Subject: (off topic but IMHO worthwhile) URGENT request for support of French Farmers (fwd)

From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 12:43:48 -0400 (EDT)

Lee: Is this not a prime example of greed and abuse in our
current way of life in this country. <.... snipped lots of words
not appropriate in this forum ....>. This post should raise some
blood pressure around here. As I said before, DEMONSTRATE, EDUCATE &
CONVINCE; there are millions of people in the US who know this is 
wrongful behavior by our business and political leaders.
LL

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 09:42:34 -0400
From: Hal Hamilton <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: Renske <[email-masked]>, Ritchie Mark <[email-masked]>,
     Vuarin Pierre <[email-masked]>
Subject: URGENT request for support of French Farmers

I have been asked by French friends to organize, today, a real and symbolic
show of US support for the French farmers who have been jailed for
protesting the confiscatory US tarrifs that were imposed in a trade war over
the EU's ban on beef raised with hormones.  The original 5 French farmers
arrested face bail and penalties of about $17,500 apiece.  I am personally
pledging $200.  Please, if you are willing to contribute, let me know today,
Wednesday, before midnight, how much.  I will let you know where and how to
send your contribution.  It may be partially or wholly returned if not
needed, but don't count on it.  Please also let me know if you are willing
for your name and/or organization to be used in a press conference in France
tomorrow or Friday.

This is personal for me.  My wife and I helped one of the farmers, Jose
Bove, milk his 250 sheep last summer.  Their milk goes to make Roquefort
cheese, one of the commodities upon which the US government is slapping a
huge tarrif.  These farmers work in a high rocky region that is really only
suitable for grazing sheep.  They work hard and make a very high quality
product.  Up until the early 1980s Jose and his neighbors in the Larzac
waged a struggle against the French army, which announced in 1971 that they
were seizing the land for a nuclear base.  The farmers eventually won the
fight, and the social cohesion that resulted from those years of up-hill
movement-building has yielded local leadership that is now willing to take
on Novartis, Monsanto and the US government over the adulteration and
homogenization of food and culture.  In my opinion, they are global leaders
and not just French leaders.

Our US voice in support will make a difference, in the media, in our own
hearts, and to our colleagues in Europe.  Even very small gifts will make a
large impact.

Hal Hamilton
Center for Sustainable Systems
433 Chestnut St., Berea KY 40403 USA
Phone: (606) 986-5336; Fax: (606) 986-1299
[email-masked]

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From: John Schinnerer <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 17:15:29 -0700

Aloha,

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. [mailto:[email-masked]]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 09:42:34 -0400
From: Hal Hamilton <[email-masked]>
Subject: URGENT request for support of French Farmers

<snip>

I don't think this is so far off topic, if PC still embraces bioregionalism
and local sustainability...

I fear the Center For Sustainable Systems is a bit nearsighted and
un-systemic on this one.  What's the difference between French farmers out
on a dependency limb and American farmers out on a dependency limb?  Both
their economics depend too much on shipping their non-diverse products
across the Atlantic.  Both want some sort of guarantees that they can keep
doing this, in fact have some sort of "right" to keep doing it.  Not very
sustainable, seems to me. 

One way to look at these "tariff wars" is as a not-so-subtle reminder of the
consequences of dependence on export cash crops/products and lack of local
self-sufficiency.

Not that I think anyone should be in jail for protesting, unless they have
committed other than non-violent protest (which I hear a few folks have, in
this case).

The most obvious (not easy, not simple, not quick, just obvious) way out of
this sort of quid pro quo BS would seem to be ever-increasing local
self-sufficiency...create the surplus before the trading starts.

John Schinnerer

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