From Carole Marner on Tue, December 22, 2009

Of course.  But big corporations control everything including Congress and everything they make costs more and is worth less than things that are not made by them.  I just did a cost comparison for the Franklin Farmer’s Market on the difference between a locally raised and produced organic hamburger including a locally made roll and relish and a MacDonald’s hamburger and for the same money the Franklin hamburger was bigger, tasted better, was more filling and actually took a few minutes to eat.

From Robert Leuallen on Wed, December 23, 2009

Following is a letter I sent for anti-trust hearings:

Comments Regarding Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy
I?m Robert J. Leuallen, 62, living in the small town of Paonia, CO. I?m writing to express concerns about what I perceive has become an ?out of control? unhealthy and economically dumb food system in our country.

The initial intent of our country?s food system was good, grow more for less cost, help feed the starving in the world, etc. But along the way, farmers went from being farmers to becoming industrialists with concentration constantly consolidating food systems into fewer hands.

Just as in our current economic crisis we are seeing that it is not a good idea to allow a bank to be ?too big to fail,? so too has our food system become too big, it is failing to provide healthy food, but it is too politically and economically big to be changed easily.

The current system rewards those producing less healthy food cheaply (partly because it is greatly subsidized by our tax dollars), and economically penalizes those attempting to grow healthy food.

The ultimate responsibility for eating healthier food falls on the shoulders of us consumers. Increased awareness, education and information about the benefits of eating locally grown organic foods over industrial chemically grown and processed stuff called food will help change the ?market.?

However, our tax funded subsidies and other economic benefits to the food industrialist need to change to help level the playing field in the food market. Fast food joints should not have a dollar menu on the backs of us taxpayers.

There are many others who are more knowledgeable of the specifics of what?s broken with our current food system; I hope you listen to them carefully. But the overall concept is pretty clear.

Our current food system is unhealthy and unsustainable, contributing to increased medical costs related to unhealthy foods. Consumers are to blame for their choosing to buy and eat unhealthy foods and government is to blame for subsidizing and supporting the current industrial food production system that makes it harder for healthier food producers to compete, thus limiting those who would like to buy healthier foods.

Evolution will ultimately take care of the situation, survival of the fittest, those eating more healthy foods will survive better and those eating the food substitutes from industrial production will be less healthy and survive less.

But in our society, we have the supposed brain power to make common sense decisions that help move evolution along a quicker, better path. Your hearings appear to be a good step towards this goal.

Thank you for the opportunity for me to provide my humble thoughts.

Robert J. Leuallen
446 Stahl Road
Paonia, CO 81428
(970) 527-4308
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

From Rhonda Geraci on Wed, December 23, 2009

Just read my blog for my feelings on this issue.

From Bill Stewart on Wed, December 23, 2009

I too, am fed up with the lack of local and or small scale processing facilities that are available, even in such a large city as Atlanta.

I have been trying to locate a processor for my jerky company for almost a year. The closest I have found is Deer processors? Not really the scale that I am looking for, for my all natural gourmet locally produced beef jerky.

My challenge is this. How do you effectively bring local products to consumers with scale, without having to compromise quality, via partner or production?

If there’s anyone out there. Do tell.

From Robert Leuallen on Wed, December 23, 2009

Here in Paonia, Colorado, they seem to have come up with a system, you can get more info at:
http://www.homesteadbeef.com/

From mark mcafee on Wed, December 30, 2009

The American food chain is bomb proof for corporations that reign over it…but broken all to hell for the consumers and the farmers.

The middle of the food chain takes the money and the nutritional value from food by pastuerization, homogenization, irradiation, preservation, standardization, long shelf life technology. This leaves farmers with out any connection to consumers and consumers with out any nutritional value left in their food.

We must reconnect the ends of the food chain. when this happens the farmers are well paid and the consumers are well nourished. A great example is raw milk.

Farmers that sell raw milk directly to consumers get $10 per gallon for their raw milk and the consumers do not get lactose intolerance from this raw milk.

This is just one example….there are many of them.

America must embrace policies which encourage direct farmer o consumer connection. John Vilsack at the USDA has even said this publically as USDA policy. he has said “Get to know your farmer and your food”. The current paradigm does exactly the opposite and this hurts both the farmer and the consumer. It is about unfettered market control and monopolies. There should be antitrust action taken and policies that encourage local farmer to consumer exchange.

Good for farmers, the soil the environment, global warming and the consumers health. FDA policies are also not helping. They have criminalized the connection between nutrition and health. According to the FDA only drugs cure disease. When a farmer tries to speak about how whole foods heal he has created a new drug and he is subject to criminal indictment by the FDA. I know…they tried this on me.

All the best,

Mark McAfee
Founder OPDC
Fresno CA
Raw Milk producer in Fresno CA
1-877 RAW MILK

From Jackie Brown on Tue, January 05, 2010

Lots of luck to Bill Stewart. After 30 years in the food business, it is clear to me that the USDA’s main concern is making it impossible to process food on a small scale. I witnessed lots of forced closing of small butchers in Pennsylvania and Maryland due to cross the board requirements for new all stainless equipment. These were family operations which had operated for generations without incident. The government does not get that it is people who make an operation safe/clean…not yards of stainless steel.

From Seth Jacobs on Fri, April 30, 2010

The USDA is killing the small business owner with lack of funding.  Here in Maine we have very few farms left. It’s really sad.