While Michigan pantries are bare, farmers forced to dump bumper crops

I wish there was something else we could do with the harvest as well besides just dumping it...The problem is that someone needs to organize the whole operation and distribution, and that costs money (especially distribution). Years ago, people would have had no problem with public funding for such an operation.

This is exactly what was done until Cargill VP, Dan Amstruz wrote the "Freedom to Farm Act" of 1996. The USDA stored excess crops, and exported it as USAID to the needy. However the grain traders saw this kept the price of grain down so they "fixed" the system.

The last of the stored grain is gone. This leaves the world ripe for a crop failure induced famine. I and several other farmers have written about this problem for years but until there is famine in the USA no one is going to listen. By then the rest of the plans, to move all food growing into corporate hands, will be done.

This article, A solemn walk through HR 875 Shows the Corporate Cartel's intent to to have a monopoly on food production.

In 1997

“Ten corporations now control nearly every aspect of the world's food chain. Four control 90 per cent of the world's exports of corn, wheat, tobacco, tea, ...” Source

If you do not think the US government isn't hand in glove with the Corporate Cartel read this. As Kissinger said back in the 1970’s, ‘Control the oil and you can control entire Continents. Control food and you control people…

’Translated into lay language, D&PL officially declares the purpose of its Patent No. 5,723,765, Control of Plant Gene Expression, is to prevent farmers who once get trapped into buying transgenic or GMO seeds from a company such as Monsanto or Syngenta, from ‘brown bagging’ or being able to break free of control of their future crops by Monsanto and friends. As D&PL puts it, their patent gives them ‘the prospect of opening significant worldwide seed markets to the sale of transgenic technology in varietal crops in which crop seed currently is saved and used in subsequent seasons as planting seed.’

In a June 1998 interview, USDA spokesman, Willard Phelps, defined the US Government policy on Terminator seeds. He explained that USDA wanted the technology to be ‘widely licensed and made expeditiously available to many seed companies.’ He meant agribusiness GMO giants like Monsanto, DuPont or Dow. The USDA was open about their reasons:

They wanted to get Terminator seeds into the developing world where the Rockefeller Foundation had made eventual proliferation of genetically engineered crops the heart of its GMO strategy from the beginnings of its rice genome project in 1984.

USDA’s Phelps stated that the US Government’s goal in fostering the widest possible development of Terminator technology was ‘to increase the value of proprietary seed owned by US seed companies and to open up new markets in Second and Third World countries.’ www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">Source

The IPC, An unholy alliance of Ag Corporations and government reps, wanted and got open borders and no quarantine through the ratification of the World Trade Agreement Agreement on Agriculture, The result is that the USA exports 700,000 tons of quality beef while importing 1,500,000 tons from countries with: Naegleria fowler, Encephalitis, Vesicular Stomatitis viruses, Leptospirosis,  Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), and foot and mouth disease.  The US imports 2.5 million live cattle from Canada with BSE (now found in USA) and from Mexico with tuberculosis (now found in USA), brucellosis (now found in USA) cattle tick fever, (now found in USA)  Trypanosoma cruz,, (now found in USA), Bluetongue (now found in USA), and Vesicular stomatitis. (I have too many ref to list)

After ratification of the WTO AoA the USDA and FDA implemented the international HACCP rules and started shutting down US testing labs. This is the real reason we saw an upsurge of food illness.

Under the HACCP rule, industry is responsible for assessing potential food safety hazards and systematically preventing and controlling those hazards. FSIS is responsible for verifying that establishments’ HACCP systems are working Source

Even the Food inspectors union knows that HACCP doesn't work but the USDA silenced the union.
Apr 17, 2008 Testimony:Mr. Stan Painter, Chairman, National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals:
December 2004 Union president Stan Painter receive reports from union member that SRM regulations are not uniformly enforced. Painter writes to the Assistant FSIS Administrator for Field Operation about enforcement problem. USDA responses by placed Painter on disciplinary investigation status and contacts the USDA Office of Inspector General about filing criminal charges.

