“I have called this phenomenon of stealing common knowledge and indigenous science "biopiracy" and "intellectual piracy." According to patent systems we shouldn't be able to patent what exists as "prior art." But the United States patent system is somewhat perverted. First of all, it does not treat the prior art of other societies as "prior art." Therefore anyone from the United States can travel to another country, find out about the use of a medicinal plant, or find a seed that farmers use, come back here, claim it as an invention or an innovation.” FirstsDoeArtCountryStatesUseAbleUnitedCommonUnited StatesIntellectualTreatsClaimsInnovationPlantSeedsStealingInventionPhenomenonFarmersIndigenousPatentsPiracyCommon Knowledge Author:Vandana Shiva
“Every farmer must go to the seed industry every year to buy their seed and pay an 80 percent royalty to a corporation. Over-the-fence exchanges have started to be treated as crimes. Or, if you need a biological pest control, you can no longer use the need seed in your back yard. Instead you have to depend on the Grace Corporation or some other entity. That kind of dependency basically leads to increased poverty and increased ecological destruction.” IfsNeedsYearsKindUsePayPovertyGraceCrimeDependsIndustryPercentDestructionSeedsTreatedCorporationsFarmersEntityYardsFenceRoyaltyEcologicalDependencyPestsPest Control Author:Vandana Shiva
“There's also a growing trend toward having gardens in schools to literally show kids where food comes from by having them grow and prepare their own food. There's also a movement that's bringing farmers into schools and creating relationships between local farms and local cafeterias, so that instead of frozen mystery meat, you have fresh produce that's coming from the area that has a name and a face associated with it.” ShowsKidsSchoolFacesNamesGrowsGrowingMysteryMovementProduceCreatingAreasGardenLocalsMeatTrendsFarmsFarmersFrozenCafeteria Author:Eric Schlosser
“Barry Crump wrote a lot of books and they were really special. They were kind of the quintessential, mild for the most part, kind of southern man, kind of the true heart of what it meant to be a Kiwi kind of farmer; very kind of outdoor man living off the land. That kind of thing, you don't see so much anymore these days with everyone being metrosexual and lattes and laptops.” MenHeartKindBookLandSpecialThese DaysMeant To BeFarmersSouthernBeing MeLaptopsQuintessentialLattesTrue HeartKiwiMetrosexuals Author:Rhys Darby
“My husband and I have just really been on this journey to live cleaner and eat healthier and allow our children to see us doing that so that's the kind of lifestyle they'll want for themselves. Just a healthier, aware, conscious life. Now we buy organic, we go to the farmers markets. We really try to involve the kids in cutting up the vegetables, cleaning them, preparing the meals, just making it fun.” WantTryingKindChildrenKidsFunCuttingJourneyHusbandConsciousOur ChildrenLifestyleMealsMy HusbandFarmersVegetablesPreparingCleaningCleanersFarmers Markets Author:Ali Landry
“The best thing for you to do is shop at your local farmer's market and support the organic growers who are there. Because those are the guys who are taking care of the soil that is ultimately going to take care of us.” CareGuySupportTake CareLocalsBest ThingsSoilShopsFarmers Author:Jason Mraz
“Ask people who are close to the natural world: farmers, people who work the land or in some way use the land for their livelihoods. They will tell you what they are seeing isn't so good. They will tell you the changes they have seen in the past twenty years are remarkable in one way or another and unlike anything they had seen before that.” PeopleWorldWayYearsUsePastAsksNaturalSeeingLandTwentiesOne WayRemarkableFarmersNatural WorldLivelihood Author:Mark Ruffalo
“One of the reasons why I failed was because I figured out in the research process that I couldn't tell it as just, "This is what Frances Farmer's life was like." There are so many questions as to what her life was like because of the way her story has been seized upon and exploited by different factions.” WayHas BeensDifferentReasonStoriesProcessResearchFranceReason WhyFarmersFactions Author:Karina Longworth
“In L.A., it's very easy to be healthy, because everybody there is so health conscious that no matter where you go, everybody is exercising or eating very healthy, and they have a lot of farmers markets. The problem is when you go on location or I go home to Wisconsin. That's where it gets difficult.” MatterProblemHomeEasyDifficultGoes OnExerciseHealthyEatingConsciousFarmersLocationWisconsinFarmers Markets Author:Laura Ramsey
“We do have situations where people are being advised not to use their well water. That's a huge problem because you know they're farmers and they rely on that water for their cattle and their horses and their crops.” PeopleKnowsWellsUseProblemWaterSituationHugeHorseRelyFarmersCropsCattle Author:Erin Brockovich
“I can't control my own income, I can't control my own destiny, I can't even control my own farm if I'm a farmer. This is not going to last.” IfsI CanLastsMy OwnDestinyIncomeFarmsFarmers Author:Glenn Beck
