Grab this Hot Button
NEW Oct 22– Farm and Food Monopoly Cards — an Ohio Power Play
NEWEST AND MOST POWERFUL WEAPON: These are real nifty Farm Monopoly Card handouts for farmers markets, farm and health food stores everywhere. Quick and cheap, these little tricks get the powerful message out that a NO vote is good for the small farmer and those that want to feed on fresh farm food and everyone else who eats. Make an Ohio Power Play with these bad boys.
Print out and handout. Better yet, give a bunch to the farm stores and health food stores so they can give them out. Includes a link back to our Issue 2 Series at the Journal. GET THEM HERE.Animal Farm 2009 and Facts about Issue 2, Small Farm Association Statements and Reader Commentary are now located here.
Ohio Farm Wars Now Raging
IMPORTANT: This is one of the Command Operations Centers set up throughout Ohio to help support ground troops and dozens of farming, food and freedom organizations fight against Issue 2 , gaining nationwide attention. Now is the time to launch your own offensive using this arsenal of weapons while Big Ag launches a multimillion-dollar media campaign, now underway to mislead the public. Their campaign is paid for by the agricultural government/corporate partnership (and thousands of uninformed farmers who really want to do the right thing!)
Now watch in real time, the cities and towns in Ohio and around the U.S. where hits are being made with this arsenal of informational weapons. Go to the live monitoring page here.
CURRENT BRIEFING: These are just a few of the key points you need to know about Issue 2 contained in our other documents here at the Journal. This statement is provided by Food and Water Watch:
“In the most ambitious power grab we’ve ever seen, corporate agribusiness proponents are trying to write themselves into the Ohio constitution.
Technically the product of the Ohio General Assembly, the ballot issue is heavily backed by groups representing major agribusiness interests, including the Ohio Farm Bureau, the Ohio Pork Producers Council, and the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association. While masquerading as an attempt to improve food safety and animal welfare, Issue 2 would give a board of political appointees unchecked power to decide any and all regulations related to animal agriculture. The board could make decisions that would radically shift policy in any direction and would not require any public input process. This could include decisions on issues like the use of antibiotics and growth hormones, genetically engineered animals, cloned animals, animal ID and traceability, and factory farm zoning regulations.
The proponents of Issue 2 literally will be the foxes guarding the henhouse if Issue 2 passes, and they’re running a multi-million dollar campaign to make sure this happens. Worse yet, their slick campaign tries to trick voters into thinking that Issue 2 will support safe, local food from small farmers. We need you to help us get the truth out about Issue 2 and stop this greedy power grab in the Ohio Constitution.”
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HERE is the current inventory in our arsenal of informational weapons:
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The easiest and most important thing you can do right now is SHARE this Command Operations Center page with your social networks and email lists so that they too can be well equipped and get involved in the action. Use the button below:
Farm and Food Monopoly Cards — an Ohio Power Play
NEWEST AND MOST POWERFUL WEAPON: These are real nifty Farm Monopoly Card sized handouts for farmers markets and farm and health food stores everywhere. Quick and cheap, these little tricks get the powerful message out that a NO vote is good for the small farmer and those that want to feed on fresh farm food and everyone else who eats. Make an Ohio Power Play with these bad boys.
Print out and handout. Better yet, give a bunch to the farm stores and health food stores so they can give them out. Includes a link back to our Issue 2 Series at the Journal. GET THEM HERE.
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Grab it. Use it.
HOT BUTTON
This is the one to get so YOU can distribute your HOT BUTTONS on the internet!
From Ohio WAPF/Ohio Connections. This is the button to get for your website, blog, facebook, twitters and other social networks.
The logo is hyperlinked back to this page of the Journal, one of the many Command Operations Centers cropping up all over Ohio, so your friends can also get in on the action to STOP Issue 2.
Grab it. Copy or Save As and then go. (Just make sure the link works on your copy)
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CAR SIGN
This makes a great sign in your auto as you drive around the town and country.
Courtesy of Cathy Raymond and Farm-to Consumer Legal Defense Fund.
