One speaker was Wisconsin dairy farmer Randy Jasper, who had just returned from a trip to the United Kingdom where he participated in a November 14 rally organized by farmers and truckers against soaring fuel prices. The other, Larry Ginter, is an Iowa hog farmer active in Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and other struggles.

Ginter noted the national and international competition between agriculture-related corporations lies behind the economic squeeze on farmers, and workers as well. Jasper said that four companies now control 80 percent of cattle and hog slaughter, and three control 80 percent of grain production.

He noted that this trend toward consolidation of companies during the years of the Clinton administration is "going just as fast as it did under the Republicans."

Jasper explained how one consequence of this concentration is that farmers confront high prices from their suppliers and low prices for the commodities they sell. "My milk prices now are what they were 30 years ago," he explained. "Take your wages back 30 years and leave your rent and food prices alone--where would you be?"

Both farmers also took up the question of biotechnology--genetically engineered crops--under capitalism. Ginter noted that biotechnology has the potential to "solve the age old problems of hunger, sickness, and unsafe food." But it has a "sinister side or an ulterior motive of power and greed" as well. "It is truly the double-edged sword."

Thousands of farmers are facing problems with StarLink corn, which has not been approved for human consumption. Many farmers were not told of various problems with growing the corn and now cannot sell their crop because StarLink corn has been mixed in.

Ginter gave the example of the "aptly-named terminator gene," which sterilizes seeds to prevent them from being used again the following year to plant with. Many Third World peasant farmers who replant the seeds of their recently harvested crops, "would be forced to buy year after year from the agribusiness conglomerates," he said.

Jasper told of the big impact that the negative side of biotechnology had on him as an activist and fighter. "Everybody reaches a line in the sand," he explained. "For me, it was when Bovine Growth Hormone [BGH] came around." This substance speeds up the production of milk in dairy cows, he explained, but in a manner that endangers the health of the cows and the quality of dairy products.

Out of their experiences fighting the crisis conditions generated by capitalism on the land, both of these veteran activists have learned about the land reform and socialist revolution in Cuba, a country where unlike in the United States or United Kingdom, as Jasper put it, "Farmers are highly respected and make money."

Jasper's observations, based on his participation in a delegation of U.S. farmers and workers hosted by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) of Cuba last Spring, were a particular focus of interest at the forum. He said there were 900 cooperatives represented at the congress, noting the high number of small farmers in the country.

Despite the collapse of trade and aid from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, something Cubans "called the Special Period--we'd have called it the disaster area--Cuban farmers have actually raised their production," Jasper explained. "They have their own school, health care, doctor, a community building right on their farm."

"In reality," Jasper stated, "I think the Special Period probably made them a lot stronger. Because they've actually increased production considerably without chemicals.

"In reference to what we have," he said, "Cuba is a poor country. But they're happy. They have what they need, so they're not poor. About 80 percent of what they produce on their farms is sold to the government at a good price, where they make money. Five percent more is paid in taxes. Fifteen percent is sold on the open market."

Jasper was struck by the respect for farmers and farming shown by the people he met in Havana. He noted that delegates to the ANAP congress stayed with people in the city who volunteered to put them up.

The U.S. government "is scared of Cuba for one reason: the attitude of the people," Jasper insisted. "Because if people here felt the way people do there, the government we have, which is run by big business, would be in trouble. That's the fear of Cuba."  
 
Right to farm
"It's against the law to repossess a farm in Cuba," he explained. "If you're working that farm it cannot be repossessed. The government will send people out to help you. Twenty-five thousand families were put back on the land in Cuba last year alone. You tell the government you want a farm and they'll give you a deed to a chunk of land. There is a little limitation there. You have to work it. You can't sell it or rent it. You can pass it on to your children. It can stay in the family. So basically, as long as you want to farm, it's your land."

"It's entirely different here," Jasper said. "They're driving us out in droves. Six dairy farms a day in the state of Wisconsin are going out of business right now, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture tells us."

"I've been to Washington, D.C., three times this year at Black farm rallies," he added, to back their fight against discrimination at the hands of the United States Department of Agriculture.

"There's always a bottom rung on a ladder," he explained. "If the Black farmer is on the bottom rung and you tear that bottom rung off, I'm the next rung on the ladder. There's always a bottom rung. So it's not a Black farm fight. It's not a white farm fight. It's not an England fight. It's a worldwide problem."

"The big thing," he said, "is that farmers and workers both sell our labor. That's the connection. And also food is the connection. Everybody eats every day and we need to somehow harness that. If you want to bring this country to its knees and straighten it out, control food."

"I was in Cuba for six days, by the way," Jasper noted. "I didn't see everything. That's why I need to go back. Because there's too many things I missed," he said. "I'm not saying things are perfect over there. But we could learn an awful lot."

In response to a question following the presentations, Jasper stressed the need for "more conversations like tonight" to educate people. "Five years ago, if you told me I'd be here speaking I'd have said, 'No way!' Now it's fun! We need to go out to a ton of churches, schools, and organizations and speak to them."

"Next year is the 40th anniversary of ANAP, Jasper pointed out. "That would be an ideal time for farmers and workers to go back and visit. We probably could make arrangements to be part of it. It would be an excellent opportunity. It would be great if a lot more people could go there."  
 
 
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