Which is why farm aid keeps going strong. This year the festival was held at the alpine valley music theater in east tri wisconsin deep in the heart of dairy country farm aid showcase some of the most innovative family farmers from around tired nation Whiskey River no rather a. Farm a president of 34 years Country Music icon Willie Nelson opened the festival well 1st of all im glad to see us all year to do. But there is. A lot of help is needed and were glad to be here to offer our support what are those challenges while one is pricing take Dairy Farmers for instance according to the u. S. D. A. Foods 2015 the price of milk paid to farmers has not only been going down but its also unpredictable from month to month making it hard for farmers to absorb that extra cost. Barmaid presented one of the many solution through the small farmer and old traditions on a sense of community through grazing we create a grazing it works it would help the cows be healthier and it was less labor plus they talked about the profitability of it our cows actually produce half as much today perk how in one year as they used to before we started grazing however with this system for every 100 pounds of milk rather than making 0. 50 we might be making 5. 00 dairy farming is and economic engine for wisconsin and is essential to the culture of this state agriculture contributes 88000000000 dollars each year to the states economy and almost half of that comes from dairy Dairy Farmers across the country are laboring right now under extreme pressure earning less for a gallon of milk than it cost them to produce it since 1973 weve lost a staggering 93 percent of this countrys Dairy Producers faced with the possibility of extinction a group of determined Dairy Farmers starting in wisconsin but now from all over the country are working together to activate communities built power and propose solutions to fix a broken system at the same time a Resolute Group of entrepreneurial women have come together to counter the prevailing narrative that Rural America is dying. The way. Music icon youll young explains why were america and the family farmer is worth saving i think myself that the solutions. Are simple and big i think we need to have legislation to make sure that all the farmers in america you Sustainable Practices whether theyre corporations for Small Farmers if youre farming in america. Or in canada for that matter. You should follow sustainable. Practices and not destroy the earth. It isnt just according to the u. S. Government data as of timber 30 of the 2019 over 40000000 pounds of pork bellies is sitting in warehouses unsold uneaten and without a home stockpile in 40 years this is partly due to the decreasing demand for oil is which are the cuts they give us here in the United States unfortunately bacon not as popular overseas as things like however work producers were advised to build up their birds due to swine fever reducing the relation in china by over a 1000000 eggs now trying are not increasing farmers are left. With too much baking and small hog farmers to short change in the marketplace as the price stays so low only vertically integrated factory farms can show a profit even Country Music star tiny tucker was moved by the facts this has farmers and consumers ive learned a lot sitting here listening to all of you all speak its become. Its made me more aware when i think about having that glass of milk with my pie for i go to bed im going to think of the Dairy Farmers to know that a pig grows up in a crate and thats the bacon youre eating i think just we just need to be more aware of what were buying and not just be more aware but take it to another level we are this country and they are just represent now so weve got to make the stand and weve got to tell them what we want and we want things changed one group looking to change policy and perception of farming is the wisconsin based soil sisters the problem of overproduction is a problem that weve all fallen into the system has pushed us to produce more and more. More and more just to keep our heads above water the average eater isnt connected to the farm and doesnt realize these things and when there is go under it it doesnt affect the milk theyre pulling from the shelf so we as a society have devalued food and cheaper is better and bigger is better and that is not sustainable industrialization of agriculture has really changed the way we treat the land over production due to pricing seems to be the prevailing problem with every sector small and family farming partly because the Big Industrial sector can absorb the cost a point not lost on the soil sisters our group is based in green county in southern wisconsin so we are in a very traditional conventional industrial egg area however if you look at a statewide wimmin make up 35 percent of producers in wisconsin and thats a 16 percent increase and if you look at the fact that wisconsin leads organics in dairy and livestock were 2nd in vegetables only to california slightly longer growing season were part of a Broader Movement and when youre part of something bigger than yourself things start to change and we saw sisters and we are also sisters if we are committed to our land and our agriculture in our rural areas we do things by changing up the rules and not. Going to corporate capitalism but setting up our own systems of collaboration and supporting each other and when you know youre on a bigger team and you know people have your back and you know other women have you back you take risks and you show up and thats what weve