Injustice by the Pound: Farm Activists Work to ‘Bust Up Big Ag’

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from In These Times:



Injustice by the Pound: Farm Activists Work to ‘Bust Up Big Ag’

Friday
March 12
10:06 am

By Michelle Chen


Something is astir in America's heartland. A grassroots coalition of independent farmers, consumer groups, and labor advocates is coming together to challenge the corporations at the top of the country's food chain and reclaim control over the food supply.

A series of public hearings on the agriculture oligopoly led by the Justice Department's antitrust division, has opened the door to a serious national dialogue on food policy reform. On Thursday, food and farm justice advocates gathered at a townhall meeting in Ankeny, Iowa amid chants of “bust up Big Ag” to drum up momentum for today's antitrust meeting, focused on the seed business and the biotech Goliath Monsanto.

In the midst of the healthcare and economic crises, food politics have intensified, with many communities demanding an end to perverse farm subsidies and more equitable nutritional programs. Aside from the more obvious impacts on small farmers and consumers, the food infrastructure's dysfunction is very much embedded in the workforce that sustains the country from the field to the table.

Monsanto is widely seen as a corrupt link in a rigged production chain. Critics accuse the company of hogging the country's seed market, driving up prices for farmers, and ultimately flooding retail markets with overpriced undernourishment. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5675/injustice_by_the_pound_farm_activists_work_to_bust_up_big_ag/

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