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News from CTA August 2014

  The Hobby Lobby shock: it's high time for an equal rights amendment      
by Liz Holtzman and Jessica Neuwirth  

(This article originally appeared in
thegardian.com on July 11, 2014. It is reprinted here by permission of the authors.  Jessica Neuwirth is the director of the Fund for Women's Equality, which is fiscally sponsored by CTA.)

The supreme court's decision on birth control provisions in favor of religious corporate owners shows the constitution still does not protect women's rights - which were overdue in the 1970 

 

Last week, in the Hobby Lobby case, the US supreme court decided to protect the religious rights of closely-held corporations and their owners - at the expense of the rights of millions of women employees to contraception under the Affordable Care Act. The court found that Hobby Lobby was "substantially burdened" by the inclusion of certain contraceptives, in this case two types of morning-after pills and two types of intrauterine devices (IUD), in its employees' health insurance.

 

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer, noted that the price of contraceptives discourages their use by many women. She pointed out that an IUD costs the equivalent of a month's pay for women working full time at the minimum wage. According to a range of different studies, women of childbearing age spend between 40% and 69% more for out-of-pocket health costs than men of the same age. In truth, the Hobby Lobby decision will cause much more damage to women - 51% of the population - than a contrary result would have caused to religious freedom.

 

After all, including the contraceptives in employees' coverage is not the same thing as making the decision to use them. Even if they were offered, it is the women employed by the company - not the company - who would independently determine whether or not to access contraceptive services under the insurance. This "burden" of providing this coverage, which would likely add nothing to employers' insurance cost, pales in comparison to the burden on women resulting from the denial of coverage for these services.

 

The supreme court could not have reached its decision if we had had an equal rights amendment in the US constitution. Depriving women of coverage for health services they need is sex discrimination, plain and simple. Also, the religious protections the court relied on were statutory, and a statute cannot override a constitutional provision. An equal rights amendment would have forced the court to consider thoroughly the harm to women of depriving them of contraception, and to recognize women's fundamental right to freedom from sex discrimination. Unsurprisingly, the term "sex discrimination" appears nowhere in the court's decision.

 

Although the constitution should be read to protect women against discrimination - women, after all, are "persons" entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment - the standard for protection against sex discrimination is not as stringent as it should be. And for some members of the court, women don't seem to count as constitutional "persons", even though corporations do. Justice Scalia, for example, has said: "Certainly the constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't."

 

The women's health amendment to the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2009, is meant to ensure that women can obtain contraceptives, mammograms and other preventative care without additional cost. Increased access to contraception will reduce unintended pregnancies - which for some women could be life threatening - and enhance public health, women's economic opportunity, and the dignity that comes with women's ability to control their own reproductive choices.

 

But it has taken hits, not only from the Hobby Lobby decision, but also from another recent supreme court action, involving Wheaton College, that came through just a few days later. Wheaton College, an evangelical Illinois school, objects not only to the idea of providing coverage for birth control, but also to the idea of filling out a government form that would essentially certify its religious objections to contraception and transfer the responsibility for this coverage to insurers. The school was able to get an injunction to keep it from having to fill out the form while the case was pending. The court considered that merely filling out the form might "substantially burden" Wheaton College's religious freedom.

 

The three women justices who dissented pointed out the absurdity of this claim. Once again, if we had an equal rights amendment in the constitution, the supreme court would have had to weigh the burden of the form on Wheaton College's religious rights against the burden on women of denying them access to contraception, a burden that is serious and real and involves millions of women - and men.

 

Sadly, Hobby Lobby and Wheaton College are just the latest in a long series of supreme court cases that have denied women protection from sex discrimination.

 

In 1976, the supreme court ruled that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy was not sex discrimination, a ruling Congress overturned. In 2007, the court determined that Lilly Ledbetter could get back pay for only six months of the 20 years she was paid less than her male colleagues, a decision Congress also overturned. And in 2011, the court dismissed the action against Walmart for paying women less than men, making it more difficult for women to remedy sex discrimination against them.

 

Although the 1972 effort to adopt the equal rights amendment failed, US Representative Carolyn Maloney has introduced a new equal rights amendment that would finally add the word "women" into the constitution. And Senator Ben Cardin and Representative Jackie Speier have introduced legislation to resuscitate the 1972 proposal.

 

Those who think we don't need the new amendment may want to think again in light of the Hobby Lobby and the Wheaton College decisions. For those who think we can't get the equal rights amendment, ask why not. It's high time for it - simple justice, long overdue. 

Incubator farms nurture agriculture entrepreneurs
By Mary Esch

Ye Myint, a sushi chef, pulls weeds around a gongura plant, a popular cooking green in his native Myanmar, at the Groundswell Center incubator farm in Ithaca, N.Y. The incubator farm provides low-cost space and mentoring to immigrants, career-changers and others who want to begin agricultural enterprises. (AP Photo/Mary Esch)


(This article, featuring the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, a CTA project, first appeared in the Associated Press on July 26, 2014. It is reprinted here with the permission of the Groundswell Center.)

