New York City Event/Upcoming: Farms not Arms

Farms Not Arms and Family Farm Defenders invite you and your organization to attend:
What: "The War and Rural America." - a public forum and meeting.
Where: The Warwick Hotel, 65 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
When: Saturday, September 8, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Hosted by: Farms Not Arms and Family Farm Defenders.
http://www.farmsnotarms.org/ http://www.familyfarmdefenders.org/

As we farmers make our plans to head to New York for the 22nd annual FarmAid concert to benefit America's family farmer, we are facing new challenges.

Almost six years of war has placed a heavy burden on our farms and rural communities, with small towns and rural areas across the country bearing drastically disproportionate numbers of fatalities in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Global war, global warming, and the excessive use of fossil fuels that fuel them both are adding to the already existing crises of loss of farmland, family farmers and economic opportunity in rural America.

Now we are facing hundreds of thousands of young men and women returning from war to these very communities without adequate healthcare, counseling or vocational training.
At the public forum on The War and Rural America, we will focus on organizing to change our nation's priorities from war and destruction to a constructive program of support for family farmers, regional agriculture, growing of bio-fuels and creating of job opportunities on our farms for returning veterans.

Speakers will include:
Dr. William O'Hare, University of New Hampshire, author of the report on rural casualties.
George Naylor, Iowa soybean farmer, President of National Family Farm Coalition
Jim Goodman, Wisconsin beef and dairy farmer, speaking for Family Farm Defenders
Roger Allison, Missouri hog farmer, Executive Director, Missouri Rural Crisis Center
Ronnie Cummins, President, Organic Consumers Association
Nadia McCaffrey, Gold Star Mom, founder Veterans Village

Facilitating the meeting will be Farms Not Arms co-chairs:
Will Allen and Kate Duesterberg, Cedar Circle Farm, East Thetford, Vermont
John Kiefer, Rosebud Ranch, Saux City, Wisconsin
Michael O'Gorman, Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, Ensenada, Mexico

Also participating will be numerous veterans and their advocates as we hope to further the building of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, a politically neutral organization that will work to provide farm jobs, job training and land for deserving veterans and infuse our nation's food production with young people already acquainted with hard work and sacrifice.
Please join us at this important meeting. For more information contact any of the organizations listed above or:

Doug Stevenson, Farms Not Arms, 931-964-2590 mailto:douglas@farmsnotarms.org
425 Farm Road, Suite 5 The Farm, Summertown Tennessee, 38483 http://www.blogger.com/www.farmsnotarms.org