“I want to remain that family farmer independence, which I think is so critical to this country. I think it's helped build this country.” ThinkingWantCountryIndependenceCriticalFarmers Author:Jon Tester
“Many families participate in the Community Supported Agriculture movement, which allows a family to buy shares in a farmer's produce so that they know where their food is coming from, and they can take their families out and see the farm and meet the farmer. That movement has helped create a new culture around food.” KnowsCultureCommunityShareMovementProduceFarmsFarmersAgricultureNew Cultures Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“Agribusiness and food processing are important parts of modernizing our economy, of modernizing our agriculture and moving into a phase where a more modernized agriculture helps not only farmers but also helps consumers.” ImportantHelpingMovingEconomyConsumersFarmersPhasesAgricultureProcessingAgribusiness Author:Manmohan Singh
“I grew up in Scotland, and everyone wore Barbour. It's very practical, it's very outdoorsy. It's what the gamekeepers and the fishermen and the farmers would wear.” GrewGrew UpPracticalsFarmersScotlandFisherman Author:Sam Heughan
“Equally important is the lack of cultivable land for farmers, a profound problem when you take into account that Afghanistan has always largely been an agricultural country, and that even before the wars destroyed lands and irrigation canals, only 5 per cent of the land was cultivable.” ImportantWarCountryProblemLandAccountsProfoundDestroyedFarmersAfghanistanCentsCanalsIrrigation Author:Khaled Hosseini
“We were into the Speedway. We'd take a train out to the Speedway where farmers had flatbed trucks with bleachers on them. They'd park in the infield and we'd sit on those. Our heroes weren't the drivers, they were the pit crews. That's because we were local, and we knew what was going on.” HeroTrainLocalsParksDriversFarmersCrewTruckPitsBleachers Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“It was a subject [ volcanoes] that was dormant in me for a long time and it popped up 40 years ago when I made a [short] film on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe about a volcano that was about to explode and a single farmer refused to leave ["La Soufrière"].” YearsLongMadeFilmSubjectsLong TimeYears AgoIslandsFarmersCaribbeanVolcanoesDormantShort Films Author:Werner Herzog
“A big producer can survive price fluctuations on the world market. A small farmer can't.” WorldBigsProducersFarmersFluctuation Author:Noam Chomsky
“Federal overreach from agencies like the EPA is hurting family farms. I will fight against these crippling regulations, and always side with the hard working farmers and ranchers of Missouri.” HardFightingSidesHurtHard WorkAgencyFarmsFarmersRegulationMissouriRanchersEpaFamily FarmsFarmers And Ranchers Author:Eric Greitens
“Even in the early days of America when it was largely an agrarian or agricultural, farmer-type of economy. There were still cities; there were still elites.” StillsAmericaCitiesEconomyTypeFarmersElites Author:Rush Limbaugh
“My father was a cotton farmer first and - but he didn't have any land or what land he had, he lost it in the Depression. So he worked as a woodman and cut pulpwood for the paper mills, rode the rails in boxcars going from one harvest to another to try to make a little money picking fruit or vegetables.” TryingFirstsLittlesFatherLostCuttingLandPaperFruitFarmersVegetablesHarvestCottonMillsRailLittle Money Author:Johnny Cash
“More generally, independent farmers had to be trained to become docile workers in the expanding industrial system. It was necessary to drive from their heads evil ideas, such as the belief that wage labor was not much different from chattel slavery. That continues to the present, now sometimes taking the form of an attack on public education.” IdeasDifferentSometimesFormEvilBeliefLaborIndependentSlaveryWorkersFarmersExpandingPublic EducationDocile Author:Noam Chomsky
“There are a lot of regulations that are really just crushing jobs. Look at the coal miners in the Rust Belt that are getting out of work. Look at the - look at the loggers and the timber workers and the paper mills in the West Coast. Look at the ranchers or farmers in the Midwest with regulations.” LooksJobsPaperWestWorkersCrushFarmersRegulationCoalCoastBeltsMillsRustMinersMidwestWest CoastTimberRanchersCoal Miners Author:Paul Ryan
“I saw all that [white trash] growing up in Alabama and Georgia. I had a group of country cousins and we'd go visit them when I was a kid. They lived on a red dirt Georgia back road, in a shack, with twelve kids. Farmers. No electricity, they had a well on their back porch, but they had nothing, yet they were the happiest, freest people I'd ever met. I loved to visit them. Great sense of humor, and they kept up with all the latest music, country, rockabilly, that stuff. Great food they grew in the fields and canned. Happy people.” PeopleWellsCountryKidsStuffWhiteGrowing UpSawsGrowingGroupsFieldsGrewMetsRedSense Of HumorFarmersTwelveDirtElectricityCousinTrashGeorgiaAlabamaHappy PeoplePorchShackGreat FoodWhite TrashRockabillyBack Roads Author:Steve Young