been doing what exactly is that stake if groups like are made and the soil sisters dont succeed so well sisters chris mary and explains whats at stake is if you Food Security if people can stay on the land growing food were going to have to get our food elsewhere and then were going to be at the mercy of other places. For some the tradition of growing food locally isnt just a way to avoid the large factory farms that are utter cutting their. Only farms is due to the traditions of their people and their ancestors and a path beyond processed food an illness or a manthey of the united white corn Growers Group in a night a wisconsin explains their group started in 20152016 we wanted to take on the responsibility of growing food for ourselves in our community or our tribal program. Had been taken on the responsibility of growing corn for the community but it would sell out so fast that it wasnt able to sustain the whole community talked with a lot of people and people just started saying hey we should grow this together we shouldnt be having individual plots we should do it the old way we do have quite a few people in our group that have diabetes and they do want to eat better and they didnt have access to food that was then they didnt understand how to cook it before but if you were to go back to a traditional diet and meet with our food circle that has to do with the seasons and the cycles and the ceremonial food thats already identified you dont have diabetes anymore. In many ways had we listened to the native wisdom of food we may have avoided some of the worst of our Health Related struggles tied to that food and right alongside indigenous communities striving to keep their our cultural traditions thriving immigrants are helping breathe life into farming langley of mike one explains we were farmers by generals while we migrated to america as refugees we bought some of our traditions to america my mom her mom or my grandmother we used to do this together so it brings a memory of bags. At that Nature Preserve our 25 years were saying i did. A better way to fire. Timing isnt just about food that despite how silly that may sound one thing farm a continues to do decade after decade is show that farming impacts communities big and small in ways you might not expect these issues in farming order Dave Matthews explains i remember when i was a kid and my father my father was ill and eventually. He died from his illness i remember after he died my mom started gardening almost like a crazy person. She just ensures outside digging and planting. But in a few days it started to look like she was sort of magical and she just said it helped her heal. Being connecting herself to the earth what i mean is say when i when i compared the sort of over industrialization of farming which severs us from the earth it makes us separate from the earth and it turns us into part of a profit driven machine that doesnt take into account anything but the dollar and theres that compared with connecting ourselves to the earth to know that when we eat and when we pay a fair price for the food that we eat that were supporting people who are taking care of the earth its a system that we need to support because all were doing is paying them what theyre do if we pay them enough to survive were not paying them too much were paying them what theyre doing. Today there are good and. The bad news in the United States. The good. The cia and the u. S. Military were engaged in covert actions really throughout the world. Where they were assassinating populist leaders they were backing up the right way military funding an army. Theres no. Because theres always a small. Profit. In the United States president ial candidates debate the future of the u. S. And the world. But dig into the burning questions of this election cycle. Every week. Student trade was money universal basic. Catch up with running this sunday exclusively. Thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the countrys military and the decision. Every song came to a complete. The day that i was very. You know told to shut up but theyd kill me and i see how it destroyed my life and he screamed at me and he made me come in and he grabbed my own arm and he write me this bird thinking if you take into account that women dont report because of the extreme retaliation its probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the u. S. Military rape is a very very traumatizing have happened but ive never seen trauma like ive seen from women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting rape is more likely to get the victim punished and be offended and almost 10 year career or chose very invested in and i gave a sex offender who was not even going to justice or put on the registry this is simply an hour in violence male sexual predators for the large part of target whoever is there to prey upon whether thats men or women. And were going to fulfill that purpose is probably to the people. You know weve all bots the troops really. Really. You want to work. No. For the. Coming coming coming. So what is a fair price under the Current System that price may not have been because bring the cost of production according to the United States department of agriculture the retail price of a pound of bacon is around 5. 00 the share of that price that ends up in the farmers pocket is around 0. 69 what about say flour a 5 pound bag will run the consumer about 3. 79 the farmer gets 0. 44 and since were talking so much about Dairy Farmers look at a gallon of milk the consumer pays 4. 