It (the recall of Hallmark/Westland Meat) highlights one of the problems that we have attempted to raise with the agency ever since 1996 when the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) inspection system was put in place. There seems to be too much reliance on an honor system for the industry to police itself. While the USDA investigation is still on going at Hallmark/Westland, a couple of facts have emerged that point to a system that can be gamed by those who want to break the law. It (HACCP) shifted the responsibility for food safety over to the companies .
December 2004 Freedom of Information Act requests
August 2005 Over 1000 non-compliance reports – weighing some 16 pounds -- were turned overdomesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow"> Source

In the USA farmers are told by the transnational corporations what they will be paid for a crop according to a PEW report.  "Meat, poultry, and dairy producers have overall been cutting back the sizes of herds and flocks."    “instead of making roughly $50 a head, the ranch lost as much as $135 on every head of cattle sold..” 
Financial reports show 20 straight months of cattle being sold at a loss in 2008.   

Bovine tuberculosis is fast becoming an important reason that carcasses are being condemned as unsafe in American beef packing plants. The number of carcasses found infected is 15 times higher than in 1986. Dr. Billy Johnson, said about 80 percent of the condemned carcasses were traced back to animals raised in Mexico.” Source

The sun acting weird.  NASA Headline: Deep Solar Minimum...“Since the Space Age began in the 1950s, solar activity has been generally high,” notes Hathaway. “Five of the ten most intense solar cycles on record have occurred in the last 50 years. We’re just not used to this kind of deep calm.” ...sun’s brightness has dropped by 0.02% at visible wavelengths and a whopping 6% at extreme UV wavelengths since the solar minimum of 1996”  NASA now say we maybe in a Gleissberg minumum

This may mean in the future, Canada and parts of Russia will no longer be able to grow grain according to some predictions.

This all makes me sick. My husband got involved in helping at a sidewalk food distribution/kitchen to help feed homeless in his city. He got tired of seeing and hearing about the people who were hungry, and how the only food kitchen they had were turning people away due to lack of resources.

Anyway, the county came and shut them down, and fined them so bad they didn't go back and set up the kitchen.

They don't want you to be self sufficient. We all can be self sufficient. We can help one another, feed one another, and have enough to get by. But they come and shut you down and stop you from becoming self sufficient so that you live like a beggar, begging the govt to help you.

Regardless of what we feel about the hippies, the communes, etc. Those people got it right for awhile. Get out of the city. Get on a farm. Grow your own. Feed your neighbor. Then the govt put a stop to that.

I'm so tired of seeing stories about people starving. Saw something on the news about Detroit and armed guards having to guard food being distributedon corners. It's disgusting and sickening.

Originally posted by nasdack24k

It may be similar to socialism, but to give the food to charity is also quite logical in this situation.

Hard-line capitalists like to spout off how the "free market" keeps itself in check, yet they have to pull stunts like this in order for it to work.

Hard-line free-market types have been opposing this farm regulation crap for decades.

If you're thinking neo-cons, neo-libs or corporatists are free-market types you've got another thing coming.

reply to post by crimvelvet


Excellent information. Thank you, I have saved that post to my favorites!

This practice is a true crime, IMO. When the bottom line becomes money, people will always be disposable!

The same men who have looted our USA, bankrupted it, bilked the taxpayer for trillions upon trillions to feed to the corporate welfare monster, the criminal banking cartel, are the same men who are steering the global econnomic crisis.

And who will speak out against it? Sadly very few.

The Gaurdian published this article, an excellent rare expose of the men who are corrupted by greed, and power, as they dispose of the people!

A man-made famineThere are many causes behind the world food crisis, but one chief villain: World Bank head, Robert Zoellick

For anyone who understands the current food crisis, it is hard to listen to the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, without gagging.

Earlier this week, Zoellick waxed apocalyptic about the consequences of the global surge in prices, arguing that free trade had become a humanitarian necessity, to ensure that poor people had enough to eat. The current wave of food riots has already claimed the prime minister of Haiti, and there have been protests around the world, from Mexico, to Egypt, to India.

The reason for the price rise is perfect storm of high oil prices, an increasing demand for meat in developing countries, poor harvests, population growth, financial speculation and biofuels. But prices have fluctuated before. The reason we're seeing such misery as a result of this particular spike has everything to do with Zoellick and his friends

abovetopsecret.com
www.guardian.co.uk...





[edit on 15-8-2009 by burntheships]

What we're looking at are the Scales of Deprivation.

