990708 Canadian Farmers Protest Low Commodity Prices

Sweet Grass, Montana - Hundreds of angry American farmers demonstrated at the U.S.-Canadian border to protest low commodity prices and growing concentration of the livestock and grain industries.

The “National Day of Protest”, organized by the Montana-based Campaign to Reclaim Rural America, also involved demonstrations in North Dakota, Idaho and Washington state, organizers said.

“We are protesting low farm prices and the lack of anti-trust enforcement by the Justice Department,” said Helen Waller, a Montana rancher and spokeswoman for the Northern Plains Resources Council.

“There has got to be a better farm policy. The Freedom to Farm Act that we have in place now is simply driving people off the land.”

Organizers of Friday's rally said the influence of big business on agriculture was killing traditional family farms and leading to new risks for the U.S. food supply.

In an example of the kind of consolidation the small farmers fear, the Justice Department Thursday gave Cargill Inc. the go-ahead to buy the grain business of its chief competitor, provided it sold export and river elevators in the Pacific Northwest, central California, the Texas Gulf Coast and along the Illinois River.

That approval came after months of criticism by farm groups and Midwestern lawmakers over the concentration of agricultural power in just a few hands.

Among the protesters' demands are emergency price supports for all U.S. farm products, a federal law requiring meat packers to report prices paid to farmers, and an investigation into antitrust concerns in the meatpacking and grain industries.

In Montana and North Dakota, demonstrators planned to stage peaceful blockades to stop highway traffic at two border crossings, while in Idaho a rally was set for the State Capitol in Boise.

About 600 farmers, cattle ranchers and their families gathered in Sweet Grass for a festival-like rally of speeches and country music organized by farm and ranch organizations, the Northern Plains Resources Council, and various other church and labor organizations.

Waller, a former president of the Resources Council, said competition from big agribusiness and international pacts like NAFTA and GATT aimed at dropping trade barriers was making it impossible for family farmers to survive.

“The USDA itself says that it costs $5.69 to produce a bushel of wheat, but we are getting well under $3 and in Kansas it is as low as $2.10,” Waller said.

The Montana demonstrators invited fellow farmers from across the border in Canada to attend the rally, which they stressed was not aimed at protesting farm imports from Canada.

“The Canadians are hurting just as bad as we are,” Waller said. “We want people to take a look at the whole system of food production, at who really controls the food supply.”

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