Search Results for: patent seed

Poll: Farmers Overwhelmingly Oppose Bayer-Monsanto Merger

OCM Staff

For Immediate Release: March 8, 2018 Contacts: Patrick Davis, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0744, pdavis@foe.org Angela Huffman, Organization for Competitive Markets, (614) 390-7552, ahuffman@competitivemarkets.com Poll: Farmers Overwhelmingly Oppose Bayer-Monsanto Merger  Farmers’ concerns illustrate why merger should be blocked; milder remedies unlikely to work WASHINGTON, D.C. – An overwhelming majority of surveyed farmers are concerned about the proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger and believe it will have a negative impact on independent farmers and farming communities, a poll released today Read More …

1 Million+ Consumers Call on DOJ to Block Bayer-Monsanto Merger

OCM Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 14, 2017 Expert contacts: Tiffany Finck-Haynes, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0715, tfinckhaynes@foe.org Bill Bullard, R-CALF-USA, (406) 670-8157 billbullard@r-calfusa.com Communications contacts: Patrick Davis, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0744, pdavis@foe.org Angela Huffman, (614) 390-7552, ahuffman@competitivemarkets.com Paul Towers, (916) 216-1082, ptowers@panna.org 1 Million+ Consumers Call on DOJ to Block Bayer-Monsanto Merger New reports reveal devastating impacts on consumers and farmers Washington, D.C. – Over 1 million petition signatures were delivered today by farming, consumer and Read More …

Dr. John Ikerd: Feeding the World Intelligently–Without Corporate Agriculture

OCM Staff

This talk was the opening keynote at OCM’s 19th Annual Food and Agriculture Conference. Feeding the World Intelligently –Without Corporate Agriculture[i] John Ikerd[ii] “American Farmers Must Feed the World!” This popular myth is perpetuated by the “agricultural establishment”[iii]  in an attempt to maintain public support for their failed system of industrial agriculture. Most agricultural academics and agribusiness professionals seem to have bought into the idea that only a bio-tech, info-tech industrial approach to agricultural production will be capable Read More …

Agriculture giants Bayer, Monsanto merging could ruin American farmers

OCM Staff

By John W. Boyd, Jr. and Mike Weaver This article first appeared in The Hill. Earlier this year, we planted our crops — soybeans, corn, and wheat — and began feeding our spring chickens. Farmers like us have been doing this for generations. But next year, when we turn to our spring tasks again, the entire farming economy will have shifted under our feet as a result of a merger wave currently underway among the world’s agricultural giants. They Read More …

Populism With a Brain : Ten old/new ideas to give power back to the people.

Mike Callicrate

by Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman published in the Washington Monthly The National Review recently described Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as “two populist peas in a pod.” This was not a compliment. Across the political spectrum, people stick the “populist” label on politicians they see as exploiting the worst resentments and envies of some tribe or another. The segregationist George Wallace, by this reckoning, was a populist. So, too, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Yet there is a Read More …

Letter from Langdon: Playing Fetch

Richard Oswald

While farmers chase the next crop, the agriculture game has changed. International corporations have reduced their own risk by passing it along to farmers. “Free” trade (like the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership), seed patents, and contract farming for hogs and chickens are some of the ways Big Ag has standardized a once-diverse industry. Photo by Nate Kauffman Playing fetch at Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine State Forest. Playing fetch with a Labrador is a little like farming. I throw the Read More …

Breakfast Roundup?

Richard Oswald

Chemical weed killers have become a big part of mainstream, commercial agriculture, saving farmers time and back-breaking labor. But they also come with a cost, as loss of effectiveness forces greater use just to keep up. Now there’s a move afoot to add new patents to some of the old chemicals. When I was a kid, I worked next to my folks pulling weeds from around fences and buildings on the farmstead every Saturday afternoon. Those were the Read More …

Occupy Langdon: We Are Less Than One Percent

Mike Callicrate

by Richard Oswald The Occupy Wall Street Movement has been called “a potent political and cultural conversation”. On the other hand Occupy movements in cities like Washington DC have been called over reported and under attended. That is definitely not the case here because Occupy Langdon has been completely off the radar screen, totally undiscussed, and one hundred percent unreported. Until now. I’m breaking this thing wide open. Here around Langdon and all across the USA, less than Read More …