59 while the farmer if there are a lucky sees about one dollar and 0. 50 per gallon weve had consolidation in the industry for a long time which means that some players particularly processors have a lot of power and that means that in some cases we see farmers not having places that sell their milk or farmers having to be price takers be being told how much they should be paid and not necessarily that reflect how much the cost it is to actually produce and he was so proud of the said it all. Falling numbers and everything was just perfect in a trade to find a market for it and it was worth nothing i mean those were the. Penalty and its very frustrating for me because it should have been worth 5 to 6 times and when i actually sold the farm because of the quality i remember when we discussed the price of flour and how out of 3. 79 cent bag the farmer only saw 0. 44 well what about Something Like beer a product whose entire quality and taste depend on the. Brains used in the process while you the consumer will pay 8. 99 per sixpack the farmer who made your brew possible family make 0. 04 per sixpack why one reason is the proliferation of factory farming and its not new since 997. 00 family run dairy farms alone have seen their Profit Margins and market share gobbled up by large corporate conglomerates each year saw these big giants buy up and destroy the family farm and he was no mistake it was exactly how earl lauer resi bus wanted it earl butz was the secretary of agriculture under president s nixon and ford but he is most well known for selling out the family farmer to large scale corporate farms instead of giving them a hand when it was possible here he is 1972 on the subject of hunger and subsidizing food to make it affordable for all. The 1000000 americans now receiving. Another 2 or 3000000 of them directly from the system i think every farm position on the. Cost of production is not the birthright of americans are going to participate for i think with a mistake if we pursue a tape road policy and. Policy or are part of bipartisan support in our lives that there are hope. Their t. V. Sets. Right ready for work and butts kept that position for the entirety of his career that farmers need not be subsidized by the government when prices domestically drop below the cost of production buts and many of the big bad world believed it was unnecessary because all farmers had to do was sell their surplus overseas in 1991 man at the National Farmers Union Conference after all bots to respond to the fact that his plans had not 20 years later actually done much but line the pockets of the very rich and im a dairy farmer from wisconsin and i was just wondering mr secretary. If you think maybe the conservative views and agriculture may change. You said you learned how to read. Maybe can somebody help you see. The reason i ask is a i dont know of anyone in my community. That still supports hopefully your old views about farming that are left they all went broke my concern is that real farmers need change theyre real farmers do. We need to restore the economic safety net. In production agriculture in america or the future of real farmers. Is is going to be at a tremendous risk and what was the grandfather of factory farms response to 20 years of his own failed policy we all enjoy a pretty high level of living in this country again primarily because our food system is in the nation hands with a relatively small share of our total production inputs to make that i think its been a good thing but the adjustments been difficult for some people theyre better off to in most cases because theyve got a pretty good paint job somewhere and i grew closer probably better off because they left because were more and more efficient. You know i think for those of us left in commercial agriculture have a higher number. And the idea that the family farmers would be better off just getting out of the business altogether has not abated the same farm a current agricultural secretary sonny perdue told wisconsin farmers that in america the big get bigger and the small go out i dont think in america we for any Small Business we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability sarah lloyd a dairy together explains why the rajah of per view and butts is so very wrong we need the federal government to take action in the Dairy Pricing so please do call your representatives in washington d. C. Because they will tell you nobody wants to talk about balancing supply with demand were in a free market tell them that their raw tell them that youve met the farmers that are pushing for it and were a nationwide force and were growing stronger i think that all farmers and fishermen should be paid decent wages so that they could get dinner to feed their communities in the country and federal policies to support that so were calling on the government to take some leadership in address that area pricing formula so that farmers can be fair their wages musician and longtime farm and participant John Mellencamp and why humans are capable of solving the problems farmers and all of us face despite a negative outlook from big ag it seems to me that this world is in motion. And nature calls for diversity diversity diversity its important to take our minds out and simply observe what is going on around us. As opposed to thinking we have an answer and in giving a knee jerk reaction and then just chill out creativity human beings are the only ones on the other only. Species on this earth that have the ability to be creative charging the smell of it and creative they are at farming 29. 