Click the Logo and your 8×12” sign will appear. Then just print out for your friends.(It can also print out as 16 x 24 or larger.)
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Posters Here!
POSTER FOR THE WORKPLACE/LUNCHROOM ETC.
STOP the Corporate
Power Grab
Powerful factsheet is good to handout or post at the workplace! But watch out for it, it may be taken down and recycled.
Courtesy of OhioACT.org The link takes you there for the download.
Issue #2 Flyer
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Events Statewide– Connect with Real Food Farmers Who VOTE NO on Issue 2.
Ohio
Events—120 Meetups. For nourishment, those participating in this action should stop by one of our events all over Ohio for nourishing, fresh farm food. At these events, you can meet farmers and connect to a source of real, natural food and nutritional education.
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Yard Sign/Car Sign
Imagine this one on your back windshield. It is sure to attract attention. Get questions?—you have no time to explain, give them one of the Farm Monopoly Cards and then be on your way.
Courtesy of OhioACT.org
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A Fabulous 2-page Flyer
Issue 2 on the November ballot is an industry attempt to change the Ohio state constitution, establishing a “Livestock Care Standards Board” that would have unchecked power to establish standards for livestock and poultry. From OhioACT.org.
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COMING SOON ! These are real nifty Farm Monopoly Card sized handouts for farmers markets and farm stores everywhere. Quick and cheap, these little tricks get the powerful message out that a NO vote is good for the small farmer and those that want to feed on fresh farm food and everyone else who eats.
Print out and handout. Better yet, give a bunch to the farm stores and health food stores so they can give them out. Includes a link back to our Issue 2 Series at the Journal.
SHARE THIS PAGE WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Subscribe to the Journal to stay abreast.
Other Command Operations Centers:
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund– Issue 2 Page
Ohio Against Constitutional Takeover– http://OhioACT.org was set up specifically to oppose Issue 2.
This is only one of many Regulatory and Enforcement Actions against small farms and food producers recently. See the 37 we have.
Journal of Natural Food and Health 
This is wonderful to finally see support. HSUS could potentially ask for their 3 little FF concessions next year in yet another constitutional amendment? That will still leave us here – high and dry – with way more collateral damage than anyone ever anticipated. We’ve got to defeat this now and not for animal welfare – for human welfare and for democracy.
DO IT!
And do it fast.
I see the “vote issue 2” signs all over.
Big AG has funded this effort to gain power with lots of money. They have pulled out all the stops. We can’t allow this issue to pass.
Get motivated folks.
Time is short.
~TW
Nothing in the world changes for the good without dedicated and caring people taking up the work, themselves. Government does not solve problems, it just causes unintended and negative consequences. No one can take your God given rights unless you let them. It’s time to move- all of us.
Pingback: Ohio Farm Wars Start: Issue 2 is Animal Farm 2009 « Journal of Whole Food and Nutritional Health
Why do we need this, They are to make sure our food is safe to begin with, why do we need more goverment involvement!
VOTE NO!!!!!!!!!!
I truly hope that everyone looking at this takes the time to write to the newpapers and everyone on their contact lists. PLEASE.
The best way is to use the car signs– tape them on the windows. You can also print out the other stuff. A few people around the state are buying lots of signs from folks that had them printed at a printer.
People are going to empathize with the farmer and vote YES, after all, we should support our local farmer. But the farmers are actually being used and they are trusting the government/corporate partnership to bail them out– the same people that put them there in the first place.
Animal care is being used as the front–the guise– that is clear.
The argument of the problem with HSUS does not wash.
It may not make much difference if it passes because they can do it through the regulatory process. With the public vote, they can say the public demands it.
This type of con was played in last election with the Water Protection Deception. That passed so I think Issue 2 will pass by a wider margin. Hope I am wrong. More later.
We agree with and support the premise of issue 2 but not as a constitutional amendment.
The same objective to thwart PETA and HSUS could have been accomplished by including the key words “agricultural best management practices for such care and well-being” in section 900 of the Ohio Revised Code. This we do support.
