{"id":15475,"date":"2013-03-19T09:42:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T15:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15475"},"modified":"2013-03-19T09:42:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T15:42:35","slug":"food-system-racism-corporate-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvesting Justice #6: The Consumer's Got to Change the System – Farmer Ben Burkett on Racisim & Corporate Control of Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mississippi<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor’s note:<\/strong> This is the sixth article in the Harvesting Justice series<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Tory Field and Beverly Bell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben Burkett (above left) is a family farmer and coordinator of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives<\/a> for the state of Mississippi. He is also president of the board of the National Family Farm Coalition<\/a> and a member of the food sovereignty commission of Via Campesina<\/a>, the international network of small farmers and landless people. He gave the following interview one early morning in New Orleans, where he went to deliver a truckload of his cooperatives\u2019 okra to Whole Foods.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives grew out of the civil rights movement. We are probably 90 percent African American, but we have white, Native American, and Hispanic farmers. Racism is still here in the marketplace and in credit, but we have learned to deal with it and not give up on changing the system. We struggle every day to bring about a change.<\/p>\n

We work with co-ops in 16 Southern states. Everything we\u2019re about is food sovereignty<\/a>, though I don\u2019t think that many farmers in Mississippi really know the term. It\u2019s the right of every individual on earth to wholesome food, clean water, clean air, clean land, and the self-determination of a local community to their rights of intellectual property to grow and to do what they want.<\/p>\n

We just recognize the natural flow of life; it\u2019s just what we\u2019ve always done. Like myself, I\u2019m a fourth-generation farmer on a farm that my great-grandfather homesteaded in 1889. That wasn\u2019t but about 20 years after the end of slavery. He got 164 acres from the United States government. I still have the title \u2013 they called it a patent \u2013 signed by Grover Cleveland. And we\u2019re still farming that same land.<\/p>\n

Our view is local production for local consumption. The crops we grow, we sell them mostly within a 300-mile radius of this [Indian Springs Farmers Association-owned] packing facility.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want a change. We just want to go back to the way things were. It\u2019s just supporting mankind as small farmers and family farmers. It\u2019s not so much a matter of making money, it\u2019s a matter of carrying on so your farm will continue on. But you have to make some profit off it in order to keep it going.<\/p>\n

Some say the system is working. It appears to be working fine, but corporate agriculture is not sustainable. Our system of growing food is heavy, heavy, heavy dependent on petro-chemicals, on inorganic compounds, mostly petroleum-based. And then it takes too much control out of the local community. Now, it might last for several decades, but in the end it can\u2019t last.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got a few companies that want to control all the seedstock of the world, and they\u2019ve just about got a handle on marketing three of the main commodities: corn, soybean, and cotton. It\u2019s hard to find seeds that aren\u2019t treated with the Monsanto-manufactured Roundup Ready. I\u2019ve tried to find cotton that wasn\u2019t treated, but I couldn\u2019t. Now they\u2019re working on controlling wheat and rice.<\/p>\n

And they make those seeds so most of them don\u2019t regenerate the next year anyway. But if you do save any of the seeds, Monsanto and the other companies are going to prosecute you for saving their property. Those seeds are patented<\/a>, the property of the seed company, so they reserve the right to keep them. They\u2019ll take you to court and make you pay back their money. Basically you\u2019re just sharecropping for them, you\u2019re leasing their seeds.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair. Once you\u2019ve bought the seeds and planted them on your own land, it looks to me like they ought to be your own seeds. That\u2019s the essence of life. Where did Monsanto and the other companies get their first seed from? Someone gave them to them. Those seeds didn\u2019t fall out of the sky.<\/p>\n

