Transcripts from Looking Back & Moving Forward, Together

September 11, 2014

Raleigh, North Carolina

Thoughts & Reflections from Participants

Richard Koritz: As a worker, as somebody from the working class that if, I think that the
working class is capable of achieving the greatest things in this world. If we are shoulder to shoulder with
the working class, and if were farmers and family farmers, I think thats a good term, family farmers, and
we unite with the working class and people like the people in the American Postal Workers Union that
are in every zip code in the United States, I think that we will win a far more just and peaceful world.
Thank You.
Bob Zellner: This gathering has convinced me that even though it looks like politically we are
hurdling very fast to the right, this gathering has convinced me that were on the verge of a new
progressive era of cooperation and Grassroots organizing. So go for it!
Rhonda Perry: Does this mike work? Yeah, I love it when I have the mike. Again, my name is
Rhonda Perry with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. And I just want to say that I think Farm Aid has a
history of creating these kinds of spaces that enable us to work together. And today, it was an incredible
day for me. I was like moved to tears several times. People who know me would think that was really a
rarity, and it is. But who I saw in this room and heard from are people like Gary Grant, who in 1995 came
to Missouri in the middle of two gravel roads in North Missouri where you would see nothing but white
farmers for at least 150 miles, and he came to help us to tell us their experiences in North Carolina as
black farmers and fighting factory farms. It was actually right next door to Terry Spences house who was
fighting a Premium Standard Farms which is now Smithfield Foods which is now owned by a Chinese
corporation, by the way. That was power. And Gary Grant just said to me, I was scared to death on that
day, but I trusted you guys is what he was saying. We are tomorrow going to be selling Patchwork
Family Farms pork for like the millionth year at this Farm Aid concert. Commercial, if you want a great
pork chop, come to the Patchwork Family Farms booth. But why we have Patchwork Family Farms is
because Shirley Sherrod from the Federation came in 1993 and told us how to set up a co-op as white
farmers. People that she didnt have to come and talk to us. It was probably a scary proposition like it was
for Gary Grant, but we had a relationship that was really unending, in which we could build our
organizational base, but we could do it with help from our allies who came from their experiences on
these issues. In Missouri, we knew the Campbells Soup campaign story inside and out because our
executive director had met Baldemar through a whole different issue. He told us how campaigns could

work when farmers and farmworkers are included. So we have a history and Farm Aid, just like today,
has helped create the space for that history. And Shirley, I think youre right. We need to do another
something in which we are training not just us as the 37-year-olds whove been doing this for a long time.
That was good. Nobody even laughed Gary, when I said that. They believed I was 37. But the young
people who are in this room who have the capacity to help us take these relationships that we built to a
whole new level. (inaudible) Thanks Farm Aid.
Kathy Ozer: I am Kathy Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition. The message that Rhonda
just laid out I think is so critically important of learning from each other and sharing experiences and
building the strength that we need to really expose and confront what are both the corporate influences
and the misinformation and sort of perceptions. One of the issues that I think is really critical, and its
many of us in this room and other people across the country is gearing up around exposing unfair trade
agreements, where our allies in other countries are being hurt and their communities are being displaced
by some of these very policies. So, the strength of us standing up and questioning and being clear that
there are other positions and other agendas than whats being touted as U.S. position or corporate position
or our government or others is very important. So just appreciate the energy and people really thinking
but knowing, we have to be doing a lot more than what we have been doing because I think that question
about what is success? is that for many of us and some of us that are in D.C., we have been fighting
battles to just hold the line on many of the wins for the last 10 or 20 years, but if we werent there doing
that, we would have lost even more. So, the importance of acknowledging that but figuring out better and
more creative ways of really getting our messages across and organizing at the local level to strengthen all
of our bases and all of our work together. So thanks.
Eric DeLuca: So we are talking about a couple of different related issues. One is: what can be
happening from here and what has been happening in the field among our different organizations. And the
second was what specifically can come out of Farm Aid and how do we get traction from the energy that
we build up here today? There are three thoughts that seemed interesting to me that I think work together.
1.

Shirleys comment about the grassroots at the local level and really strengthening that level of
engagement and not forgetting that and understanding the ripple effects of how that ends up at
other levels of power down the line.

2. Thinking about the urban and rural connection and figuring out ways to illuminate common
interests so that folks can get interested in issues that they may not see as directly related to them,
but there are ways in which the needs are in common.
3. The third one, I forget so I am going to pass the mike.