00 t. Really meant some very Extraordinary People were looking at the issue of food and farming sperm some pretty pretty creative acres. Venus williams the executive director of alices garden in milwaukee is one of them i was this garden is a 2. 2 acre farm thats been around since 70 soon we like to say that we use gardening as the carrot. To get people to come through the gates to impact their inspired quality of life so along with having a production farm area we have an herbal Apprentice Program that has 72 apprentices learning with me we have 105. And we have a whole wellness and every Cultural Program for the community when youre looking at urban context and especially in communities of color and especially in the Africanamerican Community youre looking at the sentence of people who grew the food who built. This place a long time ago it may have been by force but now it is by choice but part of why im here is a honestly believe that the labor force that exists in the urban concept is going to be part of the solution to solve the crisis for the role of a small rural farmer but it isnt just the soil feeding america the ocean and our waterways are as well one Elementary School lunch lady from Marthas Vineyard in massachusetts explains. The 1st ever Elementary School lunch ladies to incorporate sustainable seafood. Food and i am now translating my mission and my trip across the United States. Has not or is. Connecting with your farmer connecting with your fishermen eating what the ocean provides what the land provides instead of offering chicken fingers hamburger peas a hot lunch and a salad bar every single day i just offer one hot lunch that focuses on locally Sustainable Food a salad bar option and then a Sandwich Shop given that experience allows them to feel some sense of power and account. Realty they connect with who brought their fortune down the story of where their part came from bringing people closer to their food allows them to understand that somebody works really really hard to make them healthy and they need to be thankful and account to. Be on the pocket but what if that is a market and Consumer Base that is misinformed about the true cost of the goods they buy a rapidly changing climate and a government that doesnt seem to actually be working for farmers but instead for big Farming Companies dr arthur c. Evan chief executive of the American Psychological association explains why he and the e. P. A. Were at farm aid 2019 this is the new partnership that we have with farm aid and its because farmers are under a tremendous amount of stress right and i think theres a greater recognition that in addition to addressing the economic challenges the farmers are facing there has to be in tandem with that. Some efforts to address the Mental Health challenges that from the space for one thing i think people are talking about these issues much more than they have historically i think we have a search that is showing the rise in suicides particular in certain populations that is bringing more attention to this i think that there are some realities economic realities that people are facing and i think that the fact that people are experiencing stress related to their inability to take care of their families to take care of themselves i think is something that we just have to pay more attention to i personally strongly feel that there should be a single payer system in place so that farmers are guaranteed access to health care so that you know that farming is a dangerous profession and we need a lot of times they dont have the money are not getting the money these days to fix equipment when they should be so that we just our government system should be there to support farmers making sure that health care is a right were going to have to use more of a Public Health framework think about how we. And thats people in the community to be helped and so he supports how we can use strategies of psycho education and its clear to us that there are not enough resources and that even if we change the models if we have this more people if we do all of those things at the end of day we have to have more resources for these issues in farming communities and so were going to be looking at how we can help raise the awareness of that and work with the Farming Community to see that that apparently. Minister at exactly trying to do something for the farmers and that is you know have a duty to make love you. Thanks to. Us. So what weve got to do is identify the threats that we have its crazy on sunday shouldnt let it be an arms race is on all sides very dramatic developments only personally im going to resist i dont see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. Let me explore. And when you. Look at that is to close most of the book called the but. Its going strong its that its about seeing new yorkers. Just for a little. 100 said to storm the u. S. Embassy in baghdad after last weeks deadly american airstrikes in iraq diplomatic staff including the ambassador have reportedly been evacuated from the compound. Julian assange claims he is dying in the u. K. Prison lie but sedatives subjected to 23 hours of solitary confinement every day we hear from a son just friend who was told the chilling details in a call from the wiki leaks cofounder of justice. Rang me because he spend christmas with me and my family in 2010 while im on but you know what time it got to you suddenly all he said to me but im slowly dying. And a new years miracle we find
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