-profits devoted to gardening.
Look for continuing ed classes on composting, etc.
Cruise farmer's markets and gravitate to the local tables.
In mid-summer get nosey and start looking over fences to see who's growing, then knock on the door and introduce yourself.
This fall I noticed a house nearby that had a huge pile of scrap lumber out back. I was looking for wood to build raised veggie beds with, so I went to the door to see if I could haul it away for them. The owner of the house was a delightful 80 year-old man who helped me move it. I promised him veggies next summer and it turns out he has three peach trees that produce more than he knows what to do with. Guess where I will be next fall?
Here's my point: That's the kind of community that awaits anyone willing to break the barriers between us and talk. Share. And for God's sake, forget about money changing hands!
Be well and be free.
hydrocarbonman says "Even better than an online group is to seek out fellow gardeners in your area. It's a little hard to swap veggies over the ether. Many cities have community gardens or non-profits devoted to gardening."
craigslist?
a comment: i often wondered how people got rid of their excess zucchini while the grocery stores charged more for them in season than for their bananas.
Rebel Farmer wrote:
.....The only alternative is what I call Community Food Sovereignty. We have to join together in our own communities to not only support our local farmers, but to create a movement to join all the available soils, including lawns, backyards,and decks to cooperatively produce food for and with our neighbors.....
That's a great idea.
While there are an increasing number of community garden sites in many urban and suburban areas, the concept of "joining all available soils" has not been actively explored as yet. I think this idea would be very well-received!
Good comments and ideas, folks. I'd like to suggest a web site which you all will be interested in. Go to;
www.simplicityforum.org/speakersbureau.jmerkel.html
I saw part of a 35 minute documentary by Mr. Merkel and he is simply, sensational! Check out the simplicityliving web site and other speakers as well.
Peace and Harmony all over the world
Federal farm policy is based on the generic loan racket. The loan recipient receives an apparent benefit, instant money, but loses in the end with interest payments. So the farmer gets the subsidies but later finds he is enslaved. It's the same old capitalist same old. Better to limit your exchange to the locals. Now the capitalist will point out that this will revert you to a subsistence economy. As usual the capitalist is lying. In order to rise above the subsistence economy you either have to place your trust in far-flung capitalists or.. something else.. How about educating the people so they know when and how to cut the capitalist's water on and off, and keep him honest? Naa? Ok, then you have two options: subsistence economy or slavery to capital.
The Edible Forest Garden - http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/about_book
Upcoming workshop in sw New Hampshire conducted by the author: http://www.emersonbrookforest.org/
Also links to related projects in the region. Concepts include urban-suburban rethinking of small plots of land being reconfigured for edible sustainability. Exploring scales and concepts beyond one's own use broaden vision and networking.
Jack Hedin`s 125 acres would be considered a small farm if it was planted to a commodity crop. However that many acres of organic vegetables would be quite a large operation requiring a large investment, much expensive equipment , and a considerable labor force.
Most other farmers know they have to comply with regulations and need to check any changes in operations before starting. It seems that 100 acres of veggies should be enough to support a large family so unless he planned to supply Minnesota he was not too bad off without the extra land.
It is very interesting to have people that plan to raise a garden size plot of veggies expound on what the entire country should be doing with our gigantic commodity and food industry. Of course it is not perfect, but people in this country have a stable food supply at a reasonable price compared to other countries.
If the new farm bill is not passed by March 15, everything will revert to a long gone procedure, and no one has any idea what that will consist of, so we may as well relax until that situation is resolved.
Craigslist as a veggie coop organizer is a possibility, but still not as much fun as getting out and walking the neighborhood.
In fact, my ideal definition of viable community is "within walking distance." Not always possible, but a good goal to shoot for, since energy reality will probably impose that on us sooner or later anyway.
Peace
rtdrury, Excellent!
Monopolistic agricultural farms and food processors have been systematically ridding the country of small family farms for decades. Thirty years ago a few small farmers in Southern California that grew organically grown fruits and vegetables told me the government made sure they paid the maximum price for water and denied many claims for assistance when severe weather conditions caused crop failures. Some were fourth generation tillers of the soil and it was heartbreaking listening to their stories. A few finally gave up and sold the farm to real estate "developers."
Communal coops along with individual farming and gardening is practical, economical, and environmentally sustainable. The key factor in this is saving seeds. With limited space, a portion of the crop must go to seed for future plantings. If you rely on the parasitical companies like Monsanto, their seeds might not germinate for the next planting because of genetic engineering.
Those of you with heirloom seeds, cherish them and make sure the varieties are saved for future plantings.
Hydrocarbonman, Amen to " your definition of viable community is within walking distance."
I love Paris, France, where a car is unnecessary to get around within the city. They have a top-notch subway system and two million bicycles for people to use.