The system is designed to starve people, but only the poor or the previously middle class who can't find work. There is a reason why the farmers are forced to grow and then destroy their crops.

All of these arguments about how destroying the food makes sense, they are constructed to blind us to the fact that people are starving and instead of helping each other, we are being tricked into making things worse. We have given up our authority to decide for ourselves, let authority tell us what to do.

If we wanted to, we could construct systems around any aspect of life that would be counter-productive. We could construct these systems in a way that we could argue them necessary. If we wanted to destroy.

There are always solutions that make sense, and it's not a question of no one being able to come up with the solutions. It is a matter of intent.

Two Cow Politics


Socialism :
You have two cows. You keep one and give one
to your neighbor.

Communism :
You have two cows. The government takes them
Both and provides you with milk.

Fascism :
You have two cows. The government takes them and
sells you the milk.

Bureaucracy :
You have two cows. The government takes them
Both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and
Then pours it down the drain.

Capitalism :
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Corporate:
You have two cows. You sell one, force the other to
produce the milk of four cows and then act surprised
When it drops dead.

Democracy :
You have two cows. The government taxes you
To the point that you must sell them both in order to
support a man in a in a foreign country who has only one cow
which was a gift from your government.

I rememeber reading some where that if you took all the food thrown in the trash in the US it would feed the rest of the world. Now if that is true then it is a sad thing indeed.

Back in the 1980s when there were strict controls on milk production, farmers were forced to dump milk. But I also seem to remember that this is where all that free government cheese came from too, so at some point someone decided to use the 'extra' milk rather than throw it away. So why doesn't the government find some use for these cherries?

I also remember the dairy down the road from where I grew up putting their 'extra' milk out for neighbors to just come and get. You used your own jugs and left a donation to help pay for refrigeration and homogenization, but leaving a buck for a few gallons of milk was cheaper than buying it in the store, and this was fresh whole milk.

So I'll bet you if you live near a cherry farmer, you might be able to get free cherries.

As for the whole subsiderary system, it's what's killed the family farmer. All these millions of dollars go to the largest outfits, which are always corporate farms. Corporate farming is killing us.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

Hard-line free-market types have been opposing this farm regulation crap for decades.

If you're thinking neo-cons, neo-libs or corporatists are free-market types you've got another thing coming.

Those who would control us are very good about hiding their actions as "socialism" or "Free Market"

Note how it is illegal for a church to offer food or shelter to the needy, notice how it is illegal for a doctor to give away medical care, notice how the system keeps people on welfare instead of helping them get off. If the laws were about a true "social safety net" the conflicts we see in the laws would not be there. The laws are about CONTROL, they do not care about the money spent since its "borrowed" (treasury bonds) and the banksters get to collect interest on every new "social program" that is implemented.

The "Free Market" is definitely NOT a "fair Market" when American taxes pay farmers to grow corn that Cargill sells for less than the cost of production. And IMF/World Bank SAPs keep third world countries from subsidizing their own farmers. I think the use of the word "Free Market" is so that TPTB can give true capitalism a bad name. What WTO practices is NOT "Free Market" but Corporatism.

Once you realize the UN, WTO, World Bank and the US government are all in bed with the multinational corporations and banks, you can see how they all work in concert to kill real "capitalism" (small business) and promote a world controlled by the Mega-corporations and banks. All the while they are telling the good little socialists they are promoting "Socialism" Is it any wonder that Maurice Strong (Kyoto Accord) and David Rockefeller are advisors to the World Bank, Strong was a director of the Rockefeller Foundation and Greenpeace, Sierra club et al are funded by the various Rockefeller foundations with Standard Oil money?

Start following one string (farming) and your eyes will really open.

Originally posted by crimvelvet


The "Free Market" is definitely NOT a "fair Market" when American taxes pay farmers to grow corn that Cargill sells for less than the cost of production. And IMF/World Bank SAPs keep third world countries from subsidizing their own farmers.

I don't know about third world countries or the exact figures right now, but a few years ago, the American farmer was subsidized $68/acre on average and European farmers were subsidized $400+/acre. The older Europeans said that they knew what it felt like to go hungry and they did not intend to ever be in that position again. This was in an article that I read in a magazine several years ago.

Here is a link to farm subsidies. You can check your state.

farm.ewg.org...


