FOOD FREEDOM IN WEST VIRGINIA
I'm not a member of any political party and move freely between liberals and libertarians. If somebody embraces food freedom, I don't care what political persuasion they're from; I'll promote them.
West Virginians will soon have a choice to vote for a true food freedom advocate: Roy Ramey. He's running for West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture as a Republican against the incumbent Republican, Kent Leonhardt. The primary is May 12 and general election is of course in November.
When a politician reaches out to me to help formulate policy or to wax eloquent about food freedom, I jump at the chance. Again, I've worked with politicians from every political persuasion. This is not an endorsement.
But on April 11 at Parchment Valley Baptist Conference Center in Ripley,West Virginia I'm bringing the food freedom message to Roy's Food Policy Campaign Rally. It'll be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a dinner in there somewhere.
A small farmer himself, Roy understands the regulatory hassles impeding small outfits from enjoying better economics by participating in the whole value chain to the market. Right now, the USDA budget exceeds the farmgate value of all the food produced in the U.S. Notice I said farmgate value. That's important.
Right now, the farmgate value averages only 9 percent of the retail dollar. In other words, 9 cents of farmgate value becomes $1 at retail. That's a big difference. That percentage has been declining steadily for decades. The single biggest reason today's farmers are hemorrhaging financially is this issue. They no longer receive a significant portion of the retail value. To my knowledge, no one, and I mean no one on the national political stage says a peep about this issue.
Relegated to high volumes at low margins, farmers routinely sell for pennies but buy retail: equipment, fertilizer, labor. The industrial orthodox industry thinks the way out of this financial morass is to produce more. It's not. The way out is for farmers to capture more of the retail dollar.
Whether it's starting an on-farm restaurant or making sausage or heat-n-eat meal options, entrepreneurial farmers are desperate to create and serve customers. Most farmers don't have a customer. They have an entity that grades, measures, and prices the commodity; farmers are price takers rather than price makers. When farmers develop customers, they become price makers.
Unfortunately, thousands of regulations from zoning to licensing to infrastructure requirements hamper family-scaled outfits from accessing more of these retail dollars. To imagine that West Virginia would actually have an Ag Commissioner dedicated to rolling back these onerous over-burdensome regulations makes my heart sing. Polyface is now carrying cheese from an all-grass organic farmer in Dayton. He must send each batch in for an antibiotic test even though his farm uses no antibiotics.
Why can't he sign an affidavit saying he uses no antibiotics and skip the expensive and cumbersome test? The average person has no clue what kind of labyrinth lies before a simple desire. Today I received an email from a fellow in New Mexico who wants to make salami from pastured pigs, but he can't find a way around the USDA requirement to use nitrates. Although the most recent research shows nitrates are not necessary at all, how long do you think it will take for the bureaucracy of the USDA to change its protocols?
I encourage anyone who can make it over to Ripley April 11 to do so. Roy's campaign email is < rameyforwv@gmail.com > Anyone willing to fight for food freedom deserves attention. Find him on Facebook RoyRameyfor WV or @RameyforAg.
When do you think the phrase "food freedom" will make it onto the national political stage?