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April 29, 2007
by Jerry Perkins
Excerpts from the Register's interview with CCI member George
Naylor:
"I've been involved in what I'd call
the family farm movement since I started farming," Naylor said.
"I participated in forming the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition during
the farm crisis in the early 1980s, and I've been involved with
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement for 10 years, but I have
less time to focus on Iowa issues since I'm dealing with international
and national issues."
Q: What kind of farm program do you
advocate?
A: John Maynard Keynes, Henry A. Wallace
and others have all recognized the importance of having a farm program
and commodity agreements that put a floor under farm prices.
That way, you have a transparent system
where everybody knows what the floor price is going to be, and you
put the excess production in a food security reserve.
Farmers know their crop prices won't go
below a certain level and consumers know food prices won't go above
a certain level. The Chicago Board of Trade can organize the distribution
of the commodities to the various users.
Q: What's wrong with the current farm
program?
A: Now, we let the market determine prices,
but the system can't work without major government involvement -
like the subsidies paid to farmers and the acres put in the Conservation
Reserve Program.
The current
program doesn't work for farmers or the environment. It only works
for large agribusiness corporations that want cheap commodities.
It also provides a guarantee to lenders
so that they will loan money to farmers to plant the next crop.
Otherwise, the lenders wouldn't loan farmers money.
Q: Why should people who aren't
involved in agriculture care about farm policy?
A: There's definitely a revolution going
on in how people are thinking about their food. What needs to be
done is to get all these people concerned about farming, food and
the environment to focus on the farm bill.
As long as you let big corporations use
these cheap commodities, they tend to crowd out local food producers
and processors.
You're destroying the local food markets
with basically junk food.
A lot of people are concerned about the
loss of the quality of food and the loss of local and regional food
supplies.
In Berkeley, local food is a big issue.
Restaurants and schools stress using local produce. There's really
quite a food revolt happening.
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