With your help, over 1,000 calls were made to the White House this week in response to the Love Your Farmer Campaign launched on Valentine’s Day.

The callers urged the Obama Administration to quickly implement a rule that promises to improve the lives of farmers and ranchers and the prosperity of rural communities by making livestock and poultry markets fairer and more competitive.

Darwyn Bach, a Minnesota hog and crop farmer  and a member of the Land Stewardship Project, is one of  thousands who placed a call.  In a news service piece, he urges small farmers and livestock producers to keep up the fight for fair markets and contracts.

“There’s certainly lobbyists talking to the White House saying they need to delay this, water it down, make changes to it, but they’re not hearing from us.  So that’s the focus of this call-in campaign: to try and let them know that it really still is important out here, and we need to move along with it.”

Adam Warthesen of the Land Stewardship Project says while the Obama Administration and USDA Secretary Vilsack have spoken to leveling the playing field for family farmers, now is their chance to take action.

“Whether this rule is issued, or not, is the political will of the White House.  They can demonstrate that they care about family farmers, and that rural America is important, by getting this rule out, enacted and enforced – now.”

John Crabtree from the Center for Rural Affairs was also in the press this week, with a piece in the San Fransisco Chronicle stating, in part, “If we want a future with thriving family farms and ranches, vibrant rural landscapes, quality food and the chance to realize the American dream, then we have … build it, work for it, even fight for it.  The USDA’s effort to reform livestock markets and bolster competition is a bold stand in defense of that American dream, and it is worthy of our support.”