  A physicist from Armenia, a juice-maker from Bermuda and a Burmese sushi chef are crafting new careers in agriculture under a program that applies the business incubator model to farming.

The Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming is one of dozens of incubator farms springing up around the country to nurture the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs. The projects help would-be farmers get started by providing a plot of land, shared equipment, mentoring on business planning and marketing, and the opportunity to build a track record of success that will help them qualify for startup loans when they're ready to launch their own farms.

 

"It's giving me an opportunity to implement business ideas that I hadn't had a chance to before," said Damon Brangman, 43, an immigrant from Bermuda who wants to grow his own vegetables for the mobile juice business he runs with his wife in Ithaca. "I'm looking to buy or lease land, but there's more risk and cost involved. This was more within my reach."

 

The 10-acre farm in Ithaca, in New York's Finger Lakes region 140 miles west of Albany, is now in its second growing season with Brangman and two other farmers tilling quarter-acre plots that they can use for three years. Surik Mehrabyan, 54, came to upstate New York with a contract for physics research at Cornell University, but after it ended, he wanted to return to the agrarian lifestyle he grew up with in Armenia.

 

"My goal is to understand what to grow to make a living," Mehrabyan said as he spaded stony soil to build a raised bed in his plot at Groundswell. "All the time, I'm doing different experiments and finding markets, planning. For me, it's most important to get established with buyers before I invest in land."

 

Ye Myint, 47, a native of Myanmar, is growing sushi cucumbers and greens such as gongura and water spinach, which are popular in Asian communities. "I have a deal with a Burmese grocery store in Syracuse to buy gongura," said Myint, who makes sushi for the Cornell University food service.

 

There are about 105 incubator farms in 38 states, many of them still in the planning stage or just a few years into operation, according to the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative at Tufts University in Massachusetts. The program, launched in 2012, advises new incubator farms and helps farmers connect with them.

 

More than half the farms serve immigrants and refugees, but others nurture a range of new farmers including young people, career changers and retirees.

In 2008, new grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program spurred a number of incubator programs into existence. The USDA program was a response to the rising average age of U.S. farmers and the 8 percent projected decrease in the number of farmers from 2008 to 2018. The 2014 farm bill includes $100 million for the program.

 

"The barriers to getting into this industry are so large that we have to come up with new strategies to get people on the land," said Jennifer Hashley, project director of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, parent organization of the Incubator Training Initiative.

 

A network of mentor farmers is key to the success of the incubator farm, said Joanna Green, director of the Groundswell Center. "The farmers we work with are really interested in helping the next wave get started and succeed," Green said. Groundswell's oversight team also includes advisers from Cornell's horticulture department and farm credit organizations.

 

The New Entry incubator program requires farmers to pay startup costs including a $175 fee for a quarter-acre plot, plus the cost of their seeds, nursery pots and other supplies. Farmers must take a farm business planning course and write a plan that will be refined at the end of the growing season. In the first year, some earn only enough to recoup startup costs, while others may earn as much as $10,000.

 

"It depends on what they grow, how much time they put into it and what their market is," Hashley said.

 

 
News and Events

Two CTA Projects Hire New Directors
    
CTA is pleased to welcome two new project directors. Rena Scroggins is joining our staff to lead Bike Walk Tompkins. Rena is an avid bicyclist who comes to us from Montrose, PA where she was the director and owner of the Montrose Theatre. She turned this foundering theatre into a successful business with high cultural impact.  Previously, she worked as a health and nutrition educator at the Food Trust in Philadelphia, PA.  

 

Spencer Woodcock is joining our staff to lead the Sustainability Center. Spencer has a Masters degree in architecture and landscape architecture, with experience in grassroots community design.  Her previous work has  focused on creating inclusive spaces for public engagement and education. 

 

Welcome Rena and Spencer!

Vitamin L

Vitamin L has been in full swing training new members this summer.  We will continue to audition potential new members during August.  Youth entering 6th - 11th grade who love to sing and promote transformative action through music are encouraged to audition. For more info, call Vitamin L director, Janice Nigro, (607)273-4175, or email [email protected]

Also, save the date! Vitamin L turns 25 this month, and will celebrate with concerts at the Hangar Theatre on Saturday, October 11th.

Learn@EcovillageIthaca
 

A pioneering partnership between the  Center for Nature and Leadership and Liz Walker of Learn@EcoVillage has led to the offering of an exciting  four-day workshop this September at EcoVillage. The program will combine facilitated group work, time alone in nature, and an introduction to EcoVillage's community lifestyle. Click for more info, and to enroll now. We offer a generous sliding scale, with scholarships available. Please join us!

 

 

 

 

 

CTA logoThe Center for Transformative Action (CTA) helps to create communities that work for everyone. We do this by providing fiscal sponsorship to innovative social change agents in New York State, as well as financial, human resources, and grants management services. CTA is an educational non-profit organization affiliated with Cornell University.

 

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In This Issue
High Time for an Equal Rights Amendment
Incubator Farms Nurture Agriculture Entrepreneurs
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