IATP Starts Search for New President

As many IATP supporters may be aware, Mark Ritchie (pictured right) will be stepping down as President at the end of 2006. IATP's board of directors has been working with staff to plan for the best possible transition. A board-staff transition committee was formed earlier this year and a job announcement can be found at iatp.org.

Next year marks IATP's 20th anniversary. We have many events planned to celebrate our achievements and Mark's extraordinary contributions, as well as share our vision for the next 20 years. Please save the date of April 22, 2006 to help us celebrate. More details coming soon!

U.S. Food Aid Needs Major Reform

U.S. food aid programs are plagued by inefficiency and do not address long-term causes of hunger in the developing world according to a new IATP report.

U.S. Food Aid: Time to Get it Right concludes that the U.S. practice of selling or distributing food in countries facing hunger is inefficient, expensive and slow. The United States should move to cashed-based food aid programs for purchasing food in or near countries where aid is needed. Almost all other major food-aid donors have moved away from the donation of commodities.

The report is authored by IATP Trade Program Director Sophia Murphy and by Kathleen McAfee, Visiting Scholar in Geography at the University of California-Berkeley. A commentary by IATP's Sophia Murphy relating the findings to Niger's hunger situation appeared in the Aug. 19 New York Times.

Read the full report and New York Times commentary at iatp.org.

Bayer Surrenders, Withdraws Poultry Drug

In a key victory, Bayer announced that it will end its 5-year battle against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of Cipro-like antibiotics in poultry. The FDA had ordered Bayer to withdraw its drug Baytril because of concerns that its use in poultry reduces the effectiveness of the common antibiotic Cipro in treating Campylobacter—one of the most common causes of severe bacterial food poisoning.

Both Baytril and Cipro are members of the flouroquinolone class of antibiotics. Bayer was the only remaining manufacturer of fluroquinolones for use in poultry. IATP has actively worked for the market withdrawal of Baytril through the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition.

Read Keep Antibiotics Working's press release on Bayer's decision at iatp.org.

Minnesota Poised to Benefit
from Bioindustrial Economy

Rural Minnesota is well positioned for substantial gains from a growing bioindustrial economy based on the production of energy and products using plant matter, according to a new report by IATP. The report emphasized the important role of state policymakers in creating a competitive advantage for Minnesota in this rapidly growing sector.

The report profiles several successful case studies in the Minnesota bioindustrial market including Faribault Mills, producers of corn-fiber blankets; Koda Power, which will generate electricity from biomass materials like malting byproducts; and Aveda Corporation, a cosmetics company that focuses on plant-based materials.

The report, Cultivating a New Rural Economy: Assessing the Potential of Minnesota's Bioindustrial Sector, by IATP's Jim Kleinschmit and Mark Muller, can be viewed at iatp.org.

IATP Meets With Milan Community Leaders

More than a dozen community leaders, farmers and small-business owners in the Minnesota town of Milan met with representatives of IATP to share ideas, concerns and solutions on the future of rural communities. Milan, population 325, is on the western edge of central Minnesota, close to the South Dakota border.

At the meeting held in the town hall, participants discussed the Central America Free Trade Agreement, low farm commodity prices, the promise of ethanol and bioenergy, declining access to health care and a disappearing tax base.

The trip to Milan was part of a series of meetings IATP's Rural Communities Program is holding with small town leaders to try to find solutions to the many challenges these towns are facing.

Founding Meeting of Prairie Rural Action

Organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. Great Plains are invited to join Prairie Rural Action to promote new nonpartisan approaches and policies for revitalizing rural communities. A founding meeting will be held Nov. 14-15 at the Fargo Civic Center in Fargo, N.D. The event is being convened by Northern Great Plains, IATP, Center for Rural Affairs, Renewing the Countryside and League of Rural Voters.

More information at prairieruralaction.org

Passage of DR-CAFTA Bad News for Farmers

The passage of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement in July signals a major setback for U.S. sugar farmers and a damaging blow to Central American farmers, said IATP. The deal will likely lead to the destruction of the U.S. sugar program, and increase dumping of agricultural commodities below their cost of production into Central American countries.

IATP has issued three papers on the impact of DR-CAFTA on farmers in the U.S. and in DR-CAFTA countries: Sweet or Sour? The U.S. Sugar Program and the Threats Posed by DR-CAFTA; CAFTA's Impact on the U.S. Ethanol Market; and Analysis of CAFTA Concerning Agriculture. All three papers can be found at tradeobservatory.org.

WTO: Failing the Development Agenda

World Trade Organization member states are negotiating new agriculture trade rules leading up to the sixth ministerial in Hong Kong in December. Government delegates are negotiating text based on the Framework Agreement of July 2004. But two recent IATP analyses found that Framework Agreement will do little to meet previous objectives to promote development in the world's poorest countries.

