Domestic Fuel

AMERICAN AGRICULTURE MOVEMENT, Inc.
Informational Press Release: 24 August 2006
Contact: Ed Fashing, American Agriculture Movement VP-Communications
2898 Audrain Road 114, Sturgeon, Missouri 65284, 573-687-3244, emfashing@socket.net

A small group of patriotic family farm advocates, business people, and concerned citizens are converging on Kansas City, MO to begin a DRIVE FOR AMERICAN BIO-ENERGY FOR JOBS, FAMILY FARMS, and NATIONAL SECURITY. They will travel east along US 50 with their antique tractors and cars, headed for Washington D.C. in an effort to raise public awareness about the contribution agriculture can make to help bring energy security to the American people.

Many of these people worked thousands of hours over many years trying to “stem the tide” destroying family farms in favor of factory farms. Family farmers have been told they are not needed, that they produce far too much food and fiber so the commodity prices are below their cost of production, and only large vertically integrated factory farms can compete. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of full time farmers leaving the land or getting off-farm jobs so that 90% of all net farm income comes from off-farm jobs. A lack of opportunity for earning a decent living has forced many young people in rural areas to move to metropolitan areas to find good jobs, leading to negative population growth in many farm communities. The real tragedy is the broken spirit of thousand of these farm families as they find that even with working 100+ hours a week for years, they still loose all that their previous generations have worked for. All surviving farmers seem to have an eternal optimism about next year–that maybe next year will be the year that will turn things around.

The GREAT NEWS is that NOW AMERICA NEEDS ITS FARMER’S TO PRODUCE ENERGY!!!! Not just grains for ethanol and biodiesel but for a really huge market for crop residues and dedicated energy crops for fueling solid fuel boilers everywhere to help replace imported foreign energy. The U.S. is short on all forms of fossil fuel energy. The USDA estimates that agriculture can produce one billion tons of biomass for energy use without affecting our ability to produce more than enough food and fiber. These billion of tons are enough to replace one third of America’s energy use, eliminating the need for energy imports from most foreign places in the world. This one billion tons of biomass has a Btu value, compared to $75 a barrel oil, of $206 billion dollars, to stay in the American economy, to employ the American people. That $206 billion dollars could be deducted from the trade deficit every year. This insourcing of America’s energy production is the greatest opportunity to come to America in fifty years. If Americans seize on this opportunity it will bring a bright future for not only family farmers and rural people but all American families. Anyone who supports America’s gaining its Independence from Foreign Energy can get more information at http://www.arbest.org or join us on the Washington Mall at 3rd street on October 5th.

AAM President, Larry Matlack, Burrton, Kansas larry@stingerltd.com 620-463-3513 http://www.arbest.org http://www.aaminc.org