Jasper is a member of Family Farm Defenders and the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association. He and his family have 80 cows and raise corn on 700 acres, 500 of them rented. Joel Britton, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party and a packinghouse worker and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 100A in Chicago, was also on the panel.

Britton and Jasper both joined a one-week delegation to Cuba in May in order to attend the 40th anniversary activities of the founding of the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba (ANAP) and an international conference on organic agriculture.

"Cuban farmers are very proud of what they do," Jasper pointed out, "and others in the country respect their contribution. For example, there is a national Farmers Day in Cuba." Jasper noted that Cubans follow developments in U.S. politics. "Many Cuban working people know that U.S. farmers are losing their land," he said. "They are aware that food production in the United States is dominated by the major companies that seek to increase their profits."

Jasper pointed to the importance of the September 4–7 World Food Sovereignty Conference, sponsored by ANAP in Havana. "Food is being used now as a weapon. It’s not what food should be used for. Food is a right. According to a 1996 figure, 800 million people in the world are hungry," Jasper said, while small farmers are being pushed to the edge by the cost-price squeeze imposed on them by the giant food business corporations. "I get paid less to produce food than it costs me to produce it," he noted.

"It’s important that groups send representatives to the conference, including farm groups, labor unions, consumer groups, and so on. From Cuba we can learn a tremendous amount about the possibilities of building a different society that puts needs before profits. For example, they have a national health-care plan. In the United States 30 percent of health care expenses are for administration," Jasper said.

"The U.S. government is afraid of the example of Cuba," Jasper concluded. "They fear the impact of its example on the working people of other countries."
 
 
Related article:
Cubans celebrate 40th anniversary of farmers organization  
 
 
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