Group Defends rbST, Other Technologies

Dave Lefever
Editor

LEBANON, Pa. and TULARE, Calif. — A group of U.S. farmers introduced the American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT) organization at the 2008 World Ag Expo, Feb. 12-14 in Tulare, Calif.

Dairy producer Tom Krall from Lebanon, Pa., is a member of AFACT. Although Krall wasn’t able to make the trip to the World Ag Expo, he has been taking a lead role in AFACT since it began taking shape last year.

Alan Zepp of Adams County is another dairyman who is an AFACT member. And according to Krall, about 30 more producers from the Mid-Atlantic region got on board with the organization during the recent Pennsylvania Dairy Summit.

According to a news release sent this week from Osborn & Barr, a communications agency whose clients include Monsanto, the supplier of rbST under the brand name Posilac, AFACT was organized by farmers who are frustrated by the loss of what they believe are safe and valuable management tools through what they see as inaccurate labeling and marketing practices that mislead the consumer. As the organization’s name implies, AFACT is dedicated to supporting producers’ choice of what they believe are safe management practices and new technologies. AFACT members represent a variety of producers in terms of size, geography and level of technology use.

Krall said the idea for the organization began taking root nearly a year ago as dairy processors increasingly began to request rbST-free milk. The original name of the group was Voices for Choices, which was later changed to AFACT.

Krall, who uses the production-boosting hormone on his farm’s herd of 130 milking cows, said he saw neighboring producers being asked to stop using rbST. While his own cooperative, Land O’ Lakes, was not requiring him to give up rbST, he felt the squeeze of the movement in general.

“It was a very frustrating time and it felt like we were being taken advantage of,” he said.

Opponents of AFACT say the group is against consumer choice, but Krall says that’s not the case.

“The opposite is actually true,” he said. “We want consumers and farmers to have choices.”

Brian Snyder, executive director for the Pennsylvania Association For Sustainable Agriculture, questions the corporate backing of the group.

“They want to call this a ‘grassroots’ organization, but it clearly seems to be growing from the top downward,” Snyder wrote in an e-mail this week.

"Goodness knows farmers can use all the help they can get, but it’s problematic when those helping the farmers to get organized are for-profit companies that stand to benefit greatly from the result.

“One has to wonder if in fact the best interests of both consumers and most farmers are being thwarted in this process,” Snyder said.

“We’re not picky. We accept donations from most anyone,” Krall wrote in a follow-up e-mail. “While the initial seed money to pay for expenses came from Monsanto, that stage is about over and we now have our own check book and treasurer, Jon Wheeler from the state of Washington.”

Krall also said the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board promised $50,000 in cash and other support, and that the Kansas Dairy Association along with many other companies are eager to help.

“These companies realize that the activist groups are very well-funded,” Krall said. “The ag companies know the consumers trust the farmers. Having an organized farmer group like AFACT is long overdue.”

According to Krall, consumers should have choices of purchasing milk produced under a variety of conditions, but farmers need to be fairly compensated for providing those choices. While AFACT was launched to address rbST, it’s goal is to taking on larger issues as well.

“This isn’t just about rbST,” Krall said. “It’s about telling the truth to the consumer to protect us all.”

Krall said many people know very little about farming, just as he has small understanding of other people’s occupations.

“When we have farm tours, it’s amazing how little they (visitors) know about my occupation — and how little I know about theirs.

“We need to educate them.”

AFACT has made up information sheets on milk that can soon be downloaded from its Website at www.itisafact.org. The group has also been working with governments in other states as they forge labeling laws.

Krall is co-chair of an AFACT labeling team, sharing leadership with a dairy farmer from Washington state. There are 14 co-chairs leading various teams across the country, Krall said.

Krall praised Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff for his move last fall to ban “absence” labeling on milk in Pennsylvania. The initiative helped paved the way for decisions in other states, such as Ohio and Utah.

Krall says these states passed even better labeling laws than the recent compromise in Pennsylvania, which allows rbST-free labeling with a disclaimer of at least half the print size that no significant difference has been found in rbST-free and other milk. In Ohio, for example, the disclaimer has to be in print as large as the rbST-free label. And in Utah, there’s even a ban on certain colors on the label that would make a “splash” about the milk being rbST-free, according to Krall.

Krall said he’s excited about the progress that’s being made in the labeling laws. He has a blog at www.quotesdi.blogspot.com that includes quotes from various members of the dairy industry as well as some background on himself and his family, including wife Shirley and their four children.

AFACT organizers say the rbST crunch could also lead to other technologies being threatened.

“These restrictions, if left unchallenged, will lead to greater losses of technology and innovation,” said Carrol Campbell, AFACT co-chairman and dairy producer from Winfield, Kan., quoted in the Osborn & Barr news release.

Producers motivated to action have initiated meetings in a number of states to share concerns about the loss of on-farm management tools, said Liz Doornink, AFACT co-chairwoman and dairy producer from Baldwin, Wis.

“In some locations, consumer focus groups have been held in order to learn more about what drives their decisions at the dairy case,” Doornink said, noting that producers now meet weekly via teleconference to discuss issues and develop action plans to grow their voice.

AFACT seeks to educate and empower all segments in the food chain to understand the benefits of technology and encourage consumers to demand access to high-quality, affordable food with a minimal impact on the environment.

“We may have came together due to activities surrounding the marketing of rbST-free milk, but it took us about five minutes to realize that this is far bigger than one particular technology,” says Campbell. “The loss of safe technologies affects not only animal agriculture but the entire agriculture production industry.”

During a producer round table led by AFACT at the World Ag Expo, producers from Washington, Oregon, California, Kansas and Wisconsin talked about the true meaning of “sustainability,” a buzzword that they said gets a lot of media attention without ever being “adequately defined in a way that benefits consumers, producers and the environment alike,” according to the news release.

“If consumers really want to do something about managing our resources and reducing society’s footprint on the environment, then they should learn about and embrace the technology that has allowed today’s farmers to produce more food at a lower cost in a much more sustainable manner,” Doornink said.