Donated tractors bring cheer to farmers hit hard by Katrina

[undeterred]

SHEEPLO - With a halting first belch from its exhaust pipe, a Wisconsin tractor prepared to take its first ride through Mississippi soil. The McCormick Farmall was one of five dusty but working tractors unloaded Friday afternoon in front of the Indian Springs Farmers Cooperative in the Sheeplo community near Petal. Representatives of the national Family Farm Defenders had hauled them from southwestern Wisconsin to donate to the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, a coalition of independent farming cooperatives in 11 counties- many of whose members lost equipment and crops to Hurricane Katrina.

At least two of the tractors are expected to stay at Indian Springs - where farmers like Donnie Pen-Travis said they are sorely needed. "They might be worth $4,000 or $5,000 to you, but to me they're worth a million bucks," said Pen-Travis, 53, who works a plot of land he said has been in his family for five generations. He beamed as fellow farmers from Wisconsin backed the red and orange vehicles off the back of an 18-wheeler before a crowd of about 50 farmers and pro-organic farming activists.

"(Katrina) beat my sugar cane to death," he said, adding that he also lost a tractor and three-and-a-half acres' worth of bell peppers and sugar peas to the Aug. 29 storm's winds and rain.

Family Farm Defenders was in the Pine Belt for its annual conference, which is promoting small farmer solidarity against the pressures of agribusiness and the global marketplace. "We've all been so excited we could do something that was a way of gaining solidarity with all the farmers in the hurricane area," said John Kinsman, 80, president of FFD and a dairy and tree farmer from Sauk County, Wisc. The group sent two truckloads of food to the Gulf Coast in Katrina's aftermath, and several supporters on hand had spent the winter volunteering in New Orleans.

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060401/NEWS01/604010308/1002

Let's hear it for farmers! :applause:

Most of these farmers are black and are struggling to keep their land.

[Mnemosyne]

1. I was raised between two farms and worked on both

from age 8 until I left home. It IS hard work, unlike the job * claims to be doing.

Here's hoping the farmers get all the equipment they need! :toast:

Here's to farmers! :toast::applause:

[undeterred]

2. Here's to farmers!

[peacebuzzard]

3. decline of family farming while factory farming increases.

Somewhere in there America took the wrong road.
Hooray for the pro-organic farming activists!!! These are the front line heroes for the fight against the mean corporate machine.

[undeterred]

4. It warms my heart to see groups reaching out to others

now when we aren't hearing so much about Katrina. Yes the government should be doing more, but its great to see actions like this in the news- it restores faith in the goodness of people.

[annabanana]

5. This is Solid Gold activism..

The best thing we can do for those who have been hit and I applaud them...

[undeterred]

6. It really is

:applause:

[SPKrazy]

7. And A Visit From Those Special Daughters

made their jaws drop