1. NEW FEATURE - UPDATES! ACTION ALERTS Are you concerned about the safety of your food? Do you want to support family farmers who take care of our wildlife and waterways? Are you tired of giant corporations controlling markets and the way your food is raised? Do you want to stop the rising tide of dangerous factory farming and irresponsible biotechnology? Starting this week Defenders Rural Updates! will begin a new service. At critical moments we will forward UPDATES! ACTION ALERTS. These alerts will be geared towards providing you with quick, easy and effective ways to promote positive change. The next 12 - 18 months are crucial in shaping the way we grow our food in America. Will your politicians promote farm policy that nurtures safe food and stewardship of the Earth while providing farm families with a fair income? Or will they continue to carry water for the chemical companies, biotech giants, and the ruthless meat processors whose only real concern is maximizing profits? UPDATES! ACTION ALERTS will quickly give you the tools you need to act for positive change. Please take a moment and forward this note on to others. Tell them about Rural Updates and encourage them to subscribe. It's time to awaken our friends, families and communities. There are many of us and collectively our voices can resound powerfully. By subscribing they can place themselves on the front row of a very important debate. Do it today. Do it for the future. 2. EXPLOITING FARMERS AND THE ARCTIC REFUGE While Congressmen like Frank Murkowski are arguing we need to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, in part, to help farmers keep production costs low, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has just released a report on last summers oil "crisis" that sheds interesting light on supposed oil "shortages." The FTC now says that the rapid rise in gasoline prices last summer in the Mid-West was caused, in part, by "strategic choices by some oil companies designed to maximize profits that contributed to the temporary price increases." In a report released last week that examined the "price crisis" during the summer of 2000, the FTC added that there were "conscious, (but independent) choices by industry participants to engage in profit-maximizing strategies." In response, Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife said, "Will drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge reduce oil prices for farmers? Not a chance. Once again, the popular image of the farmer is being exploited to advance the less-popular profiteering of giant corporations." If you would like to participate in a poll about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or send a letter to the major oil companies or elected officials go to http://www.planetfeedback.com P.S. This takes a little time, but all good things do! 3. AG CONSERVATION BUDGET EXPANDED! Many thanks to all who have signed on to our farm conservation letters and made calls over the last two weeks. Your efforts have helped tremendously! This week in Washington the Senate finally passed their agricultural budget for 2002. While this budget is far from being what it should be, it is much better than it could have been. Because of your hard work the Senate has now approved a $1.3 billion increase for conservation spending in 2002. Great work! Now this budget goes before a joint conference between the Senate and the House. Since the House budget passed a couple of weeks ago approved NO additional funding for conservation, beltway insiders are saying this will be a fight. Stay tuned over the next few weeks and Updates! will be letting you know what you can do. Meanwhile, if your group or organization has not joined in on the farm conservation sign-on letters mentioned above. Visit http://www.familyfarmer.org/action.html and sign on today! 4. RURAL COMMUNITY CALENDAR Defenders of Wildlife and Rural Updates! are pleased to announce a new feature we have added to our www.familyfarmer.org web site. Visitors will now be able to view a file of important upcoming events in our on-line Rural Community Calendar. This calendar is intended to keep you aware of what is happening locally and nationally. We will be listing dates for meetings, public forums and other activities important to upcoming federal farm policy negotiations. We want to make this a real community calendar and everyone is invited to send information about important upcoming events in your area. Please include times, location, a brief summary and e-mail this to sjohnson@defenders.org. You can find the calendar at http://www.familyfarmer.org/ If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe to this list,
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4/10/01