As we gear up to continue our fight for a fairer food system in 2025, we’re reflecting on the successes we achieved this year thanks to our supporters and allies. Here’s how we worked to tip the scales of power into the hands of everyday people and away from abusive corporations over the last year:
Building the Case for a Fairer Food System
Farm Action has been hammering the message that our current food and agriculture system isn’t working for America’s farmers, ranchers, consumers, or workers.
RELEASED AGRICULTURE DATA HUB AND CONCENTRATION REPORT
We’ve all been feeling it for years, but in 2024, we compiled the data to back it up. Farm Action’s Agriculture Consolidation Data Hub gathers new research and resources all in one place to help policymakers and the public learn about the state of concentration in our food system, why it matters, and how to reform it.
The hub includes a primer on our food and agriculture system, easy-to-follow fact sheets that break down the impacts of consolidation on each agricultural sector, extensive concentration data, and much more.
The centerpiece of the hub is our groundbreaking report exposing rampant consolidation in the food and farm system, titled “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System. As U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said during our briefing on the report, the paper “shows how consolidation has impacted every step of the farmer’s business from seeds to machinery to financing and crop insurance to meatpackers and other buyers. It explains the history of some of the misguided decisions and policies that got us here today.”
PROVIDED FEEDBACK TO FEDERAL AGENCIES THROUGH PUBLIC COMMENTS
In addition to our work in exposing this extreme concentration, this year we also developed public comments to inform federal agencies in their rulemaking processes to level the playing field for producers.
Farm Action Movement Submits 1,200 Comments in Support of Specialty Crop Producers
In support of our campaign to shift farm supports toward producers growing and raising nutritious food for people, not just industrial commodities like livestock feed, we called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to offer more farm system support to U.S. fruit and vegetable producers. To bolster this critical effort, we rallied individuals and organizations to submit public comments to the USDA via the Federal Register to voice the need for a more competitive specialty crop industry. Thanks to our supporters and allies, 1,200 of the 1,315 total comments submitted were attributed to Farm Action’s efforts.
Comments on Right to Repair and Packers & Stockyards Act
In our fight to level the playing field for all farmers across the country, we weighed in with our support of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiating a rulemaking process on consumers’ right to repair and called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to revise its proposed rule and eliminate the predatory poultry tournament system. We also supported the agency for its Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets proposal, which would importantly clarify that farmers are protected under the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act) from unfair practices that harm the individual farmer or the entire market. To raise awareness about the need for these rules, we hosted a roundtable discussion where current and former poultry growers shared firsthand accounts of the abusive practices of the handful of large corporations that control the contract poultry growing system.
Supporting America’s Producers
Our movement clocked major wins for U.S. farmers and ranchers this year.
WON "PRODUCT OF U.S.A." MEAT LABELING REFORM
In March, the USDA finalized a rule mandating all meat products sold with the “Product of U.S.A.” label must be from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S. This change is a huge victory for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and consumers, as global corporations have been mislabeling their imported meat as a “Product of U.S.A.” since the repeal of mandatory country of origin labeling in 2015. Farm Action’s founders have worked with our allies to build a movement to reform the “Product of U.S.A.” label since 2018, and you can read more about this six-year-long journey in our blog.
STRENGTHENED PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS ACT
In another win for producers this year, the USDA finalized two rules to strengthen the P&S Act, which was signed into law more than 100 years ago to protect livestock and poultry producers from abusive monopoly power in the meatpacking industry. In February 2024, the Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments rule went into effect. This rule forces chicken processing corporations to provide farmers with information to determine if they are paid fairly, and it requires processors to guarantee a minimum number of flocks and the number of chickens the farmer will receive each year. The Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity rule went into effect in May 2024 and clarifies what conduct is considered discriminatory, prejudicial, retaliatory, or deceptive, and therefore illegal under the P&S Act — disrupting the meatpackers’ sweetheart deals with a handful of their producers and ending their retaliation against farmers who would complain.
USDA INVESTMENTS IN FERTILIZER AND MEATPACKING
The USDA also continued its investments to expand domestic fertilizer and independent meatpacking to boost competition in these highly consolidated sectors, and recently announced its plan to leverage $1.7 billion to purchase locally, regionally, and domestically produced foods for emergency food assistance — heeding our call to create much-needed market opportunities for small and midsize farms.
NATIONWIDE MOVEMENTS
Meanwhile, Farm Action Fund took the reins on critical nationwide movements and campaigns this year, and continued to advocate for Congress to advance the 20 pieces of legislation developed using Farm Action research.
