Campaign for Economic Justice continues fight for farmers

The Campaign for Economic Justice, which is sponsored by the Citizens Action Coalition, is continuing to look out for the interests of Indiana’s small to medium sized family farmers.  The Campaign was begun over two years ago in response to rapidly declining livestock and commodity prices that sent shock waves through rural communities across Indiana and the rest of America.  Farmers on CAC’s volunteer Board of Directors recognized that farms cannot survive extended periods of depressed prices while the costs to the farmer (i.e. chemicals, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, machinery, petroleum, seed, property taxes, bank loan rates, etc.) continue to rise.  CAC, which has worked on farm issues for fifteen years in Indiana, launched the Campaign for Economic Justice to address the current price crisis that is causing the collapse of our family farm agriculture system.  As farm prices continue to decline to record low levels, the cost of store bought food continues to rise with inflation.  This is because the same mega-corporations who refuse to pay our farmers a fair price, also refuse to lower prices for America’s consumers.  Therefore, if you eat, these issues concern you!

The Campaign for Economic Justice is working to make changes at both the state and federal levels.  The state of Indiana needs to implement new programs that will give Hoosier farmers the tools they need to be successful and profitable.  A state sponsored "Family Farmer Safety Net" would go a long way towards preserving Indiana’s existing family farms.   By ensuring these farms are viable operations, the state will foster an atmosphere where small towns benefit from the income produced by the surrounding farms, and where young people see a future in farming and have a desire to return to the land.  Some immediate steps we are urging the state to take are as follows:

• Dramatically reduce or eliminate property taxes on family farm real estate that is producing an active crop.

• Establish a Family Farm Credit Assistance Program, which would work in conjunction with the state’s existing Treasurer’s Agriculture Loan Program to help debt laden family farmers meet their debt service requirement.  The state should continue the Treasurers Agriculture Loan Program.

• Establish a state Department of Agriculture, which has as one of its main priorities the preservation of small Hoosier family farms.  Indiana is one of two states that does not have a Department of Agriculture.

• Legal action by the state Attorney General to enforce federal antitrust laws in order to restore a competitive market to Hoosier agriculture products.  Currently the market is dominated be a handful of giant corporations who are posting record profits at the expense of Indiana’s farmers and consumers.

• State chartered and invested cooperatives, marketing outlets, and processing plants that will give small to medium sized producers more market options and allow them to realize a better price by selling directly to the consumer.

• Expanded funding for the Farm Counseling Project, which provides financial and related legal counseling for economically distressed family farmers.

• Direct Purdue University, Indiana’s only land grant college, to conduct research and outreach services for small farms that matches what the university is doing for corporate agriculture interests.

• Aggressive action to oppose the establishment of corporate or factory style agriculture in Indiana.  Other states like North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Missouri have recently passed such laws to protect their family farmers.  National surveys have shown that the overwhelming majority of Americans prefer to have their food produced by family farms, not factory farms.  It’s a question of quality, and family farms do it best.

Besides holding meetings with Hoosier farmers around the state and speaking to elected officials about the need for a state "Family Farmer Safety Net," the Campaign for Economic Justice is also working closely with the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington, D.C. to change Federal farm policy.  The main goal of this work is to change the current farm bill known as Freedom to Farm (many farmers call it Freedom to Fail), which was passed in 1996.  This bill stripped away the traditional price supports and production controls leaving farmers "free to plant for the market."  Since that market is not competitive and dominated by a handful of transnational corporations, Freedom to Fail actually freed the corporations of having to pay a fair price to our farmers, while allowing them to continue to charge increasing prices to our consumers.  The current farm bill has created a situation where we are producing grain and oilseeds at our maximum capacity, without any effort to tailor production to meet demand.  The resulting overproduction has caused a collapse in crop prices leading to correspondingly cheap livestock prices.  Farmers have attempted to compensate for depressed prices by increasing volume, which just drives prices even lower.  It is a vicious cycle, and it is leading to factory style farming methods with livestock production in huge confined feeding operations.  We are working to make sure that a new farm bill is passed that contains some method of production control, as well as a mechanism that guarantees farmers a fair price from the marketplace.