“Leona Helmsley's dog made $12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio, made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains.” YearsMadeLastsGrowsBrainMillionsDogMadnessVersionsFarmersLast YearDeanOhio Author:Tom Waits
“First of all, farmers should work with universities and research institutions in the country, and hopefully with the government.” ShouldFirstsCountryGovernmentResearchInstitutionsUniversityHopefullyFarmers Author:Wangari Maathai
“There is no reason why a company like Monsanto, for example, that is pushing GMOs, cannot go to Kenya, partner with the university, partner with the research institutions, and try to promote - in a responsible way - advanced techniques to help farmers. But this should be done in such a way that the farmers' livelihoods are not undermined because the government is irresponsible or careless, or because it is compromised.” WayShouldTryingReasonDoneHelpingGovernmentCompanyExampleResearchResponsibleInstitutionsUniversityTechniquePartnersReason WhyNo ReasonPushingFarmersCarelessIrresponsibleLivelihoodKenyaGmosMonsanto Author:Wangari Maathai
“One of the reasons why we started the Green Belt Movement is to work with these ordinary peasant farmers so as to educate them that, despite the fact that they are poor, it is in their interest to protect the soil that they have, to protect the forest they have, to protect the land that they have, because if they don't do it, things can be only worse tomorrow for them for them and for their children.” IfsChildrenReasonFactsInterestPoorLandMovementTomorrowProtectOrdinaryGreenForestsDespiteReason WhySoilFarmersEducateBeltsPeasants Author:Wangari Maathai
“I'm not into branding - I'm trying to be organic to who I am on every level. I do really connect to being a part of the working class. Those are my roots. My family [consists of] farmers from Portugal, builders, housekeepers and stonemasons.” TryingLevelsClassRootsMy FamilyWho I AmFarmersBrandingWorking ClassBuilderPortugalHousekeepers Author:Nelly Furtado
“Even in our own agriculture strategy, if we got a great new drought-resistant seed and we managed to get it distributed in the system, we just assumed that it would reach female farmers. That's a false assumption, because women don't interact with agro-dealers. So if you don't develop specific programming to ensure that seed gets in a woman's hands, then the extra income [generated by higher-yielding crops] goes into her husband's hands.” IfsHandsHigherHusbandFemaleStrategySeedsIncomeExtrasAssumptionProgrammingFarmersAgricultureCropsDealerDroughtFalse Assumptions Author:Melinda Gates
“In the 1960s, various parts of the population became energized and began to enter the public arena to call for the rights of women, students, young people, old people, farmers and workers. What are called "special interests" - meaning the whole population - they began to press to enter the public arena. And they said that puts too much pressure on the state and therefore we have to have more moderation in democracy and they should go back and be quiet and obedient.” PeopleShouldSaidStatesWholeYoungInterestDemocracyToo MuchRightsSpecialStudentsQuietPressurePressesWorkersPopulationVariousFarmersThey SaidModerationOld PeopleArena1960sObedientSpecial Interests Author:Noam Chomsky
“Syria is on the back end of basically a decade-long drought. Over the last decade, farmers and herders have been ravaged in Syria forcing them to give up and move to urban areas. This has put a huge strain on urban resources, and it's surely one of the reasons for the uprising there.” GivingLongHas BeensEndsReasonLastsMovingHugeGiving UpResourcesAreasDecadesFarmersSyriaUrbanStrainDroughtUprisingUrban Areas Author:Thomas Friedman
“Globalization has become an ideology with no constraints. And now, nations are forcing themselves back into the debate. Nations with borders we control, with people that we listen to, with real economies, not Wall Street economies, but rather factories and farmers. And this goes against this unregulated globalization, wild, savage globalization.” PeopleRealNationsEconomyStreetsWallDebateIdeologyBordersFarmersFactoriesSavagesGlobalizationConstraints Author:Marine Le Pen
“When you're inside and you have no control and when you're the 14-year-old version of Frances Farmer, you know, you have reasons to be angry. You have reasons to be angry when your parents, who are very sheltered themselves, make decisions as to what you should experience in your life and what's normal and what's not.” KnowsShouldYearsReasonParentDecisionNormalAngryVersionsFranceFarmers Author:Eddie Vedder
“Who knows better than a peasant farmer the agricultural conditions in his country or region? It is not always necessary to send an FAO expert to tell him what crops to grow or what seeds to use. Give him the seeds he asks for, and he will do the rest. Don't tell him how to renovate his irrigation system: give him the necessary equipment and he will do the job far better than us.” KnowsGivingCountryUseJobsAsksGrowsConditionsSeedsExpertsRegionsFarmersEquipmentCropsPeasantsIrrigation Author:Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan
