Sign on to Declaration of Dakar by the American Corn Growers Association
Dear Mr. Fall,
On behalf of the American Corn Growers Association, representing family farmers in the United States of America, I am writing you to request that we be added as a signatory to the Declaration of Dakar. It was with extreme pleasure that I read this fine and most outstanding document. In fact, the policy statement of our organization agrees completely with your observations concerning food, trade and farm policies stated in the Declaration of Dakar.
I want you to know that our organization stands in solidarity with organizations such as yours who fight for economic and social justice for people who produce our food and fiber on this earth. We concur with your position concerning the WTO process and hope that together we will be successful in changing the direction of world trade policies. We are quite ashamed of our current US administration’s food, farm and trade policies and you can be assured that we are doing all we can to reverse their disastrous course. We are aware of the disastrous effects that our farm and trade policies are having on farmers around the world and wish that we only had the power to stop this calamity. Possibly with our mutual cooperation we will be successful.
Although US farmers are faring better than many of their counterparts in other countries because of the luxury of farm subsidies here, these subsidies do not make up for the loss of market price that our government has precipitated on us all. Many farmers here in the US are losing their farms due to low market prices and many more are under severe financial hardship. What we all need are fair market prices for our production brought about by a system of supply management and price supports to ensure a stable food system for all in the world.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to sign on to this historic document. Please forward our request to the appropriate parties and we look forward to a cooperative relationship with other like-minded farm organizations around the world. Do not hesitate to contact myself or Larry Mitchell, chief executive officer of our association, for any reason.
Sincerely,
Keith J. Dittrich, president American Corn Growers Association Tilden, Nebraska, USA 402-368-7786
cc.
Larry Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer,
American Corn Growers Association
PO Box 18157,
Washington, DC 20036
202-835-0330