Peru Free-Trade Agreement: A Disaster for Farmers (Local Newspaper Complaint)

By: Ben Burkett
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:15 PM CST

... As a family farmer from Mississippi, I actually thought NAFTA might be able to help farmers like me access new markets. But I quickly found out how wrong I was when many of the farmers in my cooperative lost our cucumber contracts from corporations such as Heinz and Vlasic, who chose to buy instead from Mexico.

The Peru FTA simply continues this failed NAFTA model for agriculture that destroys local food systems both here and abroad, while favoring industrial-style, environmentally damaging farm systems.

The United States has historically had an agricultural trade surplus. We are now verging on becoming a net food importer and already have a $400 million agriculture trade deficit with Peru. Now is not the time to allow more cheap foreign food that would undercut American family farmers and ranchers and jeopardizes our food security.

Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA went into effect, the United States has lost more than a quarter-million independent family farms ...

http://www.kccommunitynews.com/articles/2007/12/12/osawatomie_graphic/opinion/b-og-opi-peru.free.trade.txt