Country star Willie Nelson is joining the fight against corporatism in America, though his focus is not on the banksters on Wall Street. Nelson is calling on Americans to occupy the food system, saying that corporate control of food production is destroying soil and putting millions of family farmers out of business.
Nelson writes in a recent statement:
From seed to plate, our food system is now even more concentrated than our banking system. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios hovering around 40 percent, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40 percent of the market. Anything beyond this level is considered “highly concentrated,” where experts believe competition is severely threatened and market abuses are likely to occur.
Hundreds of citizens joined Occupy the Food System groups outside the Federal Courts in Manhattan on Jan. 31 to support organic family farmers in their landmark lawsuit against agribusiness giant Monsanto. Arguments were heard that day concerning the lawsuit by 83 plaintiffs representing more than 300,000 organic farmers, organic seed growers and organic seed businesses.
The suit alleges that Monsanto has attacked organic farmers, threatening patent infringement lawsuits if the farmers have any genetically modified seeds on their land. But the organic farmers really want nothing to do with the genetically modified seeds in the first place. The organic farm community contends that Monsanto’s lawsuit threats are simply a ploy to put small, family-owned farms out of business, thus further monopolizing agribusiness. A judge will decide whether the farmers’ suit will go to trial on March 31.