Westchester Residents Fight for Fair Farm Bill

Piper Martz and Katie Habig want to make sure our country is producing food that is healthy for both people and the environment, while allowing farmers to make a fair living.

“I think happy, healthy people eat really good food,” said 17-year-old Martz.

The Mamaroneck High School seniors, who are the co-president’s of the school’s Real Food Club, are doing their part to embrace the opportunity to fix they say is a broken food system, by joining the local chapter of Food & Water Watch, which is calling on U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to add new section to the new Farm Bill.

Food & Water Watch, is a non-for-profit grassroots environmental advocacy group based in Washington D.C., that seeks to ensure that food, water and fish are safe and sustainably produced. The group is responsible for influencing Starbucks to stop using milk from cows treated with hormones, helping communities organize and stop the corporate takeover of public water systems, as well as fight for mandatory country-of-origin labeling on foods, according to their website.

“You should know what’s in your food and where it comes from,” said Habig, also 17.

The Food System 

According to Food & Water Watch Senior Organizer Eric Weltman—who works out of the organization's Brooklyn office, and attended the Westchester chapter’s first meeting on Wednesday at the —half of our country’s groceries come from just five companies who own the old regional grocery store chains.

He says corporate consolidation is the heart of the food problem because it results in low quality food since the food monopolies can dictate how food is produced, the prices that consumers pay and what farmers are paid.

Food & Water Watch says that four companies in each industry slaughter more than 85 percent of beef cattle; process two-thirds of the pork; sell half the groceries; and manufacture about half of the U.S’ milk supply—while two firms sell two-thirds of the country’s corn and soybeans.

“Access to locally grown, organic, sustainable, equitable food is hindered by a marketplace that is controlled top to bottom by a few firms and rewards scale over quality, sustainability or health,” a Food & Water Watch fact sheet says. “As a result of this concentration, consumers are paying more for their food, farmers are receiving less and those companies in the middle are soaking up the profits.”

According to Food & Water Watch, in some instances local farmers must raise the animals according to the food company’s standards and sign unfair contracts that require farmer’s to take on debt for building specified facilities and costs for manure disposal.

“These middle men so-to-speak—they’re the ones that are really dictating what the farmers can produce and how they can produce it,” said Weltman. “That market domination control really allows them to squeeze farmers to produce food in unhealthy ways.” 

These “factory farms” use intensive farming practices, which results in air pollution, contamination of water with manure, and increased antibiotic resistance in humans Food & Water Watch says.

Some farmers have begun to add more livestock to their farms since they are receiving less for each animal they sell, creating conditions that result in animal suffering. Some farmers inject the animals with hormones to make them bigger, or with antibiotics or chemicals to help them cope with the crowded and sometimes unsanitary conditions that results from the animals’ manure. Some farmers also use pesticides and other chemicals when growing food and feeding animals. 

“The contamination of food by chemical hazards is a worldwide public health concern and is a leading cause of trade problems internationally,” says the World Health Organization website. “Contamination may occur through environmental pollution of the air, water and soil, such as the case with toxic metals, PCBs and dioxins, or through the intentional use of various chemicals, such as pesticides, animal drugs and other agrochemicals.”

Food & Water Watch says a fair Farm Bill would minimize pollution, increase biodiversity, encourage sustainable farming and conserve resources.

Fixing the Food System

Weltman says in order to fix the broken food system the solution has to go beyond shopping with your dollars and choosing to only buy products that are sustainably and fairly grown.

“We cannot shop our way out of the problem,” said Weltman. “The purchasing power of all the like minded folks, like you, is nothing compared to the corporate giant’s purchasing power. That’s why we have to organize people power to match them dollar for dollar.”

Food & Water Watch would like to see a section added to the Farm Bill that: 

• Prevents market manipulation by meatpackers and pork processors, and require fair contracts for livestock, poultry and produce farmers
• Enforces anti-trust laws for milk processors, vegetable shippers and grocery stores
• Prevents monopoly control over seeds
• Stops market manipulation by big agribusiness in all sectors of the food system
• Institutes a moratorium on agribusiness mergers

Those who attended Wednesday’s meeting says these provisions could make healthy affordable food more accessible; bring a more vibrant competitive marketplace; and create more local businesses.

“Basically, we want to show Sen. Gillibrand that many of her constituents care about this issue,” says Emma Greenbaum, a Green Corps employee who organized the local chapter of Food & Water Watch. “I think we should want better for ourselves, and better for our universe. Just because we can get healthy food, doesn’t mean our neighbors can.”

The Westchester group is looking to educate the community and partner with other organizations to get the word out to Gillibrand.

The Mamaroneck High School seniors say they plan to launch outreach efforts amoung other students, local health food stores and are encouraging everyone they know to start learning about food.

"It's a family thing," said Martz.

On Tues. Jan. 24 volunteers will be at (on Main Street between Court Street and Mamaroneck Avenue) all day asking people to use their phones to call Gillibrand’s office. If passersby don’t have a phone, one will be provided to make the call. The group needs volunteers to help out on Jan. 24.

Those who are interested in joining the group and or helping out on Tuesday can click here or contact Greenbaum at emma@greencorps.org, 914.269.8352. You can also click here to sign a petition for a fair Farm Bill.

 For more information on the Farm Bill visit:

• http://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/agenda/priorities-for-a-strong-farm-bill
• http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/fair-farm/
• http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RS22131.pdf