Fwd: letter to editors, 10/20/00

["William K. Medlin" <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

Visionaries: Given the importance of farming to the Palouse economy, 
this policy proposal by a farm organization in western Montana may 
merit your time. I and others here have had some correspondence with 
this organization, though I personally am not competent in rural 
economic development. But Mr. Schmitz' points merit consideration in 
view of the plight of family farmers in most of the nation these 
days. Some of you may want to dialog on it. Ken M.

>X-From_: alnfred@midrivers.com  Fri Oct 20 14:05:05 2000
>Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 14:32:53 -0600
>From: alnfred <alnfred@midrivers.com>
>Reply-To: alnfred@midrivers.com
>Organization: Mid-Rivers Internet
>To: "Gerard Choplin, Coordinator CPE" <cpe@cpefarmers.be>
>CC: avkrebs@earthlink.net, kozer@nffc.net, Mark Ritchie <iatp@iatp.org>,
>         Peggy Adams <adams@pcei.org>, dev-plan@moscow.com,
>         netwiebe@hotmail.com, Nico Verhagen <nico.verhagen@pi.be>
>Subject: letter to editors,  10/20/00
>
>Letter to the Editor:				      	October 10, 2000
>
>“Bigger is Better”, but isn’t “Smaller” the Best?  The report of the
>United Nations
>Conference at Maastricht, Netherlands, September 14, 1999  states that
>“small
>farmers world wide produce from 2 to 10 times more per unit area than do
>larger,
>corporate farmers”.
>
>In order to keep the family farmer on the land, we are appealing to farm
>organizations, civic and commercial organizations, churches and social
>groups, and
>government agencies to support the following  provisions (as an option
>for family
>farmers)  in the next USDA farm Bill:  These three provisions are:
>
>		1.   USDA farm support be limited to each producer’s 
>share of the
>U.S.
>		      domestic human consumption of staple commodities.
>
>		2.   A marketing card be issued to producers stating 
>the producer’s
>eligibility
>		      and entitling each to full cost of production.
>
>		3.   USDA deficiency payment (the difference between 
>the market price
>and
>		      the actual cost of production) be made at the 
>FSA office when
>the
>		      commodity is sold.  
>
>For the wheat producer this means about $9.66 per bushel based on 20
>bushels per
>acre (U.S. needs -- 1.2 billion bushels); For corn producers, it means
>about $6.67 per
>bushel based on 40 bushels per acre (U.S. needs -- 3 billion bushels);
>For milk
>producers, it means about $31.60 per cwt. based on 60 pounds /cow/day
>(U.S. needs --
>2.16 billion cwt.).
>
>Congress would set top limit of total support per producer.
>
>This plan, inserted as an option for the farm operator would stop
>foreclosures; stop
>overproduction; hold grain on the farm in reserve for disasters and
>future sales; and
>keep a food reserve for the nation at fair and reasonable retail prices
>irrespective of
>“dumping” by foreign nations.
>
>This plan would “up-size” the family farmer financially -- enabling him
>to compete
>more efficiently with the mega farms; maintain the community and care
>for the
>countryside.  
>
>
>Al P Schmitz,     President
>Family Farmer Organization, Inc.
>HC 80, Box 403, Brockton, MT 59213
>Phone/Fax          (406) 774 3437,
>E-mail: <alnfred@midrivers.com>
>
>      Please feel free to edit, publish, or use the ideas contained in
>this letter.  Hopefully, they will be useful to promote the rights of
>the small farmer throughout the world to a fair recompense for his
>investment and efforts to produce good food for his countrymen!
>			Sincerely,      
>
>					Al Schmitz