Two websites the above readers may appreciate: www.growingpower.org discussing a world-renowned urban community agriculture program in Milwaukee and Chicago and www.kitchengardeners.org a monthly discussion of sustainable local food systems and fresh food preparation.
So much for the "free market" propaganda we're constantly being fed.
I am so much on your side - farmers are one of only two or three primary professions that actually increase the wealth by producing something new and tangible. (It doesn't hurt that it's edible, either.)
Is there a workaround? Parcel up the land, rent to sub-tenant hobby farmers - tiny lots - let people pay to grow their own crops and pay a fee to the parceller. So people can either come every day and do the work themselves on their little half acre (you could offer advice, like a hobby teacher), or you can do it for them and charge a fee. Either way, you charge a fee - which could be a portion of the crop - and you sell that. You have a meeting, decide on what crops y'all want to grow as a group this season, so it ends up profitable for everybody. And then y'all rent a space, put up market booths and sell the surplus. Lots of colour and character ought to bring in the customers - make it look like a Farmers' Market Fair thing.
Just change the structure, give it a clever name and bypass that extortion of a "free market" system.
I dunno - it sounded like a good idea at the time. there's got to be a way to stick it to the bullies and lobbyists.
One easy way to end it all--end ALL subsidies (subsidies for milk, produce, commodity crops, oil, pollution). All we're doing is raising our taxes so we can get lower prices on things (with of course, the competition-elimination laws that effect how the subsidies are distributed.
There is a great website at www.lawnstogardens.com dedicated to this subject
With due credit to Gil Scott Heron, The Revolution will not be televised. We will be too busy sharing food and dancing with neighbors.
The return of the victory gardens!
If you are interested in the amounts paid as subsidies to your friends and neighbors in the farming community, you can look it all up at www.ewg.org.
I'm not against turning commodity land to fruit and vegetable land, but how do you grow "organic" crops when the previous crop has been saturated with pesticides for years on end? I thought that there was a very long period needed to extract all the poisons from the soil before this ground can be certified organic.
goner, I've read that a minimum of three years of being pesticide-free and synthetic-fertilizer free is required for it to be certified as organic. Check out wikipedia on this, but I've also read that elsewhere.
We can purchase wonderful organic veggies at Farmers Markets. We can buy crap at Farmers Markets. ___ Beware.___
From personal experience, I know this. I have seen long haul truckers bringing produce from Nogales, Arizona or California to the New York Metro areas supermarket warehouses. Sometimes their loads are rejected by the warehouse inspector or manager and the trucker then leaves and sells his load to a "Farmers Market" broker.
Why was the load rejected? One reason would be, the rig's trailer smelled of chemicals. You see, a trucker hauls a load out of the west and then if they can't get a load of some type for their return trip, they either dead head home, or opt out for a load of trash and haul that rotting garbage to Pennsylvania or Ohio, it's good money and pays for their fuel and expenses on the return trip. There are literally hundreds of tractor trailer loads of garbage every day, travelling from New York to Pa and Ohio.
Those garbage loads often may contain chemicals of one type or another. Then if they don't thoroughly steam clean their trailer before they pick up another load of produce, they contaminate that next load of produce with chemicals. The Farmers Market broker then sells the produce to dealers who sell it at swap meets, or at Farmers Markets, or from good old family road side stands, usually claiming it is organic, home grown produce.
So "buyer beware". The next time you are at a Farmers Markt, or a Flee Market, or at aroad side farmers stand on the East Coast, look around behind the dealers stand and see how many empty produce boxes are labeled from California, South America or Mexico. The same stuff you can purchse at your local supermarket at a lower price and at the super market it is less likely to be poisoned with chemicals or sat for a day or two without proper refrigeration.
There are thousands of legitimate Farmers Market dealers. There are also some fake dealers, who are decieving the public, claiming their produce is "organic", fresh off of their farms. And no, I never hauled produce, but my once next door neighbor did and I've smelled his parked refrigerated trailer many times, a smell of chemicals. He told me why.
Food fascism ... next thing you know, having a garden in your back yard will be illegal.
This is a little off the subject but I think it applies here as well. Why isn't marijuana legal? Because everyone that wants to can grow it, and they don't need big agribusiness nor the Pharmaceutical companies to grow it.
This leaves them out of the picture and with no money to gain - that's why one of the safest drugs (except in its super powerful forms today) is illegal while alcohol - which causes damage in a multitude of ways - is legal.
Thanks for the tip, Kem Patrick.
Kem, Here's a story about an owner-operator from Tennesee. Nothing to do with hauling produce.
www.timesleader.com/business/20080302_02_truckers_biz_ART.htm
sdw917, You knows, we might be growing food for the terrorists. Anything is possible in this (thanks to the Democrats) illegal administration. I can see it now An organic farmer growing food for family and friends being grilled in Congress by Feinstein, Shumer, Specter, and overseen by Mukasey.