Platform: Domestic Agriculture posted by Ben

Apology: My sister is far more of an expert of the politics of food than I am. My apologies for stepping on her turf. Perhaps she will be able to provide an addendum to this post with corrections, modifications, and additional information.

Back in the early 1900's, when the American Midwest was a hotbed of progressive political reform, especially through the Populist movement, farmers demanded that the government enact legislation to control food production. The problem? When farming was based mostly on free market forces, it was especially easy to fall into a vicious cycle of overproduction and falling prices. Farmers competing directly against each other would seek to produce enough to stand up against the competition, which lowered prices, which forced even more production in an effort to compensate.

Eventually, though, a system of production controls and subsidies was established that stopped the cycle. Combined with strong new antitrust laws, the financial security of small and mid size farmers was greatly increased for many years.

Over the past hundred years, however, the gains made by those Populist, radical Midwesterners have been largely lost. When farm deregulation over the past twenty years is looked at in conjunction with huge changes in agriculture science, a picture is painted of a system on the verge of collapse.

A report released yesterday from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a group of over 1300 mainstream scientists, indicates the following:

The scale of the changes seen in the past few decades has been unprecedented. Nearly one-third of the land surface is now cultivated, with more land being converted into cropland since 1945 than in the whole of the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

The amount of water withdrawn from rivers and lakes for industry and agriculture has doubled since 1960 and there is now between three and six times as much water held in man-made reservoirs as there is flowing naturally in rivers.

Meanwhile, the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that has been released into the environment as a result of using farm fertilizers has doubled in the same period . More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer ever used on the planet has been used since 1985.

This sudden and unprecedented release of free nitrogen and phosphorus - important mineral nutrients for plant growth - has triggered massive blooms of algae in the freshwater and marine environments. This is identified as a potential "tipping point" that can suddenly destroy entire ecosystems.

It is clear that farming methods have a huge impact on the natural environment. When not practicing sustainable agriculture, the potential for catastrophic disaster is increased by many orders of magnitude. And although some natural factors must be taken into account when looking at, say, the Dust Bowl, it is mostly undisputed that farming practices had much to do with that destruction of thousands of acres of farmland in the Midwest.

Unfortunately, farmers in America have more pressing issues to deal with. In the deregulation and ensuing corporatization of farms in the last fifteen years, that old threat to farm economic sustainability has once again reared its head: overproduction. You see, the majority of farm subsidies now go directly to the few massive farming corporations. Small farmers are again forced to compensate for economies of scale and falling prices that they can't compete with by attempting to increase their yearly yield. But in a battle of production, they simply don't have the resources to compete with the big businesses and the government is no longer protecting them.

Why, however, is it a problem at all that a few huge corporations are systematically taking over America's farms?

First, we return to the environmental issues. The degree of waste and water consumption by these mega farms is enormous. And farming is one area where increased scale isn't always the best long-term environment solution. Unfortunately, increased scale does provide undeniable economic benefits. And if you are running a large corporation in modern America, chances are you're focused far more on your quarterly profits than you are the long-term impact of your farming practices on the soil, the water, and (another major issue) the dangers of increased crop homogeneity.

Add to that the destruction of countless small towns as small farms go out of business, workers are replaced by machines, and farms blackmail local politicians into decreasing regulations and taxes even further and you have a significant problem.

So what concrete steps in farming policy can be taken to protect our food supply, jobs, environment, and rural communities?

First, safe, scientifically sound farming practices need to be instituted immediately. I quote Dr. Walt Reid from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment:

"The heart of the problem is this: protection of nature's services is unlikely to be a priority so long as they are perceived to be free and limitless by those using them," Dr Reid said.

"We simply must establish policies that require natural costs to be taken into account for all economic decisions," he added.

"There is a tremendous amount that can be done in the short term to reduce degradation - for example, the causes of some of the most significant problems such as fisheries collapse, climate change, and excessive nutrient loading are clear - many countries have policies in place that encourage excessive harvest, use of fossil fuels, or excessive fertilization of crops.

"But as important as these short-term fixes are, over the long term humans must both enhance the production of many services and decrease our consumption of others. That will require significant investments in new technologies and significant changes in behavior," he explained.