Savi Horne: This is a rare moment for me, I wont cry. But, I just want you to know that I am going
to say ditto to everything. This is a very special moment when I feel that I am totally in sync with 10% of
my DNA, and I could not say anything any better than you. I would only like to lift up the fact that we
need a sort of an action agenda coming out of here, and it doesnt have to be driven by Farm Aid. I think
we all need to commit that we have to go back to our local communities and build traction, join
something, donate something, resources, time, because it cant be that the enemy is within us. We gotta
defeat the enemy out there. I just want to just say, well, we just got to get along and go on with it. So
thank you.
Niaz Dory: It is appropriate that I go after SavI. I wanted to first thank Savi for mentioning fisheries
from the stage. My name is Niaz Dory, and I run a nonprofit called, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance
and we work with fish workers and fishermen around the U.S. and abroad. What I took away is just the
confirmation or affirmation that our battles are the same, in fact. As Savi mentioned, a lot of the issues
that farmworkers and farmers and family farm movement have been facing, we have it on the fisheries
side. We have it on the coastal communities. I was glad to see that come up a couple of times. Unfair
prices, weve got that. Lack of distribution access, weve got that. Political influence that is privatizing
the rights to fish in order to farm this case, weve got that. Lack of, if you have to drive your hogs or your
fish 250 miles away, weve got that. Loss of working waterfronts in rural communities, weve got that. So
there are a lot of those issues that are exactly the same on the fishing side as they are on the farming side.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Farm Aid and National Family Farm Coalition. For the past six
years, you all have given us space to help draw the parallels out every year. It has been a really powerful
moment for the fishing community folks that have come to these events to really realize there are allies
that have their back much like everybody had Reverend Barbers back this morning. So thank you for
that. Thank you for the inspiration that came from all of the presenters today. (Applause)
Eric DeLuca: I just wanted to quickly say, the third idea, which was taking a network and
decentralized but very strong and consistent approach to advocacy, so that we keep the issues that we
share in common in front of people in a strong a way as possible as federal funding starts to go away. So,
that was the third one.
Rudy Arredondo: This is Rudy Arredondo with the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers. I want to
thank Farm Aid for integrating us into your great network. Were looking forward to helping us to
integrate and feel some of, we are working together, but I need to have more information about what and
how Farm Aid groups are working, so that we can connect and work with you and fill some of those holes
so you can somehow find out where it is that we need to engage with any of you that are out there. You
know, we have tremendous amount of needs in terms of identifying where are those clusters of

farmworkers who transition into farm ownership? We need to identify and to help them to attain a level,
increase their capacity. So, somehow, we would very much appreciate that being considered and hoping
you can help us do that. Thank you.
Michael Wall: Hello. Im Michael Wall with Georgia Organics. I want to talk about something that
Dr. Sherrod said earlier. Dr. Sherrod said, she doesnt want us to leave here and come back again and do
this again and again and again. Im not young, but Im not old. I came here with Daniel from Mississippi,
Alice from Alabama and Joe from Georgia Organics as well. Im with Georgia Organics. We dont want
to be back here in ten years having the same conversation. So what Im going to do personally is commit
to being more open to listening, which is something I stole from Joe and being more open to unity and
allying with other people, which is something Im borrowing from Niaz because we are stronger together,
than we are on our own. Thank you.
Gary Grant: Thank you, and Im sorry that I made you walk over two times, but I couldnt quite
make up my mind. For those of you who know me, know that Im a man of few words. I certainly have
enjoyed today. I want to go back and thank Dr. Barber again for putting this into perspective. Im also at
the age of 40, very happy to see so many young people here, because it renews my faith. Ive been
thinking, perhaps, that all of this work has been done, you know, and theres not another crew thats
coming along to pick it up. So, as I enter 41, I do want to ask the question, Does anyone else see in this
room what happened other than me in relationship from this morning to this afternoon? That is, no,
everything has been great. But one third of the people who were of color are gone. They left with Dr.
Barber. Those are the folk that weve got to reach to help them understand that they are the ones who are
eating food thats coming from corporate America, being processed and that they are not the ones who
are, that they are the ones we need in order to support family farmers and to get this thing back on track.
Now, I dont know how we do that, but we cant put that off the table as we continue to talk and make
plans for where it is that we are going. Im happy to see old friends and make new friends. But we have a
real racial problem in this country, and its not going to be settled until we address it. I was talking with
the group here at this table about, there was a dialogue on race when Bill Clinton was President. You all
know that, right? How many of you were there? I rest my case. Thank you.
Tony Hayes: Good evening. First of all I want to thank Savi for having me here. Im Tony Hayes,
Im the tribal chairman at the Occaneechi Tribe here in North Carolina. Im also the CEO of the North
Carolina Indian Economic Development Initiative. Havent heard a lot about American Indians today, but
I just want you to know that American Indians are in the room. Me and my associate here, have had a
good day of learning and exposure. We certainly want to be part of the conversation in North Carolina
being that North Carolina is the most populous American Indian state on the East Coast. So, just wanted