Through the National Family Farm Coalition, we signed onto the protest against the seeds Monsanto sent to Haiti. Developing countries such as Haiti have no need for Monsanto, for hybrid seeds or GMO seeds, no kind of way. Let them use their traditional seeds they\u2019ve been saving for hundreds of years. Let them propagate and then continue to farm traditionally. Because if they get used to buying from America, they\u2019ll lose the diversity of seed that they need in order to build new seed. Normally when those types of seeds and other products from America hit a country, local farmers lose. They get put out of business, they can\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been \u2013 I don\u2019t want to use the word co-opted \u2013 trained by the institutions of agriculture, the companies, the university system, and technology, to give our rights over to the company, which I think is absolutely wrong. We have to be more proactive than reactive as small farmers, family farmers. We can\u2019t wait for the government and large corporations to dictate to us what we can do in our region.<\/p>\n

They got a unique way of buying you off to not fight here. The American consumer doesn\u2019t care as long as it\u2019s cheap. But no matter what us farmers plant, the consumer\u2019s got to change the system. People buying the end product have to complain. As long as they don\u2019t complain, there\u2019s no need even talking about it. The marketplace dictates.<\/p>\n

See also our previous blog: \u201cUprooting Racism in the Food System: African Americans Organize.\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Download the Harvesting Justice pdf here<\/a>, and find action items, resources, and a popular education curriculum on the Harvesting Justice website<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more from Other Worlds here<\/a>, and follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Tory Field and Beverly Bell, Other Worlds.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Other Worlds’ Tory Field and Beverly Bell discuss issues of sustainability and agriculture with Mississippi farmer and member of Via Campesina’s food sovereignty commission Ben Burkett.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":15476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[6354,920,248,297,19,1326,6328,2564,25,6359,1696],"yoast_head":"\nMississippi Farmer Discusses Food Sovereignty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett discusses issues of race and corporate control of the food system with Other Worlds' Tory Field and Beverly Bell.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mississippi Farmer Discusses Food Sovereignty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett discusses issues of race and corporate control of the food system with Other Worlds' Tory Field and Beverly Bell.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/mississippi-farmer-ben-burkett.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102\"},\"headline\":\"Harvesting Justice #6: The Consumer's Got to Change the System – Farmer Ben Burkett on Racisim & Corporate Control of Agriculture\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\"},\"wordCount\":1024,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Civil Rights\",\"Community\",\"economy\",\"environment\",\"food\",\"harvest\",\"harvesting justice\",\"labor\",\"local\",\"mississippi\",\"racism\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Sustainability\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\",\"name\":\"Mississippi Farmer Discusses Food Sovereignty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett discusses issues of race and corporate control of the food system with Other Worlds' Tory Field and Beverly Bell.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Harvesting Justice #6: The Consumer's Got to Change the System – Farmer Ben Burkett on Racisim & Corporate Control of Agriculture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102\",\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Author\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/guestauthor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mississippi Farmer Discusses Food Sovereignty","description":"Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett discusses issues of race and corporate control of the food system with Other Worlds' Tory Field and Beverly Bell.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mississippi Farmer Discusses Food Sovereignty","og_description":"Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett discusses issues of race and corporate control of the food system with Other Worlds' Tory Field and Beverly Bell.","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/mississippi-farmer-ben-burkett.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Author","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Author","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/"},"author":{"name":"Guest Author","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102"},"headline":"Harvesting Justice #6: The Consumer's Got to Change the System – Farmer Ben Burkett on Racisim & Corporate Control of Agriculture","datePublished":"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/"},"wordCount":1024,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["Civil Rights","Community","economy","environment","food","harvest","harvesting justice","labor","local","mississippi","racism"],"articleSection":["Culture","Sustainability"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/","name":"Mississippi Farmer Discusses Food Sovereignty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-19T15:42:35+00:00","description":"Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett discusses issues of race and corporate control of the food system with Other Worlds' Tory Field and Beverly Bell.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/food-system-racism-corporate-control\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Harvesting Justice #6: The Consumer's Got to Change the System – Farmer Ben Burkett on Racisim & Corporate Control of Agriculture"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102","name":"Guest Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Author"},"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/guestauthor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}