Agriculture

News

We Are Farmer Brown

by Rebekah Wilce — December 9, 2011 - 11:05am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Human Rights

    • This is the first in a two-part series by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network (FRN) about challenges to local food sovereignty across the United States. This was originally published on AlterNet. Stay tuned for the next installment, coming soon.

    More than 150 supporters gathered on the steps of Town Hall in Blue Hill, Maine on Friday, November 18. They protested the State of Maine's and Agriculture Comissioner Walt Whitcomb's lawsuit against local farmer Dan Brown of Gravelwood Farm in Blue Hill. In response to a shout of, "Who is Farmer Brown," the crowd shouted, "We are all Farmer Brown!"

    News

    Guns, Farms and Stealth: Armed Raids and Surveillance of Farms and Food Clubs

    by Rebekah Wilce — November 8, 2011 - 7:00am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Agriculture, Secrecy

    • Michael Schmidt is a Canadian dairy farmer, and he's scared. Why?

    "Over the last 17 years I have made every effort to engage the authorities in a constructive dialogue about the issue of non-pasteurized milk in Ontario and Canada. In return my farm has been raided by armed officers, my family has been terrorized and I [have] been dragged through the courts -- first being acquitted and then being found guilty.

    News

    Local Dinner to Recognize Food & Farm Hero John Kinsman and Beginning Farmers

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 21, 2011 - 6:00am
  • Topics: Agriculture

    • On Saturday, November 12th, the Family Farm Defenders (FFD) hosts the "First Annual John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Dinner" at the Goodman Community Center on Madison, Wisconsin's near east side.

    The Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network featured John Kinsman as our first Food and Farm Hero earlier this month.

    News

    Local Food Ordinances from Maine to California

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 10, 2011 - 6:00am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Politics

    • Los Angeles County, California, is considering a resolution "recognizing the rights of individuals to grow and consume their own food and to enter into private contracts with other individuals to board animals for food."

    This resolution did not arise in a vacuum. Santa Cruz County, California, recently passed a similar resolution. Nevada County, California, citizens are pushing a similar resolution. And in El Dorado County, California, Farmer Pattie Chelseth has proposed a "Local Food and Self Governance Ordinance."

    News

    Wisconsin Judge Rules Against Food Rights

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 6, 2011 - 6:00am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Agriculture, Human Rights

    • This is the second in a series of articles about raw milk by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network. For more about raids on raw milk farmers and eaters, see yesterday's article.

    Wisconsin dairy farmers are appealing a state judge's ruling that they do not have the right to own a dairy cow or drink the unprocessed milk from their own cows.

    Mark and Petra Zinniker, who sought to distribute raw milk to herd shareholders through their private farm store, received a judgment from state Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler ruling against them on all counts in August.

    In response, the Zinnikers, their shareholders and their lawyers at the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) filed a clarification motion, on which Judge Fiedler filed his decision and order on September 9th.

    Op-Ed

    Raw Milk Raids and Court Cases Enter New Territory

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 5, 2011 - 6:22am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Agriculture

    • This is the first in a series of articles about raw milk by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network.

    The nationwide battle over the right to consume foods produced on local farms entered a new phase this summer.

    Rawesome Food Club and Healthy Family Farms

    In August, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested three individuals -- James Stewart, manager of the private Rawesome Food Club in Venice, Sharon Palmer, owner of Healthy Family Farms, LLC, and her associate Eugenie Bloch -- "on criminal conspiracy charges stemming from the alleged illegal production and sale of unpasteurized goat milk, goat cheese and other products" after "a year-long investigation" during which "investigators made undercover purchases of unpasteurized dairy products."

    News

    Food Rights Network Interviews Food & Farm Hero John Kinsman

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 5, 2011 - 6:19am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Activism, Corporations

    • In the world of food and farming, the contrast between corporate agribusiness "farms" and small, sustainable family farms -- farms that, to adapt a phrase of Michael Pollan's, our grandparents would recognize as food-producing places -- is especially clear. Among the farmers who live and work in these places, the CMD's Food Rights Network is featuring some of the heroes: farmers who are making an incredible difference in the farming community, on our dinner tables and in the world around them.

    News

    Local Ordinances and Land Grabs: Democracy Convention Panels Discuss Food Sovereignty

    by Rebekah Wilce — September 8, 2011 - 11:50am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Democracy, Social Justice

    • Attendees of the Democracy Convention in Madison in late August were treated to panels on a host of different issues, from democratic media to racial inequality. The Center for Media and Democracy was one of the sponsors of the convention, and our own Lisa Graves and Brendan Fischer addressed democracy activists. At panels on food sovereignty, we heard from a range of experts, including local Wisconsin dairy farmer Jim Goodman, Massachusetts food and farming activist Barbara Clancy and Jim Tarbell of the Alliance for Democracy (publishers of Justice Rising), and Ronnie Cummins, leader of the Organic Consumers Association.

    Op-Ed

    CMD Urges EPA to More Closely Regulate Nanoscale Materials in Pesticides

    by Rebekah Wilce — August 17, 2011 - 1:05pm
  • Topics: Agriculture

    • The Center for Media and Democracy has joined a coalition of environmental, consumer and worker's groups in signing onto a letter of concern about nanotechnology.  The comment, drafted by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), supports the plan of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to obtain information about the presence of nanoscale materials in pesticide products.

    Op-Ed

    ALEC Exposed: Protecting Factory Farms and Sewage Sludge?

    by Jill Richardson — August 4, 2011 - 7:18am
  • Topics: Agriculture, ALEC Exposed, Sludge, Democracy

    • As suburbs engulfed the rural landscape in the boom following World War II, many family farmers found themselves with new neighbors who were annoyed by the sound of crowing roosters, the smell of animal manure, or the rumble of farming equipment. In defense of family farming, Massachusetts passed the first "Right to Farm" law in 1979, to protect these farmers against their new suburban neighbors filing illegitimate nuisance lawsuits against them when, in fact, the farms were there first. Since then, every state has passed some kind of protection for family farms, which are pillars of our communities and the backbone of a sensible system of sustainable agriculture.

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