The 60 Minutes piece last Sunday really shed some light on the power of
the Farm Bureau. Especially telling was the bread store owner in Chicago
who had the temerity to exercised her First Admendment Rights and collect
signatures on a petition opposing some action the Farm Bureau was taking.
The day after she deliverd the petition to the Farm Bureau, the Farm Bureau
had an FBI agent at their store demanding the names of the people who were
going to attend a conference on the subject of the petitions. What is
next, a Farm Bureau Kristall Nacht in Chicago?
Check out http://www.defenders.org/fb/ for a .pdf report on the Farm
Bureau's activities.
Who was it that said "The price of liberty is constant vigilance."? Seems
to apply here. Mike Miller
>Dave: Don can probably answer this better from his perspective as a
farmer, but
>there is in my mind a strong parallel role played by the Canadian
Federation of
>Agriculture and the US Farm Bureau. Both operate a very mainstream,
"preserve
>the status quo", pro-capital and resource-intensive type agribusiness
profile.
>Both have more left-leaning counterweights, such as the National Farmers
Union
>in Canada. While the CFA is certainly dominant, I don't think I'm misreading
>the signals too badlly when I say that an increasing number of farmers are
>turning away from their traditional representation at the CFA because it
is no
>longer serving their needs - as appears to have happened with the Farm Bureau
>too. Ann
>
>Dave Lewington wrote:
>
>> >We are being sold out to the US corporate systems as fast as the
government
>> >dares to move. Health care, water rights, saltwater fish, you name it,
>> >we're losing it.
>> >
>> >Don Maroc
>> >Vancouver Island, Canada
>>
>> This brings up an interesting point, after watching 60 minutes, and
watching
>> the discussion on the US Farm Bureau, do any Canadians on this list see
>> similarities with some of the groups that supposedly represent Canadian
>> farmers interests? I tried to ask on the Successful Farming website if
>> anyone felt that there were too many similarities between Farm Bureau and
>> the OFA (Ontario Federation of Agriculture) but I did not get any
responses.
>>
>> Dave
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