After three weeks of debate a Republican voting block kept the Senate farm bill from advancing in the final hours before holiday recess. Senate Democrats chided Republicans for continuing a filibuster that produced nearly 100 amendments, many of them irrelevant to the legislation advanced out of the bi-partisian agriculture committee. 

When it was all over the Democratic National Party released a statement saying, "Republicans Defeat Farm Bill" and Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) criticized them sharply. "Make no mistake about it," Daschle said, "today Senate Republicans voted against farmers, against ranchers, and against rural Americans. Their vote jeopardizes billions of dollars in assistance to farmers and ranchers, which is available now and which are not likely to be available next year." 

With this pre-Christmas delay on the farm bill deliberations will not begin again until after the recess when the Senate reconvenes on January 23, 2002. 

Even though farmers and virtually every national farm group had been adamant about finishing the farm bill this year before time and money ran out, it became apparent in the final hours of Senate debate that the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) was opposing the final Senate version. It was disclosed during floor testimony that the AFBF national Board of Directors convened an emergency conference call the night before the final vote and composed a letter to the Senate stating their opposition. The board cited a concern about the Reid amendment -a proposal which created a water conservation program intended to help farmers such as those in the Klammath Basin whose use of water competed with tribes, fisherman and wildlife. It remains a mystery why the Farm Bureau's national board would oppose an amendment intended to help family farmers, and in doing so, derail the passage of the broader bill farmers say they desperately need this year. 

Observers have noted that since Farm Bureau arguments are largely of a "property rights nature", their position could be determined more by their various real estate and development investments than their farming interests. For more on the Farm Bureau insurance company's corporate affiliations and investments see http://www.familyfarmer.org/sections/meet.html.

According to the Associated Press (Dec 9) a federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted executives and managers of Tyson Foods Inc. on charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens to the company's poultry processing plants. 

A 36-count indictment unsealed by the Justice Department Wednesday said Tyson's managers tolerated the hiring of illegal aliens to meet production goals and cut costs. The indictment stated Tyson aided the immigrants by obtaining false documents so they could work at Tyson poultry processing plants "under the false pretense of being legally employable." 

Apparently, the investigation involved Justice Department undercover agents working at Tyson's who were directed by company managers to pick up immigrants at the U.S.-Mexican border and transport them to processing plants in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Missouri and Arkansas. Tyson is the nations largest poultry producer and is often cited as an unfortunate forerunner in the increasing trend towards concentrated and fundamentally dehumanized corporate food production.

The long awaited and highly contested nomination of Thomas Dorr for the USDA's undersecretary of rural development has been scheduled for January 20, 2002, according to the National Farm Action Campaign.

Since the announcement by the Bush administration in the spring of 2001, Dorr's nomination has been stridently countered by farm, rural and minority advocates who maintain that Dorr is a "poster boy" for giant agribusiness and will compound economic and social problems in rural America. A coalition of groups including the Iowa CCI has organized a letter opposing Dorr's nomination that has been signed by over 160 groups nationwide. The letter maintains that Dorr is inappropriate because he sees factory farming as the model for the future; denounces sustainable farming practices; holds that ethnic and religious diversity are stumbling blocks to rural economic growth; and champions the corporate model of farming." For more information contact Libby Host at iowacci@dwx.com.