Top 10 Recipients of 1995-2006

Rank Recipient*
✴ ownership information available Location Total USDA Subsidies
1995-2006
1 Riceland Foods Inc Stuttgart, AR 72160 $554,343,039
2 Producers Rice Mill Inc ∗ Stuttgart, AR 72160 $314,028,012
3 Farmers Rice Coop Sacramento, CA 95851 $146,174,314
4 Harvest States Cooperatives Saint Paul, MN 55164 $49,470,473
5 Dnrc Trust Land Management - Exem Helena, MT 59620 $38,396,957
6 Tyler Farms ∗ Helena, AR 72342 $37,009,744
7 Sd Building Authority Sioux Falls, SD 57117 $29,843,276
8 Ducks Unlimited ∗ Memphis, TN 38120 $29,387,612
9 Pilgrim's Pride Corporation ∗ Broadway, VA 22815 $26,461,206
10 Missouri Delta Farms ∗ Sikeston, MO 63801 $25,280,578

[edit on 16-8-2009 by cloakndagger]

reply to post by fraterormus


I live in southern Michigan, and Cherries tend to be grown further North...but I have to say; we've been in a drought down here. Leaves started falling from the trees in July. I find it baffling that the northern portion of the state has no choice but to leave crops to rot, while the southern portion is itching for enough water to grow crops.

This story just seems odd.

[edit on 17-8-2009 by theWCH]

I haven't been to ATS in quite a while but when I saw this in my email update, I had to come and read the rest.

This makes me so angry! I'm beyond expression.

I suggest you all watch "Supermarket Secrets" on G00gle vids, parts 1 and 2.

There you will see how farmers get creamed by the "buy one get one free" promotions. I'm sure farmers also get screwed by offers by one of the grocery store chains here in Quebec that offers free food items if you buy $60 or more in groceries. I seriously doubt the store chain is taking the cut.

Also in the video "Supermarket Secrets" there is a potato farmer who has almost half his crop rejected because the potatoes aren't uniformly shaped and "pretty" although they are perfectly edible. Much of it goes to waste but luckily the farmer also has cows so the cows eat a lot of potatoes.

Regarding the cherry farmer, I think he's kind of stupid though in a way. He wants to switch from cherries to grapes? What fruit does it matter? I'm sure lots of people would love to pick their own. I have a love/hate relationship with the "pick your own" places because so many people show up and eat potentially a couple of pints before they pay for the rest. But then again judging by the amount the farmer threw out, he could afford to have people stuff their faces with fresh and then pay to take home more.

The farmer could get a juice machine and make cherry juice to sell for the hobby winemakers. Or fresh juice. Or dried cherries. Even frozen. He doesn't have to sell them fresh to canning factories. Why does the farmer have to be one giant operation that only sells to one place? Why can he not split up his crop? I really want to know and am not being silly. How did the farmer get stuck in that position? I don't understand why he can't be a private operation and do as he wishes with the fruit. Is it laziness? Receives funds from the government?

Plus all that waste shouldn't waste and he could have added it to a giant compost pile and sold the finished compost to family gardeners.

He could even produce fruit trees to sell. There are so many options with food bearing plants and trees with potential for income. And permaculture!! What I would give for a nice set of fruit trees...but can't afford to buy any of them. Not when the good varieties are $80 or more each and there's no local plant nursery so anything garden/agricultural we want has to be shipped.

reply to post by MBF

don't know about third world countries or the exact figures right now, but a few years ago, the American farmer was subsidized $68/acre on average and European farmers were subsidized $400+/acre. The older Europeans said that they knew what it felt like to go hungry and they did not intend to ever be in that position again. This was in an article that I read in a magazine several years ago.

The $68/acre is very misleading. Most farmers (2/3) in the USA do not get one red cent in government money. The USDA counts as "farm acres" any land owned by someone who makes a thousand a year GROSS from farm products. Obviously anyone with a lot of land will try to make the magic $1000 so he is taxed as a "farm" My farm is 106 ac but I only "farm" 12 ac.

