West Central Tribune
Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Groups seek to preserve local control

By Carolyn Lange, Staff Writer

WILLMAR—At the end of a four-hour meeting Monday in Willmar, farmers whipped out cell phones and called their state senators. The action was encouraged by several farm organizations who fear proposed legislation could harm family farms and take zoning rights away from townships.

“I’m concerned that the … corporate system is going to destroy family farms,” said Jim Falk, a Murdock seed and beef farmer, who had just called the St. Paul office of Sen. Gary Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls. His 20-year-old son, Andrew, was doing the same thing on his cell phone.

“We have to make our voice heard,” said Mark Schultz, from the Land Stewardship Project. He said simultaneous phone calls made from a room with 200 farmers in it would create “a big hubbub” and get the message across to legislators to vote against a half-dozen bills deemed harmful to township rights.

Protecting local control and independent livestock producers was the topic of the meeting sponsored by the Minnesota Farmers Union, Land Stewardship Project and the Minnesota National Farmers Organization.

“Laws are made by people who show up,” said Schultz, encouraging farmers to get involved with the process. “We want to start today and tomorrow. The lobbyists are there today.”

Doug Peterson, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, had stronger words for communicating with elected officials, including county commissioners. “Get mad and go get ’em,” he said.

One of the proposed bills they oppose could exempt proposed feedlots from township or county moratoriums if the feedlot operator has applied for a permit with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency or county. Another proposal would limit the length of time a moratorium could be extended. The groups also object to proposals that they say would weaken the state’s anti-corporate farm laws and bring “foreign-financed mega-dairies” into Minnesota, at the expense of young local farmers.

Two of the speakers said corporate money was helping to design proposed legislation that would put the state in control of local land-use issues, comparing the results to the former Soviet-style of government.

“You should be mad as hell,” said Peterson. He said a majority of Minnesota dairy farms are small, with under 50 head of cattle, and small farmers should be encouraged and not put into competition with large foreign-owned operations.

While not “naïve enough” to think agriculture can look like it did 150 years ago, Peterson said the “corporate model” doesn’t work in rural Minnesota and farmers should not have to “kneel at that corporate cross” to succeed.

Meeting organizers and about a half-dozen speakers provided information on proposed land-use laws and legal steps for townships to take to create interim ordinances and moratoriums. They also encouraged farmers to be creative in the marketplace to survive.

Bill Heffernan, professor emeritus of rural sociology at the University of Missouri, spoke about the economic pitfalls involved with long-term contracts between corporate food processors and farmers, such as those between Tyson and poultry producers. He spoke in support of independent livestock producers and said consolidation of corporate processors has hurt farmers economically by eliminating competition and keeping commodity prices low.

He said it’s a system that will eventually “fall apart” but could result in a food “crisis” in the United States as corporate consolidation grows and the U.S. imports more agricultural products. “We don’t have to accept the system,” he said.

Heffernan said agriculture is “like a bucket with holes in it” and farmers need to be creative and innovative in plugging the holes. He said direct farm-to-market options that are supported by the community are a place to start. He said if food was purchased where it’s grown, farmers could make a living without entering the corporate contract cycle.

“I’m really optimistic,” said Heffernan, “but it’s going to take change.”

© 2004 West Central Tribune
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Q & A with Bill Heffernan:' There's nothing inevitable about this system…'

 

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