“We need to fight protectionism with everything that we have because when there's a level playing field and when you have open markets and when free trade is flourishing, American workers, American farmers, Americans are going to benefit.” NeedsFightingLevelsFieldsBenefitsTradeWorkersFarmersFlourishingFree TradePlaying FieldsAmerican WorkersProtectionismLevel Playing Field Author:Condoleezza Rice
“The US does not observe the free-trade principles. Those are for the weak. So agribusiness is highly subsidized and pours product into Mexico and drives out Mexican farmers. Maybe they have to go into the cities, and they don't have jobs to support them, so they flee across the border.” DoeJobsCitiesPrinciplesSupportProductsWeakTradeBordersFarmersMexicoMexicanFree TradeAgribusiness Author:Noam Chomsky
“People like me start organizing conferences and editing journals, even become tenured professors talking about Empire of the Senseless with a bunch of wide-eyed kids from the farmland. If only one of those kids goes back home and lets her hogs out of the pen to go plum wild rolling around in their own slop while the neighboring farmers scratch their chins, then, isn't that worth it? Insert the same scenario with stockbrokers, stock-car drivers, and stock characters in the post-baccalaureate working man's sideshow, and well, that's viral reproduction.” PeopleCharacterHomeKidsPensFarmersWorth ItHogInsertWorking Man Author:Davis Schneiderman
“My father was very much a child of the counterculture movement and was drawn to the idea of alleviating poverty in the developing world, helping farmers diversify their crops and stuff like that.” WorldChildrenHelpingFatherPovertyFarmers Author:Lydia Polgreen
“It used to be that we taxed property - zapped farmers basically. And there were very rich people who didn't pay that much tax. So in 1913, they put in the income tax. It was incredibly popular. The tax we love to hate today.” PeopleTodayHateRichTaxesPropertyFarmersRich PeopleIncome TaxLove Hate Author:T.R. Reid
“When I was in graduate school at MIT I was trying to think about how to develop software and systems for farmers and villagers in India. In the process of doing that, I realized that my reference point was internal to the laboratory, rather than in the communities that I was wanting to serve. I realized that I could no longer assume what a good technology looks like from inside the laboratory; instead, I had to be in the world with people. Not just designing for them but with them.” PeopleThinkingWorldTryingSchoolCommunityTechnologyDesignAssumingI RealizedFarmersSoftwareGraduatesLaboratoryGraduate School Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“Jimmy Carter, of course, was beloved. Peanut farmer. Came out of nowhere, governor of Georgia. Normally Democrats hate Southern accents, 'cause Southern accents equals Deliverance, equals hayseed, equals idiot. But if it's one of them... But you had to look the other way with Jimmy Carter and then here came Bill Clinton later. So depending on where the Southern accent's from, they'll make an exception and not be prejudicial about it. But for the most part, a Southern accent may as well be a slave owner as far as Democrats are concerned; they want no part of it.” HateConcernedSlaveClintonDemocratIdiotBelovedExceptionFarmersSouthernJimmyPeanutsDeliveranceBe A Slave Author:Rush Limbaugh
“The outraged citizens of Indonesia - lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists - should be speaking up; they should be shouting. And of course, the voices of farmers and workers, their terrible stories, should be read and heard from the pages of independent magazines and blogs, from YouTube and independent films.” FilmTerribleScientistIndependentLawyerFarmersOutraged Author:Andre Vltchek
“True renunciation can be attained by anyone - whether a millionaire, parent, student, politician, farmer or engineer. It's not what you have or don't have; it's your state of consciousness. In essence, it means that true peace that comes from true renunciation arrives when we understand that nothing is mine. Whatever intelligence I have, whatever abilities I have, whatever family members I have, whatever wealth or property I have, is the sacred property of God or the Divine.” MeanParentWealthAbilityConsciousnessStudentsDivinePoliticianPropertyFarmersMillionaireRenunciation Author:Radhanath Swami
“I've died so many times in so many movies. What is it about my face that people want to kill it? I'm sure they would've killed Kitty Farmer if they could've!” PeopleFarmers Author:Beth Grant
“My favorite leader is George Washington. Because he came from very modest circumstances. He wasn't the son of a plantation owner. He was the son of a farmer. He had no formal education, very frustrated. He started writing a diary when he was in his teens, and he wrote things like, "When I grow up, I want to be respected. When I grow up, I want to be successful. When I grow up, I want to know things." What I find fascinating about Washington is he wanted to make something of himself.” WritingLeaderGrowing UpSuccessfulSonCircumstancesMy FavoriteBeing SuccessfulFarmersFrustratedModest Author:Les Wexner