“It all could not have happened had we not been working together.” – Ben Burkett

Anthony Pahnke (FFD vice president) sits down with Denise O’Brien and Ben Burkett to discuss their experiences in farm activism and protests nationally and internationally over the decades. They reflect on their life-long experiences being part of these movements, fighting corporate agriculture, offering perspective on current times as well.

Ben Burkett is a vegetable and soy farmer, active in the Indian Springer farm cooperative, and an active farmer during the 1980s farm crisis. He recalls protests during the Pigford v. Glickman Trials, at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, in Brussels with European farmers, among many others. Ben is the former state coordinator of Mississippi Association of Co-ops, a member of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, and former president of the National Family Farm Coalition state. Denise O’Brien is a organic farmer of 50 years, also began protesting in the 1980s farm crisis. She recalls protests from Miami’s GATT, Seattle’s WTO , in Beijing with Chinese farmers, among many others. Denise is the founder of Prairie Fire Rural Action, Farm Unity Coalition, Women, Food and Agriculture Network, and Nishnabotna Water Defenders. She is also a former president of the National Family Farm Coalition.