Challenges to the Family Farm

Re “Local Agriculture Faces Challenge of World Change,” July 9.

When big business / big government makes decisions for profit, there is what they might call “acceptable loss.” Included in the loss are small businesses, such as the family farm, which has been a core of America’s vitality and greatness.

As an example of the economic sting of global market decisions on local family farmers, Richard Pidduck, past president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, cites the importation of lemons into our area from South America. To survive such setbacks, he states, the smaller farmer cannot give up the use of pesticides, which supposedly increase production and profits. For the sake of big business and fat politics, we now have a gigantic food chain: At the top is global enterprise, and near the bottom the small farm, the environment, and the health and welfare of people, including children and babies.

A poignant example of many illnesses linked to pesticide exposure is childhood leukemia. Ask a family who has experienced this catastrophe about the devastating cost, both economically and emotionally. The child may survive with his health impaired, but the family may not. At Safe Air for Everyone we believe there are answers--and the answers are not the loss of our family farms or the placing of poisons over people.

MARCIA CUMMINGS

President, Safe Air for Everyone

Oxnard