The July Framework: Failing the Development Agenda by Fabio Napoletano analyzes all the agriculture provisions of the Framework. The New Blue Box Proposal on Domestic Support and the Doha Development Round by Steve Suppan, looks specifically at how the Framework could impact U.S. farm programs.

Both papers can be found at tradeobservatory.org.

Social Watch Launches 2005 Report

Social Watch launched its 2005 annual report in September in New York. Roars and Whispers: Gender and Poverty: Promises vs. Action presents two new indexes to measure social development and concludes that Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets set for 2015 will not be met.

The Social Watch report was released on the eve of the United Nations' 2005 World Summit, Sept. 14-16. The summit's themes include discussions on progress made toward fulfilling MDGs. The Social Watch report includes individual reports from more than 50 nations that make up the Social Watch citizens' network. IATP's Patricia Jurewicz and Kristin Dawkins co-authored the United States section of the report with Alexandra Spieldoch, Tanya Dawkins and Thea Lee. IATP has written the U.S. chapter of Social Watch for the last eight years. Earlier this year, IATP issued a compendium of those chapters entitled Eye on America.

Read this year's Social Watch report at socialwatch.org
Read IATP's compendium of U.S. chapters of Social Watch at iatp.org

Hong Kong Fair Trade Fair

Plans for the 2005 Hong Kong Fair Trade Fair and Symposium are coming together. The event, to be held during the World Trade Organization ministerial, will take place from Dec. 13-15. It will include an opening reception with high-level government, business and producer representatives, a 2-day fair trade fair with producers from Asia, Africa and Latin America and a symposium to discuss fair-trade issues with top experts.

For more details, visit fairtradeexpo.org.

Great Lakes Governors Consider Water Compact

Great Lakes governors have recently completed a draft document that sets goals for protecting the region's ecosystem. IATP submitted comments to the governors identifying agriculture's impact on water availability and promoting incentives and other policy options that can encourage water conservation on farms without jeopardizing farm profitability.

Read IATP's comment at iatp.org/enviroag

Forestry Program Adds New Forester

IATP's Community Forestry Resource Center has hired Jedd Ungrodt as a Certification Forester. Jedd will implement IATP's Umbrella Certification System, a program designed to foster sustainable, ecologically-based forestry in the upper Midwest by making Forest Stewardship Council certification more accessible to small private forest landowners.

Jedd's professional background includes work as a forestry technician in Upper Michigan, Montana and Washington state and three years as a consulting forester with Clark Forestry, Inc., in Baraboo, Wis. Most recently, he worked as a GIS specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fire management program. He holds a B.S. in forest science from the University of Wisconsin.

Jedd can be reached at jungrodt@iatp.org.

Mark Ritchie Honored by U.S. Action

U.S. Action honored three people including IATP President Mark Ritchie with its Progressive Leadership Award on Sept. 15. Patricia Bauman of the Patricia Bauman Fund and Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association were the other two recipients. For more details about the awards, visit usaction.org.

Family Farmers Hit by Hurricane Katrina

Many IATP supporters have already contributed to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts for the Gulf Coast. There are several opportunities to help family farmers and rural people who have been displaced by the hurricane.

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives has extensive farmer controlled marketing coops, credit unions and housing coops in southern Alabama and Mississippi. Donations can be made at federation.coop.

The Farm Aid Disaster Fund has already donated $15,000 for supplies for Alabama, a special grant to Farmers Legal Action Group for hurricane disaster response and to the Louisiana Interchurch Conference. Farm Aid held their 20th anniversary concert in Chicago last weekend. Donations can be made at farmaid.org.

Peace Coffee Supply Recovers From Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, among its many casualties was a warehouse storing fair trade coffee beans for Peace Coffee, IATP's coffee company. Peace Coffee is assuming that all the warehoused coffee, mostly from Central America, is lost. Fortunately, the coffee is insured and a full recovery is expected.

To make up for the coffee lost in New Orleans, Peace Coffee already has purchased additional fair trade, organic coffee beans and established a new warehouse position in New Jersey. New Orleans warehouses stored more coffee imports than anywhere else in the United States. The loss of coffee there is already having an upward impact on prices and will likely push the coffee market into new territory this year.

Further updates are available at peacecoffee.com.

IATP News is an occasional publication reporting on recent events and activities at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). It is sent to board members, supporters, partners and friends. If you want to learn more about any particular item or if you do not want to receive this newsletter, send email to Communications Coordinator Ben Lilliston at blilliston@iatp.org or call: 612-870-3416. Your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
Mark Ritchie, President
2105 First Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 USA
Tel. 1 (612) 870-0453 Fax. 1 (612) 870-4846
Email: iatp@iatp.org Web: iatp.org