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Dan Bacher commentary: USDA data dispels myth that west side growers ‘feed the nation’

Posted by: Maven on December 31, 2009 at 7:52 am

gross_us_farm_incomeFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

“The Astroturf campaign by corporate agribusiness over the past year has relentlessly promoted the myth that crops grown on drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley “feed the nation” or “feed the world.”

The corporate media and even some “alternative” media outlets have bought into this myth in their coverage of the California water wars, portraying the conflict as one between hard-working farmers like those portrayed in the classic Grant Wood painting who only want “feed America” versus “radical environmentalists” who want to protect a “minnow” like the Delta smelt.

The comments of Sean Hannity, in “The Valley Hope Forgot: California Farmers at Obama’s Mercy” show on Fox TV News on September 18, are typical of those that perpetuate the myth that west side San Joaquin Valley farmers “feed America.”

“You are the farmers that have sustained the entire country for decades,” said Hannity, surrounded by hundreds of west side growers, bused-in farmworkers and Central Valley Tea Party activists. “We have generations of farmers here. And they are losing their farms. We have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of acres. We literally have — I met people earlier that now are on food lines because their farms have been shut down.” … “

Read more from IndyBay.org by clicking here.

December 31, 2009 · Filed Under Agriculture

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