This is a larger issue than the cult of the free market would have us believe. Increased, intelligent regulation, in this case, would directly impact the sustainability of our food supply over the next hundred years. The free market focused on profits in the present, but we must begin to think of the future as well, a task for which modern corporations are woefully unequipped.

Beyond that, I return again to the policy suggestions of Dennis Kucinich, the rare politician who is unafraid to look at the future consequences of our present actions. He advocates the following items:

Fair Price and Fair Markets
Cancel NAFTA and the WTO, replacing them with bilateral trade agreements designed to benefit family farmers and workers while protecting the health of communities and the environment. Country-of-origin labeling would be required. Empower farmers in the marketplace by providing incentives to join a collective bargaining unit -- with voluntary membership open only to active producers and the right to bring suit in federal court if an agribusiness doesn't bargain in good faith.

Market Concentration
Create new markets by actively enforcing existing anti-trust laws and proposing new laws to force divestiture in concentrated markets, breaking apart monopolistic agribusiness companies and shifting farm economics towards higher commodity prices for farmers. To increase competition in the livestock industry, support a national ban on packer ownership of livestock.

Biotechnology and GM Seeds
Advocate only for responsible farm sector biotechnology, creating an indemnity fund -- financed by the corporations responsible for the technology -- for farmers who incur losses caused by genetically modified organisms (GMOs). To protect farmers, labeling GMO seeds with disclosure and liability information must be required. To protect consumers, food containing GMOs also requires labeling.

Local Food Systems
Shift USDA funding and focus away from the promotion of concentrated intensive and industrial agribusiness. The new focus must benefit family farmers, rural communities, the environment, and consumers, with policies crafted to enable farmers to earn a fair price and to provide safe, nutritious food to all people. Increase funding for regional food processing facilities, marketing assistance, farm-to-school programs, on-farm renewable energy, and the Farmers Market Nutrition Program. Agricultural research and development institutions must be given funding priority to help family farmers make a transition to profitable and sustainable agriculture.

Conservation and Environmental Protection
Strengthen and enforce air and water quality laws to safeguard rural communities from factory farm pollution. The number of animal units per site would be limited to a level that allows for on-site manure management, and local communities would be given control over the siting of industrial livestock operations. Programs that reward family farmers for protecting the environment would be expanded, and funding to help small independent farmers qualify for organic certification would be increased.

Food Industry Workers and Food Safety
Implement new safety standards in meatpacking and food processing. Worker health and safety protections would be expanded through increased inspections and fines, with criminal charges for employers who cause injury or death to agricultural industry workers. Backing meatpacking unions will help to bring wages and benefits in line with the risks of the job, and funding for smaller, regional packing plants will create better economic opportunities for family farmers, better conditions for workers, and safer meat for consumers.

Rural Communities
Initiate a major new program of investment in rural America, putting thousands to work rebuilding invaluable public assets such as schools, hospitals, libraries, swimming pools, and parks. Teachers, doctors, veterinarians, and other important service providers would be offered incentives to work in under-served areas. A variety of support mechanisms and financial incentives would be given to local businesses, so that locally owned businesses have a fair chance to compete.

Some of the actions that Kucinich suggests may seem radical, or even insane. Over the next few months, however, as I continue to look at background materials and detailed reasoning for particular policy suggestions, hopefully a larger picture will begin to emerge that more clearly shows how the confluence of modern government, business, and international trade and banking organizations have created a system of the world that can only hasten the continued decline of our worldwide environment, economies, and quality of life.

For now, though, recognize that neither Democrats nor Republicans are taking meaningful action to protect our small farmers, small towns, and nationwide environmental health from the impact of an aggressive and amoral agribusiness control of our food. The politicians in power from both parties have maintained majorities that favor business over all else, even in the face of imminent destruction of our food and water supplies. Until we demand safe and sane regulation, economic protection from predator corporations, and planning for the future of our fragile food supply, however, they have little reason to change their support of greed and shortsighted destruction of our farmlands and environment.

Sadly, the majority of those hurt the most by current farm policies have been firmly taken hold of by the right wing Christian movement. Until they can separate their religious beliefs from the unholy union between Evangelicals and pro-predatory-business Republicans, the chances of the most oppressed and in danger demanding reform hover around zero. Until that time comes, it is imperative that all of us stand up for the rights of the small farmer, lest agribusiness truly become the only game in town.