The crops that get subsidies are the grain crops (exported by Cargill) and not much else.
Subsidies (note there are 2.1 million farmers in the USA 707,596 receive subsidies or 33%)

It just occurred to me the $68/acre is done on purpose. Third world countries are screaming about USA and EU subsidies during WTO meetings Therefore the easiest way to "cook the books" is to count the acreage of every little hobby farmer but only subsidize the crops exported. During the last USDA survey they sent the survey to anyone who bought gardening mags, horse mags got rabies shots, Coggins test for horses... The USDA really beat the bushes for any one involved in raising food or livestock including bunny rabbits!

Any bets this caused a "large increase " in farm acreage and the USDA can now provide numbers to the WTO that show we have "lowered" US subsidies?

[edit on 18-8-2009 by crimvelvet]

reply to post by fraterormus


Well, of COURSE they can't give excess food to poor people for free!

Some idiot would start shouting, "SOCIALISM!!! SOCIALISM!!! SOCIALISM HERE!!!" and then the fur would really start flying.

READ THIS AND ACT NOW - H.R. 2749 IS REAL AND TO BE VOTED IN SENATE
SOON!!!
The Obama administration is pushing new farm controls which will drive
> small and independent farmers off the land, literally leaving the field to
> Agribiz, (implementing all of Codex through complete HARMonization and
> allowing the FDA to declare Marshal law) through Congress as fast as
> possible and have coordinated the bills so there will be no debate and
> committee meetings are closed.

This is a link to a Petition to stop this legislation.
salsa.democracyinaction.org...

Originally posted by crimvelvet


The $68/acre is very misleading. Most farmers (2/3) in the USA do not get one red cent in government money. The USDA counts as "farm acres" any land owned by someone who makes a thousand a year GROSS from farm products. Obviously anyone with a lot of land will try to make the magic $1000 so he is taxed as a "farm" My farm is 106 ac but I only "farm" 12 ac.

You are right, that is why I said on average. My farm is about 250ac and my crops is about 110ac and I probably wont get a dime this year. Long story.

The crops that get subsidies are the grain crops (exported by Cargill) and not much else.
Subsidies (note there are 2.1 million farmers in the USA 707,596 receive subsidies or 33%)

Cotton is another big subsidy crop. It's funny, years ago when I grew it, this country produced about 20million bales/ year and used about 15million/year here and exported the rest. Now,we produce about 25million bales/year and use only about 5million/year. All the textile jobs went somewhere else, but the government still subsidies cotton like it did when we were using way more. And all the subsidy amounts that are listed are way off. Every time I look at mine on the web, it doubles, so I quit looking at it. I must have got millions by now. I was even listed as the fourth in my county in the amount received with only a little over 100ac planted. Can you tell me how I received so much when farmers that farm 10+times as much received less?

It just occurred to me the $68/acre is done on purpose. Third world countries are screaming about USA and EU subsidies during WTO meetings Therefore the easiest way to "cook the books" is to count the acreage of every little hobby farmer but only subsidize the crops exported. During the last USDA survey they sent the survey to anyone who bought gardening mags, horse mags got rabies shots, Coggins test for horses... The USDA really beat the bushes for any one involved in raising food or livestock including bunny rabbits!

Any bets this caused a "large increase " in farm acreage and the USDA can now provide numbers to the WTO that show we have "lowered" US subsidies?

[edit on 18-8-2009 by crimvelvet]

The government is a master at manipulating figures. One time I had one of the USDA surveys call for my estimated yields. I gave them to her and then I asked her how my yields stacked up against other peoples yields and she told me that they were in line with everybody else. When the figures came out, they were double what I gave.

My heart breaks that the government can do such things to people. How do they get away it? What is being done to fight this?

Originally posted by Night Star
My heart breaks that the government can do such things to people. How do they get away it? What is being done to fight this?

When I had my second big fight with the USDA (I am just starting the third go around over the same problem and this has been going on for 10 years now), my lawyer told me"What they did to you is obvious and it is wrong, but they are the damn government and they can do what ever the hell to you that they want to and there ain't a damn thing that you can do about it.". I intend to be a pain in the a** for the rest of my life if I have to.

I'll bet they have me on that terrorist list that they have.

reply to post by Iseekthetruth!!!!!!!!

READ THIS AND ACT NOW - H.R. 2749 IS REAL AND TO BE VOTED IN SENATE SOON!!!

Thanks I already sent it off. I have been active against the USDA and FDA for a couple of years now. The corruption in those two bureaucracies makes me feel ill.