The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Dennis Kucinich on Organic Farming:

http://www.kucinich.us/issues/organic_farming.php

As President, Dennis Kucinich will give strong and unwavering support to our organic family farmers. This approach to the land provides the safest foods, the best incomes for our farmers, and new products for this nation to export.

Supporting the Family Farm

America depends upon a rich supply of diverse foods at a good price. Our farmers work long hours often under unsafe conditions for very little income to provide this needed food supply. The farmer must borrow heavily to put in his/her crop, maintain and upgrade equipment, and buy inputs such as genetically modified organism (GMO) seed and petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then the farmer must hope that the grain markets reach a level where the crop can be sold at a profit. Most farms are not the idyllic, relaxed, simple places with a variety of crops and livestock that Americans picture. The typical conventional farm requires vast acreage to be profitable, and that area requires huge equipment to plow, plant, and harvest. The huge size also requires farms to become specialized--either grain or livestock. The huge size has made farms become industrialized, which has brought problems such as pollution to the soil and water, erosion, GMOs, and dangerous working conditions. The USDA's policies for decades have given the US farmer the options of getting big or getting out, which has destroyed our farm base and rural communities. Under current policy, the small family farmer has become an endangered species. As of 2002 there were more prisoners in the US penal system than farmers growing crops. A Kucinich administration will remain deeply indebted to the dedicated people who produce our nation's food, and strive in every way to improve their well-being.

Problems on the Farm

Many farmers are appalled at some current trends in agribusiness. They face ever-increasing expenditures for inputs such as fertilizers and seeds, while they must sell their crop for ever-decreasing profits. Farmers go to the bank every spring to borrow large amounts of operating capital and then wager all of it on a decent harvest and a good market price from the brokers in Chicago. Many farmers and their spouses must work full time off the farm to make ends meet. Bigger and bigger equipment creates compaction problems in the fields. Pesticides kill the beneficial insects and microbial life in the soils. Animals are confined in tiny spaces whereas they naturally need to range. Confined animals are being treated with heavy doses of antibiotics and growth hormones, and are being fed a diet they were not meant to eat. (Cows eat grass, not grain and meat, for example.) None of this makes sense to the stewards of the land, but it is all part of industrialized agriculture. NAFTA and the WTO have made things far worse for the US farmer by opening up markets that can produce commodities far more cheaply than can the US farmer.

Problems Beyond the Farm

Beyond the individual farm, the detrimental impacts of industrial farming affect the health and well-being of everyone in our suburbs and cities. Runoff of farm chemicals and the manure runoff from confined feeding operations (CFOs) or factory farms has dramatically adverse effects on our streams, rivers, and drinking water. Antibiotics in animal meats are being consumed in large quantities by our population, which is therby made immune to the restorative effects of these important drugs. Growth hormones, which are linked to cancer, are being passed on to unaware consumers. GMO grains are in almost all processed foods, with no labeling to inform the consumer of that fact. Because of trade agreements like NAFTA, more and more of our food comes from abroad. America depends upon a rich supply of diverse foods at a good price, but this food also needs to be completely safe. And our government is not doing nearly enough to verify the safety of what we are eating. Fewer than .002% of our cattle are ever inspected for anything.

The Organic Farming Alternative

Organic farming draws on traditional methods and is an alternative way of farming that is becoming prominent worldwide. Organic methods, which have their philosophical origins in the early 20th century in Austria and England, were introduced to the U.S. by people like J.I. Rodale in the 1950s and Rachel Carson in the 1960s. The movement has grown steadily and is now a clear option for both farmers and consumers. Organic agriculture is based on improving soils because healthy soils lead to healthy plants and animals. Healthy soils mean a farmer has less need of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, which are prohibited in organic agriculture. Rather than making their operations bigger and more like factories, organic farmers concentrate on understanding the needs of the plants and the animals, and focus on production in harmony with nature. Organic farmers often choose to market their goods directly to the public through farmers markets, CSA's, and farm stands, rather than going through the wholesale commodity markets. In 2002, after a decade of discussion, the USDA took over the certification of organic farms in the US from the 66 independent organic certifying agencies (which now operate under USDA rules). The idea was to get all the certifying agencies to operate under one rule so the consumer would have no confusion as to what organic means. When the USDA took over, big agribusiness players such as Coca-Cola, ADM, and General Mills came into the game. Now the organic farmers are being asked to get big or get out. But there are still many tenacious family farmers in the US who are still organic but not getting big and staying in. They do it by selling their food locally.

Reasons to Support Organic Farm Families

A Kucinich administration will be a strong advocate for organic farming for several reasons:

* Organic farms must follow stringent regulations that include precise record keeping in order to become certified.
* Organic farming preserves and rebuilds the soil and many are concerned with preserving endangered seeds and animals.
* Organic farming produces crops without relying on petroleum-based synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, thereby dramatically decreasing the impact of farming pollution on the local air soil and water.
* Organic farming assures us that all its products are completely free of genetically modified substances.
* Organic farm and production operations are inspected at least annually to ensure compliance with all of these standards.
* The organic farm produces an alternative to chemically raised foods that may well be more nutritious and is usually tastier, all while giving the organic grower a decent livelihood from farming (organic farmers usually don't have to work off the farm to make ends meet).
* The organic movement provides America with a new product we can export in the name of human and environmental health.