Urge Sen. Ben Ray Lujan to Support Independent Farmers
More than 50 people registered for our event, Our Sacred Lands: Food, Farming, and Fairness, held on Wednesday, March 6, at First Congregational Church in Albuquerque. A number of those in attendance participated viertually via Zoom. Our panel examined the challenges facing independent farmers, from mental health to systemic challenges, including the misuse of a federal assistance program (which favors corporate entities).<
Our special invitee was Sarah Carden from Farm Action Fund, who flew in from western New York to talk about the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act.
Background: America’s farmers and ranchers are being forced to pay into government checkoff programs, only to see those dollars used against them by lobbying organizations representing the world’s largest meatpackers and grain traders. These organizations pick the winners and losers of our food system – promoting industrial farming policies at the expense of every other farmer. Read more from Farm Action Fund
The OFF act seeks to add transparency and accountability to the manner in which check-off funds (money collected from all farmers to promote agricultureal products). There is evidence that the expenditures of the fund tends to favor the large corporate farming organizations. Sometimes the money is spent in a corrupt manner for unauthorized purposes.<