George was the keynote speaker at the benefit. A humble man who has worked his own family’s farm for decades – growing mostly soybeans and corn at a relatively small scale compared to the industrial farming operations surrounding him in Iowa – George has studied the history and politics of that have driven most families out of farming. He’s highly supportive of the idea of a rebirth of small farms and an influx of worthy farmers coming directly out of military service.

In this 3-minute video clip of his speech, George quotes Kenneth Bolding, an agro-economist who, in the 1960s, represented the thinkng about replacing family farms with corporate farming operations. Bolding compared this displacement of family farmers with squeezing toothpaste out of a tube – the thicker the toothpaste, the more pressure would be required. At the end of the quote was the proposition:

“If you can’t get people out of agriculture easily, you’re going to have to do farmers severe injustice in order to solve the problem of allocation.”

Farms Not Arms is sponsoring a dinner at the French Garden restaurant in Sebastopol, California to raise money to help launch the Farmer-Veteran Coalition (FVC).

The mission of FVC is to mobilize our food and farming community to create healthy and viable futures for America’s veterans by enlisting their help in building our green economy, rebuilding our rural communities and securing a safe and healthy food supply for all.

The all organic and largely locally-grown dinner will be served on Sunday, September 14 from 3 to 6 PM. Limited seating tickets are $100 each and can be obtained by calling 707-981-8010.

Guest speakers at the dinner will be family farming advocate George Naylor; veteran, farmer and poet Shepherd Bliss; and Gold Star Mother and Veterans’ Village Founder Nadia McCaffery. A guest attendee at the dinner will be Daniel Ellsberg.

The French Garden is located at 850 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol, California, 95472.

Here are short videos of George Naylor and Nadia McCaffery speaking at a Farms Not Arms event.

© 2012 FVC Home Suffusion WordPress theme by Sayontan Sinha

Videos, Slideshows and Podcasts by Cincopa Wordpress Plugin