Called for Checkoff Reform at Enough Is Enough Tour
This spring, Farm Action Fund led the fight for checkoff program reform through its national Enough Is Enough Tour. Sponsored by Farm Action Fund and 15 other farm organizations, the tour gathered farmers and ranchers across the country to highlight corruption in government checkoff programs.
These programs extract one billion dollars annually from farmers, ranchers, and producers, and these checkoff dollars are often funneled to lobbying organizations that represent the world’s largest meatpackers and grain traders.
Fighting to Defeat the EATS Act
Farm Action Fund continued leading more than 100 allied organizations in the campaign to Defeat the EATS Act. This harmful legislation aims to strip state and local governments of their ability to make agricultural policies within their own borders — including policies that create market opportunity and protect communities’ health and wellbeing.
Holding Abusive Corporations Accountable
Farm Action has worked tirelessly this year to expose corporations’ rampant abuse of their market power and to urge action from the government to hold them accountable.
TESTIFIED ON PRICE GOUGING
In May, Farm Action’s Joe Maxwell testified about price gouging and food system consolidation before the U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy. He highlighted our research investigating price gouging across the food system, including in the highly consolidated fertilizer, egg, and beef sectors.
His testimony demonstrated how dominant firms have used their market power to extract excessive profits through price gouging during periods of industry-claimed supply disruption and production cost increases.
SUPPORTED FEDERAL ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT
Agri Stats Goes to Court for Alleged Price-fixing Scheme
In an encouraging development in 2024, a judge ruled that Agri Stats, an agriculture data and analysis company, must face a lawsuit by the Department of Justice (DOJ) accusing it of facilitating an industry-wide price-fixing scheme with the largest chicken, pork, and turkey processors. Farm Action provided background to the DOJ on this critical case and exposed Agri Stats to the public in our blog.
Kroger-Albertsons Merger Blocked
Capping off the year with a major win for farmers, workers, and consumers, a judge sided with the FTC to block the proposed Kroger-Albertsons mega-merger in December. Farm Action has been urging antitrust enforcers to stop this merger since it was first proposed in late 2022. We also provided market information to the FTC on the merger’s impact on farmers and raised awareness about the farmer impact in our blog.
Farm Action's Top Blog Posts
We researched and published 20 blog posts this year, reaching thousands of readers and enabling them to stay informed and challenge monopoly power in their own communities. Here are the top five:
Farm Action in the News
Our work captured the attention of reporters across the country in 2024, with Farm Action being cited in 3,000 stories this year — that’s 8 per day on average. Here are some of our top stories:
What’s Next?
We’ve got big plans as we look ahead to 2025. With a new administration and a new Congress, we’re ready to pound the pavement to educate and urge action from our government officials to bring fairness to our food and farm system.
PUSHING FOR WHITE HOUSE ACTION
Based on our recently released transition document for the incoming Trump administration, we’re ready to hold President-elect Trump accountable to his campaign promises and to press for action on our transition document goals. This includes urging President-elect Trump to balance our agricultural trade deficit by shifting government support from low-value feed grains like corn and soybeans toward healthy fruits and vegetables, reforming corrupt government checkoff programs, and supporting the FTC’s investigation of John Deere for impeding customers’ right to repair their agricultural machinery.
URGING CONGRESS TO PASS A FAIR FARM BILL
We’ll continue our fight for a fair farm bill that prioritizes Food, Not Feed by shifting more farm supports to specialty crop producers, and includes critical legislation like the OFF Act to reform checkoff programs. We’ll also continue our fight to keep harmful legislation like the EATS Act — or any legislation like it — out of the farm bill.
FIGHTING FOR CHANGE AT THE STATE AND NATIONAL SCALE
Our forthcoming Congressional Handbook is set for release in January, which will provide legislative priorities for the new Congress to help ensure our food system works for everyone, not just a handful of corporations.
We’re also continuing the fight in the states, working to pass critical policies like the Right to Repair across the country, banning corporate and foreign ownership of farmland to keep farmland in the hands of farmers, and passing expanded consumer protection policies.
Want to learn more about our extensive work to create a fairer food system this year? Check out our full list of public comments, letters advocating for farmers and consumers, blogs, and press releases.
Support Our Work
Our work is made possible by supporters like you. Please consider making a donation to help fund our fight for a fairer food system in 2025 and beyond.
Written and edited by: Jessica Cusworth, Angela Huffman, Joe Maxwell, Christian Lovell, and Emma Nicolas