It was a wonderful rally. It was well organized, respectful, loud, enthusiastic and animated. Alyson led us in the newly minted chicken and egg song. People danced, signed the petition and carried signs. Then at 10:30 over 20 people attended the court to give Brad support as he defended himself against the Chicken Marketing Board. Only Brad’s family could remain until nearly 4 PM when the Judge gave his decision.
Brad won on the procedural issue. He outlined how the chicken board had not dealt with him fairly since 1994. The board was to enter into meaningful discussions with him but they did not. The board has continually taken legal action against Brad rather than try to negotiate a fair way to serve the organic market. The judge agreed. The judge also pointed out that the marketing boards have broad powers, which Brad had argued should be limited. A full text of the judgment will be posted on this web site once it is written.
What does all this mean? It buys us time and that is about all. My guess is that because the broad powers of the marketing boards remain they will simply wait for a more opportune time to attack again. We have negotiated with them on and off since 1999 and they have belligerently stated a chicken is a chicken and we have the power to regulate organic as we see fit. We must fight harder than ever in the mean time to not allow them the opportunity to come at Brad again. The interests of conventional agriculture are so different from that of organic that to be regulated by them would be disastrous. Either organic producers should be given exemption from marketing boards or their powers should be limited in how they can deal with us.
An article in the November Issue of Country Life shows how resistant to change and the organic way members of the marketing boards are. It is an article covering the Egg Producers meeting where they talk about space requirement to be given to cage layers. They resist strongly the move to allow 67 square inches per bird. There is currently no minimum allowance and many hens are caged in less than 50 square inches (a letter sized page is 93.5 square inches). I believe that people that are this resistant to humane treatment of poultry could not possibly have my interests as an organic producer at heart. I urge you to read this article to know whom we are dealing with.Thanks once again for the support and remember the up coming chicken and egg dance on February 14th.