Our problem with this constitutional amendment is the excessive power it places in the hands of a 13-member group of non-elected bureaucrats. This constitutional amendment places in the Board’s hands the power to mandate whatever they choose, and it is the Department of Ag that will implement and enforce those decisions of the Board. (see the text of proposed amendment at http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/elections/IssueProcBallotBd/BallotBoard.aspx#Issues). The text of the amendment includes “consider factors that include, but are not limited to,” which gives the Board authority far beyond the scope of its stated purpose. In the text “agricultural best management practices for such care and well-being” is the part that will thwart HSUS and their cronies. “Biosecurity,” “disease prevention,” “animal morbidity and mortality data,” “food safety practices,” and “the protection of local, affordable food supplies” are already covered in Ohio Revised Code.
Issue 2 is an expansion of State Government that creates unchecked power and new layers of unaccountable bureaucracy over our livestock farmers.
What did it take to twist the arms of all the members of both the House and Senate to make them take such a draconian measure? If we change the Constitution every time the wind blows from the wrong direction, what value remains in it? What next? Change the US Constitution to remove free speech and religious freedom?
The text of issue 2 shows just how rushed the process was and how little thought went into doing the job right. The Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board is not even an imperfect solution. It is not a solution at all. The correct solution is to add the proper language into Ohio Revised Code, a process that would require both the House and Senate to debate and agree on language and the Governor to sign the bill into law.
We are being told that this Board will protect farms from animal rights groups, but what will protect the farmers from the Board, a panel of bureaucrats without accountability?
After reading the proposed resolution, we have several questions regarding Issue 2.
Why did the Ohio Farmers Union decide to oppose issue 2 in their August meeting?
Will we need a license or permit to own and raise livestock in this state?
Will special training and classes be required to obtain the right to raise livestock?
Will someone come to our farm to ensure that we follow the guidelines set forth by this Board, without search warrants or probable cause?
Will we be criminals, and subject to fines/prison if we disagree with the standards set by the Board and fail to comply?
Will these board members be paid? If so, who decides their salary?
How will the actions of this board be funded: by taxpayers or farmers?
How will Board decrees be enforced?
How long will the terms of appointees be? Indefinite or limited?
Why is this Board given “excusive authority to establish standards governing the care and well-being of livestock and poultry in this state” instead of the farmer?
Why are the members of this Board appointed (10 by Governor) and not voted into their position by the farmers themselves?
What appeal process will be available for those who wish to challenge the standards set by this Board? Will that appeal require a fee also?
Why only three “family farmers”? Won’t they be outnumbered by the other 10 non-farmers?
What effect will the approval of the Board have on organic and all natural farms?
Why is Farm Bureau using fear to provoke the acceptance of this amendment?
Will this Board view livestock as the private property of the farmers with Divine right to govern them as their own conscience directs? Or is livestock the property of the State?
Will this Board establish rules regarding vaccines?
Will we be required to keep updated farm records and submit them annually to this board?
Will the Amish of Ohio be exempt from any rules that contradict their religious beliefs?
Why would we want to establish a government entity to “protect us (farmers) from special interest groups” when the very way these groups achieve their goals is to lobby and control government entities?
Doesn’t this proposed amendment contradict the original FFA Creed. paragraph three, which states:
I believe in leadership from ourselves and respect from others. I believe in my own ability to work efficiently and think clearly, with such knowledge and skill as I can secure, and in the ability of organized farmers to serve our own and public interest in marketing the product of our toil. I believe we can safeguard those rights against practices and policies that are unfair.
If we have sworn the oath of the Pledge Of Allegiance, which professes “Liberty and Justice for all,” since this amendment takes the liberty to raise livestock from an individual farmer and gives it to the direct control of the State, would we be committing hypocrisy according to our spoken oath?
Are horses included under the authority of this Board? If not, shouldn’t they be protected from animal rights groups too and be subject to the standards decreed by this Board?