to let you know that were appreciative, and we will certainly be more engaged in the future. So thank
you for having us.
Baldemar Velasquez: I want to again congratulate all of the folks who are here concerned about the
marginalization of farms, family farms. But I want you to know that we really have to address this, the
polarization of wealth thats happening not only in this country but its a global march. Were not going
to get away with dealing with food systems without dealing with the globalization of our food system.
And everything that we produce in this country, were competing with poor producers in other countries
as well. Believe me, the investment strategies in our trade agreements have everything to do with that
movement towards global marginalization. They want to make all of us low wage workers. We cant stop
that until we have organization among those at the lower layers strata of our American population. So we
have to build institution among the oppressed, among the marginalized whether youre black, white,
brown, red or yellow. We have to build this institution an independent movement institution in order to
just oppose and negotiate up the supply chains of our food systems. FLOC is doing its part amount the
immigrant workers, among the Latinos, among the migrant workers. But we have to out of necessity
collaborate with others who are like-marginalized so we can build coalitions to attack the accumulation of
wealth at the top and demand that they give us back what we produce in the wealth of this country, but
not only by ourselves, we have to do it with our counter parts in Mexico and Latin America and Asia and
across the globe. Because they have their global strategies. I was sitting there with Philip Morris
International, theyre telling us about their global program to try to educate their suppliers around the
globe. Everywhere they look, everywhere I research all around the globe, they have the same problems
that they have here in North Carolina; child labor, forced child labor. They marginalize people on the
bottom to maximize and produce global wealth for themselves. We have to stop that. It aint going to be
done by government intervention. Its got to come from the power of the people. This is the last thing that
Dr. Martin Luther King put his finger on planning that poor peoples campaign. I began to see what Dr.
King was talking about that night in Atlanta when he said, You know, the Civil Rights Movement aint
just a black thing anymore. That has to do with poor people, and thats why he was doing this poor
peoples campaign. That instead of being a race issue, it was a class issue which they use race to divide
and conquer so that they can keep oppressing all of us altogether. Now we can go on and have success
individually as each group, but its gonna be a lot better if we do it together.
Ralph Paige: I hadnt said very much, and I didnt intend to. I was hoping, but I do want to
encourage as a follow up that we find a way to continue this conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed it here. If
we all understand what has happened to us over the last three years, resources have gotten thinner, and
thinner, and they would do it under this Administration. So we have to not only remember that, as we

leave here, weve got to remember November. We have to see about what Shirley talked about earlier,
you know, organizing and getting out, getting out to vote and making the changes that you feel necessary
to send a clear message to Washington, at our local level, whatever, that we are one, and we are going to
work together. Thank you.
Carolyn Mugar: Before we introduce Jim Hightower, speaking from Farm Aid, I just want to
say that what happened here and whats happening here today is the Farm Aid DNA. I just want to point
out a couple of things. Willie Nelson you might remember in the 70s, he was wearing a suit, and
Nashville record industry had him wearing a suit and looking like every other country singer, and he
didnt like it. So he went home to Texas where he was from, and who do you think brought the red necks
and hippies together? Willie Nelson. It was a breakthrough cultural experience and demonstration. And
that, I think, is what Farm Aid stands for in terms of bringing people together. We are more than happy
when people call saying they have an idea, they are trying to do something. All we do is work in
partnerships with people, and all we do is try to get people together. I mean, thats not all we do, but that
is a lot of what we do. So, I welcome that.
BLASTING MIKE NOISE
Carolyn cont: (Volume is low.) But I do want to just say that if you dont have the opportunity
to get people together, we invite people to go out, contact people that are here. People want to be used. No
one wants to be misused, but thats up to the individual to say if theyre being misused. Everybody wants
to be used and everybody here wants to be called on. So dont anybody hesitate to call on anybody.
Alicia: Ill make a few announcements before we get the mike going.
1. For anybody going to the Hoedown tonight, its very close. About a mile away.
2. So if you need to get concert credentials for your group and you registered for them, Kate can give
those to you. She is sitting over there.
3. There is a literature table next to where Shirley is also selling her book, and we encourage people to
leave materials to share with one another.
4. Stay with us for when we wrap up, we also have some refreshments and libations and all of that in the
back and just a chance for us to relax. And then from there, those who are heading to the hoedown,
well go together. It is very easy to get to. It is about one mile almost on the same street on Person
Street is the quickest way to walk down or to drive down.