Tuesday, August 22, 2006
What is a Farmer? The Farm Bureau Doesn't Know!
…”but my neighbors are very clear that I’m not a farmer,” he notes. “To them I’m just a gardener. I don’t have cows and a big tractor.” He seems mostly amused by this, but the fact that the New York State Farm Bureau also considers small scale farms like his inconsequential is more perturbing to Christenfeld.
“While the number of real farms in New York State is dropping, the number of little farms is actually increasing,” he notes. “But the head of the Farm Bureau has basically dismissed this saying, ‘That’s nice these people are doing this, but it won’t do anything for the farming economy.’ It’s like we’re a hobby.”
(from Dinnerwhere,Capital District 2006)
(Tom Cristenfeld has 160 CSA shares to fill from his actual farm in Valley Falls, NY.
We have heard from sources all over New York State asking why the Farm Bureau prefers to support livestock factories even going so far as to help defend the Willet CAFO in a lawsuit. We know the Farm Bureau is losing members and credibility. Too bad Farm Bureau President, John Lincoln has forgotten that this nation was built on small business. So sad…. so very, very sad… and so very, very stupid.)