Is forfeiture of liberty the only way to protect livestock farms in Ohio from animal rights groups? Are there other options available?
In conclusion, we support the opposition to Issue 2 as expressed by the Ohio Farmers Union, The League of Women Voters, Ohio Food and Water Watch, The Ohio Environmental Stewardship Alliance, and all the major newspapers in Ohio.
Excellent insight Tom. Our legislators arms weren’t twisted. It was their campaign contribution’s pocket book. I believe that this amendment is a back door way to make NAIS mandatory. That will benefit factory farms and make it more expensive for sustainable /organic and people like me that have 25 back yard chickens to operate. FB wants to eliminate all competition/alternatives to large scale operations. They are Goliath but this is winnable. You didn’t mention your group. Are you organized? It would be cool to be able to use that info in our fight. If not, that’s ok too. Just keep talking to friends and neighbors. Loved your post.
Chris is Medina Co OH sent this on another article:
Augie: please check out this broadside that I wrote and am distributing. Feel free to copy it. Thanks for all that you do. Kris Issue 2
When holding a baby, if he/she issues “number 2” into the diaper, one doesn’t need to actually see anything to know what’s going on. The nose will give a full report.
That’s what’s going on with Issue 2 on the ballot in Ohio this November. The plutocrats who run our State want to embed a de facto dictatorship into the Ohio State Constitution. The emerging paradigm for our times is to regulate, fine and tax the citizenry into the ground. Yes, this activity has gone on in the past, but usually not through dictatorial boards. That’s changing!
And if they have to lie to get their way: so what! Take Issue 2. It’s touted as going to provide “safe, local food.” Really? Then why is it supported by the arm of agriculture that (in the case of dairy production) runs “farms” with from 600 to 32,000 cows standing in feces and fed antibiotics? I smell cherry-picked exemptions!
The deterrent in the past to these kinds of wired policies has been that they had to go through a lengthy legislative process that somewhat engendered retort from the taxpayers. But if Issue 2 is passed, a board of twelve animal czars will make law extra legislatively.
And only three farmers will help constitute that body. Simple elementary school math will tell you that they’ll be a small minority. No real voice; no power whatsoever. If this measure really is about empowering farmers, then why not make the whole board constituted of the same? Something here smells of mega-business interests and anal-retentive, control freak tendencies. And I wont need to look “into the diaper” to know what issue I’ll be holding in my hands on Election Day.
Please start emphasizing that this is a GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER of our family farms. That’s what it really is. A GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER backed by BIG AGI CORPORATE SPECIAL INTEREST. A Government board with unfettered POWER, unchallagable, unappealable dictatorial power. A dictatorship over our family farms. You know, like North Korea, Russia, China, Saddam Hussein. A simple and all powerful dictatorship by our GOVERNMENT. The small family farmer WILL do as they say or close down. This GOVERNMENT appointed board will have the power to REGULATE any farmer opposing them right out of business. GOVERNMENT DICTATORIAL CONTROL backed by BIG CORPORATE SPECIAL INTEREST licking their collective CHOPS!
Arn’t you tired of the Government trying to take control of everything, like they did of SSI, medicare an on an on, yeah good job there, mercy! NOW THET WANT OUR FOOD SOURCE! NO, NO, NO! NO ON ISSUE 2
You should see the Farm and Food Monopoly Card– it refers to what you are saying.
Tumbleweed Steve chimed in tonight witht his comment:
They are working great.
Everyone should take advantage of this stuff.
I think we are turning some heads in the right direction.
And isn’t costing us near what “they” have been spending.
Signs in the rear window of the truck.
Sign in the front yard.
2.5″ buttons made up. (500)
Double-sided handouts.
Calling radio stations daily.
Debate Farm Bureau members.
Write leetrs to the editor.
Just keep doing it folks.
~TW
Coming Soon!
HEAD LINES!!!, SMALL FARMERS SHOT, IN JAIL AND CLOSED DOWN!
Now listen to the rest
http://www.ohiolibertycouncil.com/?p=882
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